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How Bolivian Farmers Made the World Crave Quinoa

40 points by austengary 13y ago

brianbreslin 13y ago
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.
- VLM 13y ago
  Traditional cooking method takes lots of time and rinse water to remove the bitter coating. If as a tribal villager you've been cooking your porridge for decades you get pretty good at it, but it tastes pretty awful as a gringo if you screw it up and its all bitter. So yeah, pretty much unsellable in the USA without the debitter machine treatment. I have purchased and tried small amounts of locally produced quinoa at farmers market and to say the preparation is an unholy PITA of rinsing and soaking would be an understatement. I am mostly a paleo diet type guy but I try lots of foods and its not bad, properly prepared. The primary problem seems to be taste. Its not that much different than rice and is cooked roughly the same way and spiced roughly the same way. It is an excellent protein source for a starving village farmer if its "free" or cheap, but at now $10/pound I'm better off with steak as a protein source in my diet, or fish, or pretty much anything else.
  - inthewind 13y ago
    Hilarious to read people writing that they'd be better off with steak as a protein source, it might be better for you - but not the planet. We'd be better of as a species by eating the grains directly and bypassing the animals. Silly food subsidies (at least in the UK), subsidise meat and dairy over grain and veg. For example it's cheaper to buy sausages than it is to buy aubergines. Pretty senseless!
    - a8da6b0c91d 13y ago
      Grain farming is less sustainable than pastured animal raising. You're welcome to a discussion about supportable human populations, but the idea that grain and legume farming is more ecologically sustainable is flat out wrong.
      - Nelkins 13y ago
        That's interesting, I've actually never heard this before. Do you have a source?
        VLM 13y ago
        Cost of industrial non-organic grain production, herbicides, insecticides and the whole lot vs hey cow, here's some natural prairie, now go eat it, which doesn't cost as much environmentally.
        inthewind 13y ago
        This cows on natural prairies idea is pretty much bullshit. Unless you are talking about some maasai tribes that bleed out their cattle for protein shakes. Cattle farming is huge agricultural business. And for most people their meat is farmed (with additional inputs). Europeans decimated the Americas for their corn fed fatty marbled cattle. The rainforests are being cleared for soy, as with most arable crops a high percentage are grown as animal feeds. So there isn't any escape. Eating a cow has collateral damage too. Take a fraction of those arable crops, don't bother meat farming and move over to better farming methods that are more in tune with nature. It's a balancing act. If you haven't any ethical qualms about meat eating then you can still farm those fringe places pastorally - reindeer, goats, kangaroos etc.
        a8da6b0c91d 13y ago
        I have a freezer full of pastured beef & game venison and that's pretty much all I eat in terms of protein. I have piles of grass fed butter in my fridge. What's bullshit about that?
- bane 13y ago
  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.
  - pavedwalden 13y ago
    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.
    - bane 13y ago
      I don't just think it's faddish, I think it's outright disrespectful of people who have actual gluten problems.
      - VLM 13y ago
        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.
- brianbreslin 13y ago
  I think points are not all created equal. my 4 point comment caused 34 comment replies....
kungfooey 13y ago
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-lesson-in-food-economics-1.1358699 http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/quinoa-boom-offers-hard-less...
- ihnorton 13y ago
  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.
- kroger 13y ago
  It does mention: "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."
- bluedino 13y ago
  There was another quinoa-related article discussed here that talks about that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6028905 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6028905
bluedino 13y ago
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'.
- codfrantic 13y ago
  I lol'ed at 'sync'. My girlfriend also introduced it for the amazing health benefits, she decided to taste it before mixing it in the salad... it tastes of nothing and has the texture of (what I imagine) kitty litter. I must say when mixed in the salad it was not bad, but CousCous would have been an excellent alternative...
  - inthewind 13y ago
    Couscous is really just white pasta, a refined carb. So I see it as an energy provider rather than something nutritional. Whereas quinoa is a wholefood. There's currently a shortage and hence it's rocketed in price. It used to be cheaper to buy for me than rice. I'm a fan. It does have a subtle nutty/smokey taste. Red quinoa is even nicer. Both nice with roasted veg, garlic and tomatoes. And as another has said a pleasant change from rice and potatoes. It's probably a hardy crop if it's a relative of spinach. I'm in the UK, and I'd like to see more of it grown here.
    - pyre 13y ago
      Depends on the local conditions. E.g. according to Wikipedia, "In eastern North America, it is susceptible to a leaf miner that may reduce crop success; this leaf miner also affects the common weed and close relative Chenopodium album, but C. album is much more resistant." That said, it seems pretty hardy as, "Quinoa's optimal growing conditions are in cool climates with temperatures that range from 25°F/−3°C during the night, to near 95°F/35°C during the day." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa
joshdance 13y ago
How is this article the "how"? It should be more of a historical piece, not a "how to".
bluedino 13y ago
How much does it differ from millet? It has similarity in appearance, and I jokingly call quinoa 'expensive birdseed'.
giardini 13y ago
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).
marcosscriven 13y ago
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.
arjn 13y ago
Until Asia starts eating it (India, China etc.) the headline is completely off. The world does not crave Quinoa.
HPLovecraft 13y ago
startup ideas: a de-bittering device for people's personalities like mine? or a de-bittering browser add-on for comments?
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
zwieback 13y ago
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

40 points by austengary 13y ago

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.

VLM 13y ago
Traditional cooking method takes lots of time and rinse water to remove the bitter coating. If as a tribal villager you've been cooking your porridge for decades you get pretty good at it, but it tastes pretty awful as a gringo if you screw it up and its all bitter. So yeah, pretty much unsellable in the USA without the debitter machine treatment. I have purchased and tried small amounts of locally produced quinoa at farmers market and to say the preparation is an unholy PITA of rinsing and soaking would be an understatement. I am mostly a paleo diet type guy but I try lots of foods and its not bad, properly prepared. The primary problem seems to be taste. Its not that much different than rice and is cooked roughly the same way and spiced roughly the same way. It is an excellent protein source for a starving village farmer if its "free" or cheap, but at now $10/pound I'm better off with steak as a protein source in my diet, or fish, or pretty much anything else.
- inthewind 13y ago
  Hilarious to read people writing that they'd be better off with steak as a protein source, it might be better for you - but not the planet. We'd be better of as a species by eating the grains directly and bypassing the animals. Silly food subsidies (at least in the UK), subsidise meat and dairy over grain and veg. For example it's cheaper to buy sausages than it is to buy aubergines. Pretty senseless!
  - a8da6b0c91d 13y ago
    Grain farming is less sustainable than pastured animal raising. You're welcome to a discussion about supportable human populations, but the idea that grain and legume farming is more ecologically sustainable is flat out wrong.
    - Nelkins 13y ago
      That's interesting, I've actually never heard this before. Do you have a source?
      - VLM 13y ago
        Cost of industrial non-organic grain production, herbicides, insecticides and the whole lot vs hey cow, here's some natural prairie, now go eat it, which doesn't cost as much environmentally.
        inthewind 13y ago
        This cows on natural prairies idea is pretty much bullshit. Unless you are talking about some maasai tribes that bleed out their cattle for protein shakes. Cattle farming is huge agricultural business. And for most people their meat is farmed (with additional inputs). Europeans decimated the Americas for their corn fed fatty marbled cattle. The rainforests are being cleared for soy, as with most arable crops a high percentage are grown as animal feeds. So there isn't any escape. Eating a cow has collateral damage too. Take a fraction of those arable crops, don't bother meat farming and move over to better farming methods that are more in tune with nature. It's a balancing act. If you haven't any ethical qualms about meat eating then you can still farm those fringe places pastorally - reindeer, goats, kangaroos etc.
        a8da6b0c91d 13y ago
        I have a freezer full of pastured beef & game venison and that's pretty much all I eat in terms of protein. I have piles of grass fed butter in my fridge. What's bullshit about that?
bane 13y ago
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.
- pavedwalden 13y ago
  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.
  - bane 13y ago
    I don't just think it's faddish, I think it's outright disrespectful of people who have actual gluten problems.
    - VLM 13y ago
      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.
brianbreslin 13y ago
I think points are not all created equal. my 4 point comment caused 34 comment replies....

kungfooey 13y ago

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

ihnorton 13y ago
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.
kroger 13y ago
It does mention: "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."
bluedino 13y ago
There was another quinoa-related article discussed here that talks about that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6028905 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6028905

bluedino 13y ago

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'.

codfrantic 13y ago
I lol'ed at 'sync'. My girlfriend also introduced it for the amazing health benefits, she decided to taste it before mixing it in the salad... it tastes of nothing and has the texture of (what I imagine) kitty litter. I must say when mixed in the salad it was not bad, but CousCous would have been an excellent alternative...
- inthewind 13y ago
  Couscous is really just white pasta, a refined carb. So I see it as an energy provider rather than something nutritional. Whereas quinoa is a wholefood. There's currently a shortage and hence it's rocketed in price. It used to be cheaper to buy for me than rice. I'm a fan. It does have a subtle nutty/smokey taste. Red quinoa is even nicer. Both nice with roasted veg, garlic and tomatoes. And as another has said a pleasant change from rice and potatoes. It's probably a hardy crop if it's a relative of spinach. I'm in the UK, and I'd like to see more of it grown here.
  - pyre 13y ago
    Depends on the local conditions. E.g. according to Wikipedia, "In eastern North America, it is susceptible to a leaf miner that may reduce crop success; this leaf miner also affects the common weed and close relative Chenopodium album, but C. album is much more resistant." That said, it seems pretty hardy as, "Quinoa's optimal growing conditions are in cool climates with temperatures that range from 25°F/−3°C during the night, to near 95°F/35°C during the day." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa

joshdance 13y ago

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

bluedino 13y ago

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

giardini 13y ago

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).

marcosscriven 13y ago

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.

arjn 13y ago

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

HPLovecraft 13y ago

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

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

zwieback 13y ago

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