Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World by Ha-Joon Chang

Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World Reviews

• 
  Marquise

  3.5 stars
  
  This book isn't about the economy of food production from planting to the market's shelf but about worldwide economics explained through food, a clever concept that makes economics accessible for the layperson.
  
  Being one of the laypeople who thinks of economy only when deciding between a 0.9 kg can or a 300 g can of anchovies in olive oil on a given run to the supermarket, I appreciated how Mr Chang used commonly eaten and popular foodstuff across the world to explain economic theories, political-economic systems, processes, and even an economist's overview of world history from the recent past to the present. Taking the example of the humble anchovy, he tells us how the raw materials based economies were ruined by the surge of synthetic substitutes, as happened to guano, rubber, and dyes, on which economies such as Peru's, Brazil's and Guatemala's were dependent on to prosper, and how this can happen again (and why). That makes it so very understandable, put so simply, than the complex sociological and economical theories most of us would find labyrinthine at best and boring or dry at worst.
  
  Using foodstuffs that go from meat (anchovy, beef, chicken, prawn) to veggies (carrot, okra), nuts (acorn) and fruit (banana, strawberry), to processed food (noodles) and finally drinks & desserts (Coca-Cola, chocolate), as conversation starters, each of the chapters dedicated to a given foodstuff will teach you something about economics. All the foods are organised thematically in five parts, which keeps them organised enough because sometimes the author tends to wander around a bit. Part One is about overcoming prejudice through using the author's own experience overcoming his aversion to food like okra (I can relate, hate that thing), and the next is about becoming more productive, then the third is about doing better globally; and the fourth and last sections are about living together and thinking of the future.
  
  The titles of the sections might sound rather generic or dry, but the writing is anything but. Each chapter has a recipe as a header, not in full but as a list of ingredients that go into the recipe that showcases the food item used as an example to discuss the theme of the chapter. I'm not much of a recipe enthusiast, but sometimes I wanted to know the preparation part of the recipe mentioned. I guess it's left like that, just a list, so we can experiment if we want?
  
  Anyway, you won't only learn about economics, you'll get plenty of neat historical facts you didn't know about, too. For example, did you know that beef extract, that cube you throw into your soup, was invented with the best of intentions (to bring the proteins of beef to poor people that couldn't buy meat as it was super expensive before the 1900s) by a German chemist? It ultimately didn't end up being the malnutrition problem-solver it was meant to be, sadly, but that goes to show that the now often demonised "processed food" was originally meant to address serious challenges to feed the population.
  
  I enjoyed the conversational and anecdotal format, and the interlinking of stuff I knew with stuff I didn't. Being a history reader, I knew about events like those told in the Anchovy chapter, the Banana chapter, etc., and had a basic understanding of some economic phenomena such as industrialisation overtaking raw-materials based economies in terms of income and prosperity. It reminded me a bit of
  A History of the World in 6 Glasses in style and aims, though with a different focus as Standage's is history and Chang's is economy. I love this intermingling of foodie enthusiasm and academic erudition!
  
  Of course, the author is not an historian and neither is he a sociologist, and his explanations are going to be simplified for the sake of readability, clarity, and brevity too, as this is a short book. So do bear in mind that the book is meant for the general public, the lay public, and not for specialists in economy or history, and that a lot of the things asserted here are the author's opinions and experiences, and tastes in food, which are always personal. I had my favourite chapters, and plenty of moments exclaiming "I never knew that!" But I also could tell when information was incomplete, or simply not true. The chapter on Coca-Cola, for one, showed me the author (or his research team) aren't all that versed in Latin American politics, so the commentary there was grating to me. There's one footnote in which he says "installed by the coup d'état" about the former president of Bolivia, which isn't true, and tells me more what the author/his research team were reading to have given such an overview of the entire continent in the manner he did. I'm very used to Europeans and Europe-based gurus (the author is South Korean, but he's made his career in the UK, so I'm counting him in) being awful at analysing South America, save the Spaniards and Portuguese because language and historical ties that continue make them closer and more in touch, but it never ceases to bother me how ill-informed their commentary can be sometimes. There's enough omitted and oversimplied in that chapter that it was bothersome.
  
  Would I recommend this book? Yes, if you're an adventurous eater like me, who also likes micro-history books and the mixing of topics in an amenable way. This book reminded me why Southeast Asian cuisine is the one ethnic food group I most want to try, and reassured me in my obstinately experimental tastes. There's no ethnic food I won't try, to the point those that know me ask me half-teasingly and half-seriously, "Just what don't you like?" Well, perhaps okra, but now that Mr Chang mentioned gumbo was what convinced his palate to welcome okra, I'm going to try it one day.
  
  Thank you to PublicAffairs for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Hank

  What did I want out of this book? I had some vague expectations like how food shapes economics in various parts of the world, which, the author explicitily says the book is not right at the beginning. So what did we get?
  
  Essentially we got dinner and a movie where the dinner although quite interesting had nothing to do with the movie which was decent yet somewhat underwhelming. I enjoyed every one of Chang's food segments that usually included a brief history of what a particular culture eats and some interesting thoughts on recipes and differences between the cultures. I found many of the brief lectures on various economic topics good but some were a tad basic/boring.
  
  The blend of food and economics was sometimes good and sometimes non-existant and really just an interesting type of food and...then some variably interesting economics.
  
  3.5 stars rounded up. It was a novel way to talk about some economics concepts which was frequently entertaining but it wasn't a perfect blend.
• 
  Alyson

  It took food to get me interested in economics, but it worked!
• 
  Annaka

  If you have an interest in food, history, and/or economics this book may be for you! A fairly short read that explains economic concepts through tales of food. I learned a good deal from each chapter and the author manages to entwine complicated concepts with charming stories and various facts. There are a few awkward transitions and pacing issues but nothing severe enough to overcome the good.
  
  I’ve received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Mohd Jamizal

  Just wow Ha Joon Chang made it again to explain economics in leisure manner yet academics. He explains economic principles via his favourite food and dishes but relate it to economic issues i.e employment, productivity, cultural, institution so on. Good read as we could refresh our mind on the nature of human behaviour.
• 
  Mary

  Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.
  
  In a rather unconventional manner, Edible Economics reviews a swath of economic theories and practices through the lens of foods — not through a given country or economy’s food culture or food economics, but simply through the lens of foods that relate to the economic thread.
  
  This was a weird and wonderful little book! I honestly never thought I would enjoy a book on economics, but I found myself fascinated the whole way through. Ha-Joon Chang offers some unique perspectives on various economic theories, often presenting multiple differing opinions in the same chapter. He weaves together these theories and practices with tangible historical examples, all the while tying each one at least metaphorically to a food — such as the idea of chillies being representative of invisible labor or strawberries relating directly to the development of automation of the workforce.
  
  While I did find some of Chang’s opinions to be distinctly British — though born and raised in South Korea, Ha-Joon Chang attended university and now teaches in the UK — it was still easy to remind myself that this is a book of opinions as much as it is a book of fact. It’s not a textbook, but rather a unique economic overview from one individual’s perspective. I do appreciate the author’s evident extended effort to present ideas and concepts fairly, particularly multiple discussions of different versions and perspectives of the same theories, but the overarching author’s voice and bias is still ever-present. Fortunately, Ha-Joon Chang’s final recommendation to the reader is to understand that every perspective is just that: a perspective. Economics, though presented as firmly rooted in hard data and science, is just as much a matter of opinion as most things in this world.
  
  Edible Economics was honest, occasionally flawed and surface-level, but ultimately incredibly digestible and often delicious. I’m certainly not an economist by any stretch of the imagination, but I feel like I am leaving this book having learned far more than I expected to, particularly with a firm understanding of the society and world at large that I live in today, and certainly far more prepared to comprehend the ever-developing future stretched out before us.
• 
  Ula Tardigrade

  Since I by far prefer to read about food than economics, it was the title and the cover which encouraged me to pick up this book, rather than the author's (impressive) credentials. As it turns out, it was a trap set out for exactly such a reader like me. But I am so glad that I let myself get caught.
  
  “My food stories are a bit like the ice cream that some of your mums may have offered to ‘bribe’ you to eat your ‘greens’ – except that in this book ice cream comes first, the greens later (what a deal!)” - admits Ha-Joon Chang in the preface. But he is also right when he adds: “my economic stories are going to be rewards in themselves because I have made them tastier than the usual by making them more varied in kind and more complex in flavour”.
  
  The food stories are not just a pretext for a dry lecture, they are fascinating and engaging in themselves - so much engaging that you won’t realize when they morph into the economic ones. The author has an uncanny ability to connect very different topics into one coherent tale - say, pasta and automobile industry, or anchovy, guano and fertilizers.
  
  Very refreshing is not only his style, but also his Korean background - he offers an original, non-Western-centric point of view on food as well as on economics.
  
  I am sure it will be a tasty treat for everyone interested not only in food or economics but in a good storytelling about how the modern world works.
  
  Thanks to the publisher, PublicAffairs, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
• 
  Lintha Saleem

  I might be past the point in my economics education where beginner-level books aimed at introducing economics to general readers fail to excite me, but this was such a fresh style and take on the subject.
  Ha-Joon Chang uses food stories, knitting world history and personal stories together, to explain important themes in economics; often deconstructing popular economic myths that stil inform mainstream economics education and policymaking (including “post-industrialisation”, the “free market”, the importance of the care economy, misunderstandings of the welfare state, protectionism, innovation etc.)
  
  An enjoyable and easily-readable book, sure to engage anyone curious about the world, and of course, food connoisseurs (although he bends over backwards trying to connect each food to an economic theory, he does chalk it up to a stream-of-consciousness style).
  
  Looking forward to reading Chang’s more academic work!
• 
  Lee Robinson

  Fascinating insights and economic stories. The food analogies sometimes felt a bit forced and meandering, but otherwise fantastic
• 
  Richard Marney

  A very entertaining and, indeed, enlightening book!
  
  It’s not a dense work on agricultural economics. Instead, the author employs food, cooking, and related history and culture as parables to communicate some basic and rather heterodox economic truths (or as close as one can get).
  
  The final chapter gives a “few pieces of dietary advice”:
  
  (1) a varied diet is important (that is: perspectives)
  
  (2) be open minded about trying new things (approaches and policies)
  
  (3) check the provenance of the ingredients (validate assumptions and challenge conventional wisdom)
  
  As in cooking, so too in economics!!
  
  😎
• 
  Ji Won

  You are what you eat, in the same way that you are what you know, the book seems to say. A seemingly unlikely parallel is drawn between the understanding of food and economic thinking, only to reveal itself as universal and foundational as human existence itself. At the end of the day, we are no hunter-gatherers and our economic activities and financial choices are what brings food to the table. We have a choice, therefore, both in our economic choices and our dietary selections. This book is an encouragement to choose to broaden our culinary horizons and seek a diverse economic diet. Diversity will not only make difficult concepts more palatable, but it will also surely enrich our lives.
  
  ���We must all find our own ways to understand (and change) our economy and, with it, the world in which we live and share, in the same way I which we have to figure out our own ways to eat better - for our own individual health and wallets, for those who are producing food, for those who are not eating enough and/or nutritiously, and, increasingly, for the planet.”
  
  This said, the connections between ingredients and economic concepts discussed often felt forced and disconnected. While the relationships established are outlined in the index, I felt they get lost in the introductory descriptions of ingredients of every chapter and only forcibly knit together with the economic concept discussed in the last paragraph of the chapter.
  
  Despite the lack of stronger analogies and symbolism, the book does its job of conveying the broader, more important message (the call for more culinary and economic understanding, diversity and receptiveness), so 3.5/5.
• 
  Sarah

  This is the intro to economics we all needed 10 years ago in school and it certainly is the one we need now to make sense of all sorts of conversations in the media.
  
  Chang has made the (sometimes extremely dry and convoluted) world of economic theory much more palatable by wrapping the topics in food; a little economic pig-in-a-blanket if you will.
  
  A sprawling mise-en-place of chapters, each is based around a single food such as carrot, beef, okra, acorn, chili, and more. He begins each by talking about the origins or his own relationship to the ingredient and then pivots to an economic topic, unpacking as wide-ranging as infant industry protections, the history of free trade policies, the plight of unpaid care labor, the rise of automation, and climate change.
  
  Even if none of that sounds particularly interesting to you, it's worth the listen just to scoop up some of the fascinating tidbits (trivia buffs, take note!). Here's some of what I learned:
  -- Shrimps and prawns are two different animals.
  -- Carrots originated in Central Asia and were originally white.
  -- Bananas were domesticated in Southeast Asia.
  -- Worcestershire sauce includes anchovy sauce, which explains that umami flavor...
  -- The term 'filibuster' is derived from a French word meaning 'pirate.'
  -- And (most importantly), nasi lemak is mentioned not once BUT TWICE.
  
  This would be a great book to teach. Overall, great food for thought.
• 
  A C

  A sweet macro pamphlet. This is a light read and if you want a good economics book you can look at Chang’s other books.
  
  This book was published in 2022 and it is a testament to the author’s shifting economic ideology. I would put this book under the category of “extreme social centrism” in that he takes ideas that fits from other economic schools (good) but then sprinkles them with a bit too much SOAS socialism (not good) while at the same time insisting that he is a centrist (which he is not).
  
  The main premise of this book is to take mainstream economic ideas and expose the sham behind them. This is an approach that I applaud. Although the solutions provided verge on the idealistic at best and the impossible at worst.
  
  This is not to say that the stories told by this book are not true or worth the read. They are and everyone should be aware of the hypocrisy of the powerful that is so entertainingly exposed by Chang. He still remains one of my favourite writers of economics. But he could have done a better word in the way he structured his work.
• 
  Henry

  3.5
  
  This concise book brought together two of my top musings - economics and food. Winning start.
  
  More often than not, the analogies, food-themed format and punchy chapters worked. Some interesting (left leaning) ideas are raised and common economic misconceptions identified. I share the author’s sentiment in many chapters (eg. contention that the U.K. has mistakenly pursued deindustrialisation and neglected its manufacturing industry).
  
  On the flip, wish Chang elaborated on ‘both sides of the story’ more frequently (eg. on protectionism). Additional statistics could have made certain chapters more convincing, as examples were often conversational/ qualitative.
  
  To close, it’s a special skill to make economics accessible and this is the book’s greatest strength - it’s very ‘edible’ indeed
• 
  Shyue Chou Chuang

  This is really a volume of criticism on classical economics and neoliberalism disguised as a food economics volume. In this thin and easy to read tome, the economist Chang, shoehorned mentions of his favourite food into economics. Each chapter would start with a specific food which he liked and then, it would take a sudden turn and meander into a specific economic subject. While his selective tirades are not wrong, that free market fundamentalism should be criticised for their shortcomings as well as that unregulated free markets and neoliberalism could be harmful when applied universally, this volume came across as preachy and annoying.
• 
  Janet

  I think the author was successful in what he tried to do: make macroeconomics more interesting and accessible by making connections to food. Each chapter starts with a food or ingredient that gets related to an economic principle. Some of the connections are a little more tenuous than others, but that's okay. The author has a very genial, professorial voice and I think this would make a great book for a teen or young adult or anyone who wants an introduction to macroeconomics. Recommended if you are interested in people like J. Kenji López-Alt, Janet Yellen, Bill Gates, or Paul Krugman.
• 
  Angela

  This was a fun, approachable book, but the food references are a bit gimmicky - itʻs not actually about the economics of food production, though there are plenty of examples of how this has helped determine the course of world history. What the book is is a nice look at how common economic assumptions are sometimes flawed, using historical examples and reasons why the conclusions may not be as straightforward as free market economics suggests. These topics wonʻt be anything new to a broadly read person, but I enjoyed how they were grouped and collected.
• 
  Sebastian

  Mostly balanced in its presentation of many different schools of economic thought, with a slight skew against free markets. The style is fun, and anecdotes of food are both wonderfully detailed, and blend with no difficult into economic discussion. My contention is the choice to constantly reference other chapters. I would guess there are more than 30 and fewer than 70 references to other chapters of this book in brackets (like so), making the writing feel disjointed.
• 
  Dipra Lahiri

  It takes a few chapters to understand the conceit of linking food / food history to economic concepts, but then on, it's a joy to read. Ha-Joon's insatiable curiosity, his superb ability to derive insights related to economics, and impish humor, mark a very special mind. He's maintained his contrarian views in the current world awash in neoliberalism, kudos to him for that. An important voice that tests conventional wisdom.
• 
  Amanda

  I’m not sure what I expected from this book, but what I got was a look at world economics, told via the lens of various foods.
  I learnt lots that I didn’t previously know about economics (and what I already knew was pretty negligible), and while I can’t say I’ve come away with a firm grasp of economics, I think I’ve learned enough to question the existing model in a more informed way.
  Interesting.