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An episode for the Aussie listeners, brought to you by The Grains & Legumes Nutrition Council in celebration of Whole Grain Week in November. 

Australian Native Grains are re-emerging and Jacob Birch (an academic & entrepreneur) is here to tell us where the opportunity lies. 

We cover:

• The nutritional composition of Australian Native Grains
• Who benefits from popularising the health benefits of native foods
• Breeding for commercial viability at the cost of nutrition
• Nutritional quality of food grown in degraded landscapes
• The vision for Australian Native Grains
• Indigenous principles of reciprocity, relationality, respect & responsibility in relation to food and health

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

“Grain comes from grass whether it’s wheat, rice, barley, corn they are all in the grass family. We have 1100+ native species of grass and quite a few of those have been used in the past by First Nations People in a similar way that you would use grains anywhere else in the world.”

“Protein levels equivalent to what you get in chicken breast.”

“Our natives take a lot of extra processing to get the grain out of the husk. We need to showcase how to do that on a commercially viable scale.”

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