Grain Consumption

choi

Grain consumption l Of Rice and Men. A circular tale of changing food preferences; West Africans are eating more like Asians. Asians are eating more like Americans. And the richest American * * *
http://www.economist.com/news/in ... -more-americans-and

Quote:

"Africa mostly missed out on the green revolution that boosted agricultural production in Asia from the 1960s onwards. * * * Yet the continent is beginning to catch up, with rice farmers in the vanguard. * * * rice is less fiddly to cook than millet or sorghum, adds Mr [Harold] Roy-Macauley[, the head of Africa Rice, which co-ordinates research in Africa]—a convenience food for Africa’s tired city workers. * * * And African demand is also a boon to the rice-producing countries of Asia. They could do with some new customers, because demand at home is not what it was.* * * Around 90% of the world's rice is consumed in Asia—60% of it in China, India and Indonesia alone. In every large country except Pakistan, Asians eat more rice than the global average.

"Obeying a rule known as Bennett's law, wealthier Asians are getting more of their calories from vegetables, fruit, meat, fish and dairy products. And, as in Africa [Africans to rice], many people are switching to another grain [wheat].

Note:
(a) "Pacific Palisades * * * this wealthy district of Los Angeles"
(i) Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Palisades,_Los_Angeles
(view map: "located among Brentwood to the east, Malibu and Topanga to the west, Santa Monica to the southeast")
(ii) palisade (n; etymology): "(palisades) US  a line of high cliffs"
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/palisade

(b) "a third woman, Suzanne Tatoy, favours brown rice, quinoa, amaranth 莧菜 [which also produced seeds, besides the leaves Chinese consume] and millet"

Quinoa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa
(of family Amaranthaceae)

(c) "a huge global trend[:] People in many countries are dropping familiar grains for new ones, for reasons to do with agricultural technology, work, health and social aspirations. This shift is more-or-less circular. Everybody is trying to eat more of the grains that better-off people are eating, except the very wealthy [ie, Americans], who prize poor people's food."

do with:
"1: could do with[,] can do with to find useful; benefit from: she could do with a night's sleep.
2: have to do with to be involved in or connected with: his illness has a lot to do with his failing the exam.
3: to do with concerning; related to"
from Collins dictionary
www.thefreedictionary.com/do+with

Definition 3 fits the bill.

(d) "rice is less fiddly to cook than millet or sorghum"
(i) fiddly (adj; no etymology): "chiefly British :  requiring close attention to detail :  FUSSY; especially :  requiring an annoying amount of close attention
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fiddly
(ii) fiddly (adj; derived from verb fiddle [play on a fiddle]): "requiring dexterity to operate  <The buttons on the tiny mobile phone were too fiddly>"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fiddly

(e) "Obeying a rule known as Bennett’s law, wealthier Asians are getting more of their calories from vegetables, fruit, meat, fish and dairy products."

"Engel's Law states that as income increases, the proportion of the budget spent on food decreases. Bennett's Law states that as income increases, the proportion of the budget spent on 'starchy-staples' decreases."
Lecture 11 Markets and Consumer Demand. In Erin C Lentz and Christopher B Barrett, Notes on the Market Information and Food Insecurity Response Analysis [MIFIRA] Framework. 2012. (These two were with Cornell University. Ms Lentz seemed to be Barrett's subordinate.)
(f) "Whereas roadside stalls in South-East Asia still dish up rice to the masses, fancy shopping malls are increasingly dominated by wheat. * * * BreadTalk, a fast-growing chain based in Singapore, does a roaring business in 'floss buns' [Pork Floss Buns 肉松面包] —sweet white buns larded with butter, coated with egg and rolled in dried shredded pork.  Joseph Lee, the owner of The BreadTable [no Chinese name], another Singapore bakery * * * Almost all of it [wheat eaten in South-East Asia] will be imported. * * * South-East Asians still eat only 26kg of wheat a year, much less than the world average of 78kg."

BreadTalk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BreadTalk
(Chinese: 麵包新語; Chinese: 麵包物語)

The store sign is English only: BreadTalk. The company's website is bilingual (separate pages for English and Chinese). Oddly in the Chinese side, 麵包新語 and 麵包物語 appears once each in a different page.)  

(g) "As west Africans fill their plates with rice, and South-East Asians munch ciabatta, Americans are moving away from both. * * * Café Gratitude is a gourmet vegetarian restaurant in Venice Beach, a district of Los Angeles that is health-conscious * * * Pizza is available [in that Café] but it is made from einkorn and Kamut. Side dishes include brown rice and quinoa.  Einkorn and Kamut are both types of wheat. * * * In 2015 General Mills, a large American food company, introduced a breakfast cereal called 'Cheerios + ancient grains' containing Kamut, oats, quinoa and spelt."
(i) ciabatta
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciabatta
(ii) Einkorn wheat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einkorn_wheat
(iii) Khorasan wheat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khorasan_wheat
(commercially known as kamut; section 4 Trademark Kamut)
(iv) spelt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelt