I love quinoa and always have at least 3 varieties of the grain at home (regular, red, and black.) But now it turns out that it’s not such a harmless food preference after all:

There is an unpalatable truth to face for those of us with a bag of quinoa in the larder. The appetite of countries such as ours for this grain has pushed up prices to such an extent that poorer people in Peru and Bolivia, for whom it was once a nourishing staple food, can no longer afford to eat it. Imported junk food is cheaper. In Lima, quinoa now costs more than chicken. Outside the cities, and fuelled by overseas demand, the pressure is on to turn land that once produced a portfolio of diverse crops into quinoa monoculture.

Of course, I don’t want people in Peru to eat junk. But I don’t want to eat junk either. Is there a chance quinoa will start being grown locally? Does anybody know how it works?

The article is from The Guardian, which means, obviously, that this can all just be a hoax that the tabloid has invented to boost readership.

Folks, I need help figuring out what Ellen DeGeneres says in a small clip on Allegra. Here is the clip:

At 0.44 –1.15 Ellen says: Here is what I’m going to do to prove it to the people. I’m going to put a little pollen in there, put a little pet dander in there, a little dust mites, I’ll put some weeds in there, this is some of ??Cher’s?? hair, and I don’t know what that is, I think it’s his  , I’m not sure, this is going to be some fire ants – I’m kidding, it’s scorpions.

Do help, I need this for a work project and I have no idea what she is saying.