Talk:Cereal
From Academic Kids
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)
- Why not add a disambig to the top?
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
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
First word of article
The article begins "Wheat crops are". shouldn't that be "Cereal crops are"?
