Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Quinoa should be taking over the world. This is why it isn’t

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 186 posts

Re: Quinoa should be taking over the world. This is why it isn’t

#21

Post by ableal »

jff wrote: post #19
[deleted] wrote: post #16

[deleted]

That was my question coming out of the article: why exactly do we want quinoa? The native Americans stopped growing it because it didn't yield well enough. Modern farmers have had trouble growing it here in the US. And I've never found the taste astounding, so I find myself wondering why we don't stick to rice, soy, lentils, beans, corn, and wheat?

Sorry, I deleted my post because someone else posted at the same time a reasonable explanation - a rice substitute ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6029358 ). Thanks for adding information.

My original text:

"The arid, cool land that quinoa needs was plentiful, since little else could grow there. And thus far, that trait has made it difficult to grow elsewhere." (posted link)

"Protein content is very high for a cereal/pseudo-cereal (14% by mass), yet not as high as most beans and legumes." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa )

I'm puzzled. Why not stick to beans, which are cheap and plentiful, and come in a wide variety of shapes and colors?

Re: Quinoa should be taking over the world. This is why it isn’t

#22

Post by pqqqqq »

YokoZar wrote: post #6
rosser wrote: post #4

A particular concern with quinoa, given its narrow (native) growing area, and the poverty endemic to that area, is that worldwide demand for the crop has out-priced its growers' and their communities' ability to afford it in order to feed themselves . A select few brands set aside some of each harvest specifically for that purpose (and also put some of their profits back into improving the farms, sending the farmers'…

Why is this a problem? If quinoa sprouted literal diamonds we wouldn't be upset that the farmers were selling them instead of making their own jewelry. Having your crops be too valuable to eat is a good problem to have; these farmers incomes have more than sextupled. That easily lets them sell the crop and buy other food like everyone else.

It's a problem for everyone else. Specifically, malnutrition in children has grown in quinoa cultivating areas since their parents can no longer afford quinoa. It's literally four times as expensive per weight compared to much less nutritious noodles

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/world/americas/20bolivia.h...

Re: Quinoa should be taking over the world. This is why it isn’t

#24

Post by DanBC »

jessaustin wrote: post #17
aaronblohowiak wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That easily lets them sell the crop and buy other food like everyone else. [citation needed].

Did you miss the part where they make six times their previous income?

But we have no idea what their previous income was, nor how much other sources of food cost.

It feels weird that local food is exported as a cash crop, and other food is imported.

Re: Quinoa should be taking over the world. This is why it isn’t

#25

Post by matwood »

rayiner wrote: post #15

Quinoa has totally replaced rice in our cooking at home. Just stick it in a rice cooker with water/vegetable broth and it fluffs up just like rice.

Same here. Sauté some onions and garlic in the pot. Right as those finish up dump in the water and quinoa and cover. Turn the heat to simmer and wait the few minutes for it to cook down. Using broth or stock of some sort instead of water adds even more flavor.

Re: Quinoa should be taking over the world. This is why it isn’t

#26

Post by pqqqqq »

ableal wrote: post #21
jff wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my question coming out of the article: why exactly do we want quinoa? The native Americans stopped growing it because it didn't yield well enough. Modern farmers have had trouble growing it here in the US. And I've never found the taste astounding, so I find myself wondering why we don't stick to rice, soy, lentils, beans, corn, and wheat?

Sorry, I deleted my post because someone else posted at the same time a reasonable explanation - a rice substitute ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6029358 ). Thanks for adding information. My original text: "The arid, cool land that quinoa needs was plentiful, since little else could grow there. And thus far, that trait has made it difficult to grow elsewhere." (posted link) "Protein content is very high for a…

It contains a good amount of all of the essential amino acids (ie the amino acids that your body cannot produce adequately itself). It also has calcium and iron. It's a pretty awesome nutritional food.

EDIT: to emphasize, the key advantage of quinoa is that it has a lot of all of the essential amino acids, which is very very rare among plants. I believe the only other plant with all essential amino acids is soy.

Re: Quinoa should be taking over the world. This is why it isn’t

#27

Post by rosser »

mathattack wrote: post #13
rosser wrote: post #4

A particular concern with quinoa, given its narrow (native) growing area, and the poverty endemic to that area, is that worldwide demand for the crop has out-priced its growers' and their communities' ability to afford it in order to feed themselves . A select few brands set aside some of each harvest specifically for that purpose (and also put some of their profits back into improving the farms, sending the farmers'…

Every farmer has a decision: Eat the grain, or sell the grain. They sell it if the money has more value to them than eating it. Unless they're indentured servants or slaves, they are doing this for their own benefit. If they'd starve as a result, they just wouldn't sell the crop.

What about the broader community?

Re: Quinoa should be taking over the world. This is why it isn’t

#29

Post by danielweber »

ableal wrote: post #21
jff wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my question coming out of the article: why exactly do we want quinoa? The native Americans stopped growing it because it didn't yield well enough. Modern farmers have had trouble growing it here in the US. And I've never found the taste astounding, so I find myself wondering why we don't stick to rice, soy, lentils, beans, corn, and wheat?

Sorry, I deleted my post because someone else posted at the same time a reasonable explanation - a rice substitute ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6029358 ). Thanks for adding information. My original text: "The arid, cool land that quinoa needs was plentiful, since little else could grow there. And thus far, that trait has made it difficult to grow elsewhere." (posted link) "Protein content is very high for a…

What makes quinoa better than brown rice?

How does the cost compare?

Re: Quinoa should be taking over the world. This is why it isn’t

#30

Post by elemeno »

cgh wrote: post #20
wslh wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen the gelatinous mess I use http://www.naturecrops.com/ and I can put the precooked one in the refrigerator. What's your recipe?

Add quinoa to water (ratio: 1:2), bring to boil, reduce heat, simmer for ~20 mins. I should have added a time parameter to my storage comment. We typically make a bunch of rice, like 6 cups uncooked and keep it in a big container for the week. With quinoa, by the end of the week it's pretty gross, kind of a big blob.

I'd be a little weary of keeping cooked rice for a week, even in a good fridge (my fridge stays at a solid 2C, which keeps most things good to eat for long than you'd think!). Rice is a surprisingly good vector for food poisoning due to it's often carrying Bacillus Cereus spores which are heat resistant and can then germinate and grow in the fridge - most of the sources I've seen suggest that you shouldn't keep cooked rice in the fridge for more than 1 to 3 days.

Anecdote - Of all the times I've had food poisoning, probably half of them have been because I've kept cooked rice around too long. I might just be unlucky though!

Post reply on HN