Eating less Wheat and Rice Aside from meat production, 70% of water used in agriculture is used to grow rice and wheat which together account for more water than all other crops combined. While it takes around 1,000 litres of water to produce one kilogram of paddy rice, quinoa for example, uses five times less water than rice and half as much as wheat and has five times more protein. Furthermore, it will grow in a wide range of conditions, is more pest resistant and is said to have a number of other health benefits . Millet , another ancient grain and one which is well suited to hotter climates, uses only 30% of the water needed to grow rice . It has always been a staple in places such as India and Central Asia, but here both quinoa and millet were only found in health food shops until quite recently. It's a sign of their growing popularity that they are now becoming available in mainstream supermarkets. (Like buckwheat, quinoa is in fact a seed rather than a gra...
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