When I read the recent pieces on quinoa I was reminded of Clayton Christensen's book, The Innovator's Dilemma.
The idea is what really happens with successful enterprises (he wrote about companies but I'm expanding to include farming) is that a web of linkages and expectations and fulfilled needs builds up which becomes hard to change. Big companies like Eastman Kodak or Xerox focus more on everyday problems within that web and don't have the time or attention to give to innovations which might prove disruptive (as with Kodak's invention of the digital camera).
The flip side of that is that an innovator, like a quinoa farmer, is out there on his own and is missing the web of supporting structures, in this cases marketing chains, transportation and warehousing etc. Usually in technology the innovation is sort of peripheral, crude and not very efficient, so it's easy to disrespect. What successful innovations have is some advantage in a niche market, and the potential to be refined and developed. The money from niche sales enables the development up the ladder and into new markets. (Think how Toyota started with a crude car, only to develop over the years into making luxury cars.)
The problem with quinoa may, as the blog post says, be the likelihood of volatile prices, because the market and government don't supply the things which stabilize prices, supply and demand in developed markets.
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