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13 Where Do Grains Come From?

Not all grains we eat come from the grass family, though. A few come from plants that aren’t related to grasses. But they are seeds, and their nutrition is similar to the other grains, so people generally call them grains, too. They are:

• amaranth • quinoa • buckwheat

Sometimes people refer to another set of grains. They are also not related to the grass family. Instead, they are members of the pea family. They are called legumes (or pulses). These grains are seeds too. Legume grains include:

• chickpeas • soybeans • lentils • lima beans

FARMS Most grains come from farms. They all grow in the ground, with the help of water, sun- light, and soil. Farmers and farmworkers grow the grain and then harvest it when it’s ready. Grain farms tend to take up a lot of room, because it takes a lot of plants to grow enough grain to be worth the farmer’s efforts. Every grain is tiny. Think of how small a grain of rice is. A rice plant can have about 3,000 grains of rice on one stalk. This may sound like a lot, but a 1-pound bag of rice has about 30,000 grains of rice in it! That means that 10 plants equals one bag of rice. Imagine how much space would be needed to grow enough rice to fill thousands and thousands of bags. You’d need 10,000 plants just to grow rice for 1000 bags. People eat a lot more rice than that all over the world every year. Though there are some smaller grain farms today (for example, many farmers in Asia have small rice farms), most farms are huge. They grow hundreds or thousands of acres of grains. One acre is a little smaller than a football field. Imagine thousands of football fields, and you’ll get a good idea of the size of a big grain farm. Grains are grown all over the world. Some grains grow best in certain parts of the world. For example, rice grows best in Asian countries like China, India, and Indonesia. That’s where most of the rice you buy in grocery stores comes from. But it can also grow in other parts of the world, like Brazil and even parts of the United States! The other two most popular grains are grown around the world. Wheat was first grown in what we now call the Middle East. People in that area, along with Europe and northern Africa, traditionally ate a lot of wheat. Today, people all over the world eat wheat,