
How Bolivian Farmers Made the World Crave Quinoa - austengary
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-13/how-bolivian-farmers-made-the-world-crave-quinoa.html
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brianbreslin
Interesting story, but glosses over lots of the details of how they got
acceptance in US and Europe. Did they teach the gringos how to cook it? Is it
ultimately a technology triumph? As without the debittering (dehusking?)
technology the crops would have been unsellable.

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bane
You can probably blame the gluten-free madness for some of it. Most of the
people I know who are big fans became fans at around the same time they
suddenly "developed" gluten problems coincidentally at around the same time a
couple years ago when the fad started taking off.

It's listed frequently in gluten-free literature as an alternative to gluten
rich wheat products.

All that being said, it tastes fine and isn't overly burdensome to cook. It's
a nice change of pace from other staples as part of a well varied diet.

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pavedwalden
I understand that there's an unseemly faddish element to the gluten free
thing, but I think it's unfair to say that your acquaintances suddenly
"developed" gluten problems. More likely, they just hadn't been announcing
their chronic bowel problems to you all along and suddenly found that their
symptoms improved when they tried out this new diet they'd heard of.

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bane
I don't just think it's faddish, I think it's outright disrespectful of people
who have actual gluten problems.

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VLM
My son has medically diagnosed gluten sensitivity or whatever Celiac is
officially called, and he loves the recent fad because there's tons of junk
food he can buy at the store, at least as long as the fad lasts. He was
diagnosed many years ago and back then, there were not many artificial GF
products out there to buy...

It would be interesting to compare results over time, my son was diagnosed
quite awhile ago and it was cheap and easy to go cold turkey WRT grains,
whereas I think paradoxically it might be harder today for people recently
(self?) diagnosed because there so many "here's a GF sorta-cookie-like object
for a mere $6.95" products in stores. Or the GF pancake mix that tastes good
even to me, but is about $10/box. Its a lot cheaper, and arguably easier, to
eat naturally GF products than artificially GF products, what I'm getting at
is its a lot cheaper and easier to make a GF omelet for breakfast than to go
thru what you need to do to make (or buy) GF french toast. Its easier and
cheaper to make your own taco meat seasoning than to try and buy a packaged
envelope that doesn't use wheat flour as a thickener, for example.

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bane
One of the enduring problems with various specialized diets is the desire to
make substitutes for the food that was left behind. Nobody really wants to
give up a food if they don't have to and we end up with all kinds of terrible
substitutes when folks should probably just make the entire paradigm shift
into whatever their new food style is.

I think if you have to change foods because of a debilitating issue like
Celiac, getting rid of whatever is making you feel like you're about to die
isn't all that hard and thus you don't really want to terrible substitute.
It's the folks who are induced into the fad who don't _really_ feel all that
different one way or the other outside of some kind of placebo effect who
still desire the foods that "were making them sick".

I think it's a particular kind of disgusting to convince people who are
otherwise healthy that eating certain foods is making them sick when it isn't,
it's infantilizing them and I think it takes away from the seriousness of the
real disease and the people who really suffer from what's a very painful and
often socially crippling issue.

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judk
People like foods with emotional memory or that taste good. Many delicious
foods make you sick. (Trick or treat!)

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VLM
"Many delicious foods make you sick."

One example is alcohol is a food!

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marcosscriven
I think I first discovered quinoa in a cooking program 10 or so years ago.
Some of the comments here seem to assume people consume it just because it's
trendy in some way. For what it's worth, I like it simply because I like the
taste, its slight crunch, and just as something different occasionally.

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zwieback
They've been trying to grow the stuff in Colorado since the 80's. Apparently
it's not so easy.

[http://www.quinoa.net/127/136.html](http://www.quinoa.net/127/136.html)

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bluedino
I won't ever understand some trendy foods. This stuff costs 10 times a much as
rice and is a bit more annoying to prepare. Then you have to adapt your
recipes and such.

After a while I told my girlfriend I'm just going to make rice because quinoa
is just silly, so she decided to make it herself. She's not a very experienced
cook, but she tries, and as she tried rinsing it half of the stuff went down
the sync, she yelled out in frustration... But she continues to cook and eat
it to this day for it's 'amazing health benefits'.

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Dirlewanger
Annoying to prepare? It uses roughly the same proportion water as rice and it
cooks in half the time (compared to brown rice which takes the longest to
prepare). What's the problem otherwise?

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comrade_ogilvy
I don't get the complaint either.

It is comparable to white rice in preparation time and comparable to brown
rice in flavor and nutrition. As someone raised on lots of rice at the dinner
table, I think it puts rice to shame.

No, it is not truly a simple substitute to a sophisticated foody, there are
positives and negatives, of course.

And it is pricier. Let's not kid ourselves. Most of us to actually cook at
home are saving so much money relative to typical American eaters, that the
price point is completely irrelevant. If you not eating 20 home cooked meals a
week, do not talk me about price. (Yes, I do eat 20 home cooked meals some
weeks.)

Some people seem very impressed with themselves for dismissing quinoa as
trendy. But I know food well enough to decide for myself, and quinoa is a very
attractive addition to my pantry.

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kungfooey
I'm disappointed that this fails to mention the impact on locals who relied on
the food as a staple and can no longer afford to eat it.

[http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/quinoa-boom-offers-hard-
less...](http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/quinoa-boom-offers-hard-lesson-in-
food-economics-1.1358699)

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ihnorton
From the article:

 _Of course, the challenges continue. Today, rising demand for quinoa has led
its price to skyrocket in poorer Bolivian communities, which still depend on
the crop as a protein source, making it unaffordable for some families._

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joshdance
How is this article the "how"? It should be more of a historical piece, not a
"how to".

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bluedino
How much does it differ from millet? It has similarity in appearance, and I
jokingly call quinoa 'expensive birdseed'.

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arjn
Until Asia starts eating it (India, China etc.) the headline is completely
off. The world does not crave Quinoa.

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HPLovecraft
startup ideas: a de-bittering device for people's personalities like mine? or
a de-bittering browser add-on for comments?

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giardini
It is a laughably bad grain food source. Due to overzealousness in my youth, I
have a giant jar of quinoa as a last-ditch food source in case of
thermonuclear war, worldwide famine or biological catastrophe. Once I've eaten
all fresh and canned goods and MREs, I'll still have a gallon of quinoa held
in reserve.

Probably a more serious problem (than eating quinoa) would be the difficulty
of finding fresh water to clean and boil the quinoa under such circumstances.

Quinoa as a sole food source embodies a strong argument for cannibalism
(perhaps the Incas agreed).

