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

91–100 of 186 posts

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

#91

Post by lukasb »

windsurfer wrote: post #66
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…

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…

More typically, farmers produce 10 units, sell 3, and buy another 10 later in the year. Hence any rise in price is a net loss for them.

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

#92

Post by etler »

scythe wrote: post #80

Quinoa, famous for protein and fiber content, still contains less protein and fiber than, say, oatmeal. It's okay - hyperventilating paleo bloggers have raised concerns about saponins -- but the whole "superfood" frenzy about quinoa is just a tad off base. It's okay, not bad for you, probably better than white rice or processed food, but most of what quinoa has going for it is simply that it is real and unmodified. I…

Oatmeal is very dense. Calorie for Calorie Quinoa has more protein and dietary fiber than oatmeal.

100 calories of Quinoa

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=83+g+quinoa

100 calories of Oatmeal

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=26+g+oatmeal

However if you look at the vitamins, oatmeal wins.

I also wouldn't call Quinoa a super food, but it does fill a gap left by other grains and is definitely a worthy addition to a healthy balanced diet.

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

#93

Post by icebraining »

gohrt wrote: post #72
blizkreeg wrote: post #40

When I hear of the effect this is having on local farmers and their ability to feed their families, I'm confronted with the question: Do I stop eating quinoa? What is my responsibility?

Buy quinoa, and find a way to support socialism in Peru.

Should we really try to influence their political choices, even if for what we perceive to be "their own good"?

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

#94

Post by marshray »

lukasb wrote: post #91
windsurfer wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

More typically, farmers produce 10 units, sell 3, and buy another 10 later in the year. Hence any rise in price is a net loss for them.

How did that ever work?

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

#95

Post by GigabyteCoin »

Quinoa gives me such gut-wrenching pain that I can no longer convince myself to eat it.

My girlfriend is vegetarian which is why I have such great armchair-scientific experience in describing this potentially-foul food.

I've been told to wash the Quinoa to remove the saponin from it before cooking, which worked on occasion. But when you get that gut-pain from eating Quinoa even once it's an incredibly strong deterrent from ever trying it again.

Having eaten razorblades is a pretty accurate description of how I can feel for hours after having eaten even a small portion of Quinoa.

That could be one reason why it isn't taking over the globe. Because some people can get violently ill after eating it. Last I heard, nobody has a chance of developing horribly painful symptoms after eating rice.

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

#96

Post by lukasb »

marshray wrote: post #94
lukasb wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More typically, farmers produce 10 units, sell 3, and buy another 10 later in the year. Hence any rise in price is a net loss for them.

How did that ever work?

Well, in western Kenya anyway:

1. Farmers used to have 100-200 acres apiece. At that point you can feed a family even with very low yields. There were few (if any) large-scale farming operations for them to buy from, anyway.

2. Each generation, the farmer would divide the land up amongst his sons.

3. Fast-forward to today, farmers have more like 2 acres, and with traditional farming techniques don't have enough yield to feed their families.

4. They make up the difference with cattle, chickens, beans, odd jobs - or don't make up the difference, as malnutrition and starvation are a constant problem. But if they make enough money, there is a national maize market to buy from, which previously there wasn't. Hence, they're net maize consumers.

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

#97

Post by Duhck »

stock_toaster wrote: post #63
zem wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

Wait, you mean adding salt to your food makes it palatable?! Eureka!

Seriously, if I need to boil something in sodium to make it taste great, that kind of defeats the purpose.

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

#98

Post by Scaevolus »

etler wrote: post #92
scythe wrote: post #80

Quinoa, famous for protein and fiber content, still contains less protein and fiber than, say, oatmeal. It's okay - hyperventilating paleo bloggers have raised concerns about saponins -- but the whole "superfood" frenzy about quinoa is just a tad off base. It's okay, not bad for you, probably better than white rice or processed food, but most of what quinoa has going for it is simply that it is real and unmodified. I…

Oatmeal is very dense. Calorie for Calorie Quinoa has more protein and dietary fiber than oatmeal. 100 calories of Quinoa http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=83+g+quinoa 100 calories of Oatmeal http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=26+g+oatmeal However if you look at the vitamins, oatmeal wins. I also wouldn't call Quinoa a super food, but it does fill a gap left by other grains and is definitely a worthy addition to…

Side-by-side comparison: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=26+g+oatmeal+vs+83g+qui...

The vitamins is probably missing data-- Vitamin C is biochemically critical, so a plant would have some amount of it.

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

#99

Post by enraged_camel »

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.

I don't think you can compare diamonds to food.

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

#100

Post by cgh »

elemeno wrote: post #30
cgh wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 cooke…

Jeepers, that's scary. I've never had such bad luck - in truth, we normally don't have rice around for more than five days. But even that sounds like it could be too long.
Post reply on HN