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

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

#41

Post by reeses »

DanBC wrote: post #24
jessaustin wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is basic Adam Smith-David Ricardo economics.

They can grow quinoa and eat the seeds or export them and import a more diverse diet.

Even if other countries can cultivate quinoa, it may make sense for Andeans to export their quinoa and import other foods.

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

#42

Post by gnoway »

iopq wrote: post #36
mc32 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that explain white rice vs. brown rice preferences, or glutinous rice vs longgrain, etc. People have preferences for some characteristics in something which would seem to be very ordinary. Maybe quinoa is different, but who knows, at this point. Maybe it's like oats. Oats are oats are oats, for most people, I think (except for the cutting vs rolling process)

brown rice tastes bad and has anti-nutrients that block absorption of B vitamins and minerals like magnesium

Not sure about the anti-nutrients, but the 'tastes bad' part is entirely subjective. I prefer brown rice, and I think it tastes fine.

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

#43

Post by artsrc »

danielweber wrote: post #29
ableal wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Quinoa has more and better protein. Brown rice is cheaper.

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

#45

Post by echohack »

jonny_eh wrote: post #18

Gluten Free? Big deal. Also worth a read: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_exa...

For people who turn into a giant balloon when they eat gluten, yes, it's a Big Deal. The people around them too - it's typically a hazard to even have glutenous foods in the area, so it's much easier for families to just go gluten free. I'm talking about chrone's or celiac's disease people here, not ignorant folks who are basing their diets on some Paleo diet voodoo that's fashionable.

Also, have you had Quinoa? That shit is delicious and easy to cook. Throw it in a rice cooker, add some water, wait 15m - BOOM - tasty nom noms, no additives required.

Rice is generally pretty boring and you need to add something to it (Basmati smells nice, but still tastes pretty bland, short grain / Japanese style rice has at least some taste, but nothing interesting). It really doesn't add much to anything nutritionally either.

Wheat and corn is in fucking everything, so when you finally do eat corn or wheat it tastes like nothing because your goddamn peanut butter is hydrogenated corn syrup anyway.

Personally, I can't wait until quinoa is everywhere. It looks a lot more interesting than trying to invest in making better corn or wheat at this point!

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

#47

Post by btown »

pqqqqq wrote: post #22
YokoZar wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

This is absolutely a correct response to @YokoZar's assertion, and I would add that the families of the farmers who grow quinoa can also be in danger of malnutrition, since there is now an unreasonably huge economic incentive for the farmers to avoid eating their own quinoa, compounded with a dearth of other ways for nutritious food to be obtained on the open market. YokoZar's "diamonds" analogy only holds true in a market unrestricted by physical transportation difficulties and education gaps about nutrition (why not just spend our larger income to get more of the cheaper [less-nutritious] grain?). True, these might be solvable problems, but that doesn't mean we can ignore the fact that they exist today.

An interesting parallel in urban environments in more developed countries is the phenomenon of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert - malnutrition can occur even when families have enough money to avoid it.

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

#48

Post by artsrc »

lukasb wrote: post #32
YokoZar wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I remember seeing a headline in Thailand "rise in rice prices hits small farmers hard". I've seen similar things in Kenya: "high maize prices devastate small farmers." It turns out many subsistence farmers (of which there are roughly a billion) are net consumers of their staple crop. In order to survive, the poor diversify across a variety of agricultural products. Large industrial farming operations are growing the…

> farmers consume more quinoa than they sell, and suffer when prices go up.

Unless there are other foods they can buy which are cheaper. Then they benefit from the higher prices and don't pay them.

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

#49

Post by btown »

wf wrote: post #31
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'…

This is debatable.[1] After hearing about this through NPR I initially thought that it was terrible; however, after doing more reading it seems to be unclear what kind of effect this is actually having on their economy.[2] [1] http://marcfbellemare.com/wordpress/2013/01/quinoa-nonsense-... [2] http://ain-bolivia.org/2011/05/bolivian-quinoa-questions-pro...

Most would argue that "effect on their economy" is a means to an end, and that "effect on the well-being of people" is the end itself. In that case, economic analysis can fall short. Friends of mine have personally spoken to rural Andean farmers who can verify that the price rises in quinoa can cause more problems than they solve.

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

#50

Post by bayesianhorse »

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'…

I completely disagree. Quinoa as a food stock is not a saving grace for the farmers that grow it. It does grow where little else grows, but it does not yield a lot of nutrition compared for the labor invested as a lot of other crops.

With the price rising they can actually afford a better living. For them, getting a little richer than they are means consuming less quinoa, and more meat, more fruit and vegetables. And they can afford stuff other than food, which seems to be a novel idea.

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