Talk:Cereal

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1 Title
2 First word of article
3 chandler?
4 Order of Cereals
5 Linseed
6 Problems with Grains
7 Cerealicious

[edit] Title

As a speaker of American English, I think making the main entry of this topic "Cereal" rather than "Grain" is very wrong.

"Grain" is what grows on plants. "Cereal" is what gets poured into breakfast bowls.

(I am expecting AV, proponent of "'correct' is 'what people actually use'", to leap to my defense here. :-) )

Well I too speak American English, but I chose to make cereal the name of the entry based on an informal survey of written usage (academic and statistical), where "cereal" seems to predominate. Also this is established usage on Wikipedia: the CIA World Factbook stat sheets that have been copied by the dozens into country entries all refer to "cereals" not "grain".

For what it's worth, my US English dictionary gives grassy seed crops as the primary definition of "cereal" and defines "grain" as small seeds, not necessarily of grasses.

Of course there is room for debate here ;-).

I've revised the article to include some definitions and breakfast cereal. Hopefully that makes the situation clear.

-- hajhouse

Why not add a disambig to the top?

This article is about grains. See also breakfast cereals

— Asbestos | Talk 15:28, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Would anyone object to adding the said dismbig? — Asbestos | Talk 09:01, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Added. Feel free to edit wording. — Asbestos | Talk 11:18, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I think that the title should be CEREALS (plural) as it is a collective noun. This would also solve the breakfast debate to some extent.

Also the entry about millet needs revision as it is still the staple food of millions of people in Africa and Asia and grown on millions of hectares. In the USA the use is mainly for animal feed.

Moving this comment here from the article page:

(FIXME: FAO productions statictics to back this is would be nice. Anyone know if these may be had on the web and what theit copyright terms are?......Data is not copyrightable BTW. See copyright) -- Zoe

Here's some data from FAO for the year 2004:

crop	world production (metric tons)
maize	705,293,226
wheat	624,093,306
rice	608,496,284
barley	155,114,564
sorghum	60,224,964
millet	27,675,957
oats	26,961,437
rye	19,544,519
triticale	13,739,147
green corn (maize)	8,826,666
buckwheat	2,856,090
fonio	264,100
quinoa	52,900

Source: FAOSTAT database, which provides stats based on metric tonnage.
FAO's FACTOIDS section also provides some brief stats based on energy.
I'm afraid I'm a little too lazy to decide what to do about the grains for which FAO doesn't provide data, so I'll leave it to whomever else to reorder the list in the article. --164.76.162.246 03:21, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

I'm not sure my last note got through so forgive the potential duplication> I was trying to explain grain to my African friend: she knew sweetcorn, wheat and rice, but not barley, rye, millet, or some of the others. Photos attached to your desctiptions (as with corn) would be very beneficial!! judomom

[edit] First word of article

The article begins "Wheat crops are". shouldn't that be "Cereal crops are"?

[edit] chandler?

And a merchant of corn was in Britain called a chandler

Was this common usage? I checked the Oxford English Dictionary and there was no mention of it. The primary usage was a candle maker, the second an officer responsible for the supply of candles, the third was a retailer of supplies for a particular purpose. I have heard of a fishing business wholesale supplier being called a chandler. -- WormRunner | Talk 17:52, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

Partially answering my own question: It seems that chandler is used in combination as "corn chandler" "tallow chandler" "ship's chandler" but I do not find chandler used alone as a corn merchant. Also, the use of chandler being a specialized merchant is american as well as british, as is the candle-maker usage. In other words, the statement in the whole is misleading. -- WormRunner | Talk 21:09, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

Cereal crops are mostly grasses cultivated for their edible seeds (actually a fruit called a caryopsis). Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities worldwide than any other type of crop and provides more food energy to the human race than any other crop. In some developing nations, cereal grains constitute practically the entire diet of common folk. In developed nations, cereal consumption is more moderate but still substantial. The word cereal has its origin in the Roman goddess of grain, Ceres. Staple food grains are traditionally called corn in Britain, though that word became specified for maize in the United States. And a merchant of corn was in Britain called a chandler, which in the United States is an obsolete word for someone who sells candles.

Oats, barley, and some products made from them.

[edit] Order of Cereals

Why does the order given in "approximate order of greatest annual production" seem to be contradicted by the Rice, Wheat and Maize articles? Or am I confused by a linguistic thing?

64.231.117.135 21:09, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Linseed

An anonymous editor asked: Is Linseed plant a cereal ?

No. Linseed comes from the flax plant, which is not a grass or a cereal. The seed can be correctly called a grain, though. hajhouse 20:12, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Problems with Grains

Shouldn't there be a section that discusses the problems with grains as a food? For instance, brain disorders such as autism are the result of having a damaged digestive system, which is caused by certain properties of grains. I'm currently on a diet that restricts any grain or sugar or starch due to my having a rather disorganized brain. Can't there be a section here that discusses these things? Scorpionman 19:02, 13 September 2006 (UTC)