How Bolivian Farmers Made the World Crave Quinoa

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-13/how-bolivian-farmers-made-the-world-crave-quinoa.html

by austengary • 13 years ago

40 66 13 years 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.

VLM14• 13 years 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.

inthewind6• 13 years 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!

bane3• 13 years 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• 13 years 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.

brianbreslin2• 13 years ago

I think points are not all created equal. my 4 point comment caused 34 comment replies....

kungfooey• 13 years 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-less...

ihnorton• 13 years 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• 13 years 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."

bluedino5• 13 years ago

There was another quinoa-related article discussed here that talks about that:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6028905

bluedino5• 13 years 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• 13 years 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...

inthewind6• 13 years 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.

VLM14• 13 years ago

All very accurate subjectively, and most food fads are purely subjective, scientific method need not apply.

Objectively, accidentally, she's correct that its pretty high in protein and is also a complete protein. As a change of pace for vegans from beans and rice, its arguably better for you than beans and rice. Aside from all the subjective stuff, you're probably better off eating a nice steak and salad nutritionally, but its not bad.

pyre2• 13 years ago

probably better off eating a nice [...] salad nutritionally

Depends on your definition of salad. For some people it's a couple of slices of tomato and cucumber with iceberg lettuce doused in ranch dressing (maybe with some shreds of red cabbage in there).

msrpotus• 13 years ago

Don't eat it like rice, then you'll just be disappointed. Quinoa is a different food and (I say this as a quinoa-lover) just tastes boring if you eat it the way you'd eat rice.

bluedino5• 13 years ago

Of course the easy thing to do is mix with vegetables and broth, and it's fine for that-but the nutritional advantages don't really do it for me, especially to offset the cost and weirdness factor.

I don't mind it as an addition to salads or other uses but again there's nothing really drawing me to it over the alternatives.

stephenhuey• 13 years ago

You should be able to recognize its 'amazing health benefits' regardless of whether or not you like it!

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?dbid=142&tname=foodspice

"Perhaps the most striking health benefit provided by quinoa is its overall nutrient richness. When the nutrient composition of this food is analyzed in depth, the results are unusual and striking."

a8da6b0c91d5• 13 years ago

Lentils and peas seem to do better on the little graphs on the site.

I think a properly made dal is pretty tough to beat for nutrition and price. The catch is you really have to soak the beans for 24 hours before cooking very well at high temp. Otherwise you get dosed with lectins and phytic acid.

BashiBazouk• 13 years ago

Caramelize some onions in a pot. Toss in a diced pepper and cook to soften. Add quinoa and toast a couple of minutes. Add double the volume of liquid to the amount of quinoa. I use either chicken or vegetable stock but water works in a pinch. Simmer 15 minutes. Eat.

I'm a bit of a cooking enthusiast, so maybe it seems easier to prepare to me than many might find. The Bob's red mill quinoa has been washed so you don't have to, but use a fine strainer and it just takes an extra minute or two to wash if you are using a brand that requires it. Certainly no longer than varieties of rice that require washing to get the starch off...

Dirlewanger• 13 years ago

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?

comrade_ogilvy• 13 years ago

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.

VLM14• 13 years ago

I'll assume you know about oats and there's unprocessed, slow cook, quick cook, instant... The problem with quinoa is its all marketed as quinoa although by analogy, you can buy completely unprocessed which takes forever, somewhat processed which still needs some rinsing, and super processed safe to use in prepared box mixes. You have to read the fine print. If you make the mistake of treating raw unprocessed from a farmers market as if it were perfectly dehulled ready to use box mix grade, it'll taste so awful and bitter that you'll spit it out, and probably swear off the product.

Maybe a worse analogy is its like getting a live chicken, vs a shrink wrap boneless skinless tray at the supermarket, vs getting mcnuggets at the drive thru, its all marketed as "chicken" but it matters a lot what kind you buy.

There's probably a startup lesson in here. Life would be a lot more consistent if the quinoa guys never sold processed, for example. It might be less convenient but at least it would be consistent, and inconsistency means confused unhappy users. Consistently PITA sells better than inconsistently PITA.

joshdance• 13 years ago

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

bluedino5• 13 years ago

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

giardini• 13 years 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• 13 years 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• 13 years ago

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

HPLovecraft• 13 years ago

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

zwieback• 13 years 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

How Bolivian Farmers Made the World Crave Quinoa

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