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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

#61

Post by mc32 »

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

True, so unless the quinoa is the same (flavor, texture, cooking, etc) across different varieties, people might prefer lower yield vars or nutritionally poorer varieties.

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

#62

Post by r00fus »

echohack wrote: post #45
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…

While I agree about Quinoa, there's a lot of variance in rice. Lately we buy the more expensive thai jasmine rice at the asian stores, and it's like night/day difference in quality vs. the cheap stuff.

And since you're using a cooker, do you have the cheapo one, or a high-end cooker that can do slow cooks? The slower it cooks the more flavor it tends to have, IMHO.

But yeah, unless you're doing say, basmati brown rice (lowest glycemic load), rice isn't exactly densely nutritious compared to it's calorie/glycemic load.

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

#63

Post by stock_toaster »

zem wrote: post #60
mikestew wrote: post #51

"Quinoa is a low-calorie, gluten-free, high-protein grain that tastes great ." (emphasis mine) I'm a vegetarian, high-mileage distance runner who has every reason to enjoy quinoa. "Tastes great" is not one of the reasons I eat it. I choke it down as best I can because it's good for me.

if you typically cook it in water, try stock instead.

This makes a huge difference, and is how I prefer it as well.

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

#64

Post by dxbydt »

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'…

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2005/03/thoroughly_m...

"In Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai, a village of beleaguered peasants seeks to protect itself from marauding bandits by hiring a squad of samurai. To show their esteem, they offer up precious white rice to the warriors, saving only lowly millet for themselves. "

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

#65

Post by lukasb »

artsrc wrote: post #48
lukasb wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The reason staples are staples is because they're cheapest per calorie. There probably are not replacements that are as cheap per calorie. Remember that subsistence farmers tend to be geographically isolated so you can't assume they have access to the same food products you do.

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

#66

Post by windsurfer »

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…

I still don't understand. If a farmer produces 10 units of quinoa and sell 4 every year, they'll still produce 10 units no matter what the price is. They'll still be able to sell 4 units, and still be able to consume 6. The only difference would be that farmers will make more of a profit selling the 4 units.

The only possible explanation would be that the resources (farming equipment, seeds, fertilizer?) required to grow the crop go up in price as the price of the crop does - in which case, blame the suppliers of these resources.

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

#67

Post by [deleted] »

mikestew wrote: post #51

"Quinoa is a low-calorie, gluten-free, high-protein grain that tastes great ." (emphasis mine) I'm a vegetarian, high-mileage distance runner who has every reason to enjoy quinoa. "Tastes great" is not one of the reasons I eat it. I choke it down as best I can because it's good for me.

[deleted]

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

#68

Post by Pxtl »

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'…

Yes, but Quinoa is farmed in countries ruled by populist left-wing democracies. If the poor subsistence farmers were somehow being screwed by this massive inflow of cash, do you really think Hero Of The People types like Morales or Maduro wouldn't find some way to protect them? It's not like we're talking about corporate dictators here.

I mean, there's a lot of faults in Latin American populist leftist politics, but this kind of thing is the sort of stuff they're supposed to excel at.

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

#69

Post by gohrt »

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.

Non-farmers in Peru used to be able to afford food. In a sense, they were getting discount-priced quinoa.

Now, farmers are selling quinoa to foreigners, so the farmers are making more money, but everyone else is paying more for food.

One solution would be to impose some sort of tax, to share the windfall quinoa profits with the former customers, or cooperative community ownership of the farms. Or farmers spending their increased profits on the labors of other locals in the community.

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

#70

Post by derleth »

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

> brown rice tastes bad

To you, maybe. I prefer it, mainly because it has a taste, especially compared to white rice.

Also, trying to live on white rice can lead to beriberi because white rice, shorn of the husk, bran, and germ, is vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficient: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beriberi

> has anti-nutrients that block absorption of B vitamins and minerals like magnesium

This is the first I've heard of this.

This source seems to contradict it:

http://web.mit.edu/athletics/sportsmedicine/wcrvitamins.html

> THIAMIN (B1)

> Food Sources

> Fortified breakfast cereal or wheat germ breakfast cereal, soybeans, peanuts, sunflower seeds, peanuts, brazil nuts, whole grains, pork, oatmeal, whole wheat, hazelnuts, brown rice, rye, pinto beans, red beans, millet, buckwheat, frozen peas, walnuts, garlic, pumpkin seeds, potatoes, chicken.

This source also doesn't mention it, and it's all about the nutritional deficiencies of rice, including brown rice:

http://www.ask.com/explore/negative-nutritional-value-rice-5...

The closest it comes is a warning about inhibiting the uptake of zinc and iron. In fact, it explicitly calls out the vitamin B content of brown rice as being very good, especially compared to white rice.

So, do you have any sources to share with us?

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