Tyler Cowen’s book “An Economist Gets Lunch” was added to my
2012 Christmas reading list for one simple reason: I have been trying to keep updated
on agribusiness, given my role of an Enterprise Architect working with a multinational
agribusiness fierm. Here is my initial reaction on the book.
Other interesting reviews of the book:
The book covers two topics. It is predominantly a foodie’s
observations of “finding good places to eat” while traveling, interspersed with
tips on cooking at home. The secondary topic is a brief discourse on
agri-business which is restricted to two chapters (#7 and #8).
The first section of the book reaffirmed my empirical observation
from travels across continents: how a variety of meats and fish feature predominantly
in menus around the world. Restaurants in most western metropolises’ have begun
to offer at least a few vegetarian friendly entrée, but still cater to diets that
are largely meat based. As the author observes, many meat by-products – e.g
lard – are also used for cooking “vegetarian” entrée. The vegetarian in me found the descriptions of
the techniques of barbeque and the like inscrutable but I still found the
narrative gripping enough to read through those sections.
In the brief analysis of agri-business, Cowen makes a few arguments
on spreading modern agribusiness to more parts of the world. He observes “For
all the talk about India as a great economic power on the rise, most Indian
farming is still done by hand on a small scale. … The result of all these
restrictions is that agriculture remains the most backward major sector of India’s
economy and the rate of investment in Indian agriculture is barely increasing.”
While making the argument, the author contrasts
by giving high points to Mexican agribusiness when he muses :
“What are the real reasons why Mexican food can be so much
better in Mexico than in United States? I think of Mexico as a country that straddles
two food worlds in a very advantageous manner. They have enough technology and
modernity to manage modern food supply networks, run good restaurants, and send
fair amount of diversity the way of everyday foodie. At the same time, Mexico
still is in the close touch with more artisanal methods of food production. The
country has agribusiness, but it doesn’t only have agribusiness. “
The right-leaning economist in Mr. Cowen also hypothesizes
on benefits of genetically modifying crops, observing how corn did not
originally appear in nature without human intervention: “the breeding of corn occurred
over generations and from genetic tests it is identified as coming 8,990 and
8,610 years before birth of Christ.” A gist of the author’s arguments
·
GMOs increase the supply of food, thereby
lowering food prices and feeding the poor
·
One of the next green revolutions may come from
the direction of what are called Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
·
The underreported story that GMOs have
considerable environmental benefits is overlooked.
·
GMOs may help limit global warming through other
advances
·
Rich countries do not need GMOs but poor
countries do
I have been following some of the arguments on global
food-security and also the role of multinational agribusiness firms in “feeding
the world” And most of the arguments, when one looks at from a rational
economic angle make sense. However, what is intriguing is that most discussions
on food and food security focus more on crops and grains and to a much lesser
extent on animals and poultry. The fact is that food-grains are just another,
albeit significant “ingredient” in meat production: After all, animal meat,
poultry and fish are the last leg in the “feeding the world” value chain? Other interesting reviews of the book:
- NYT: A Contrarian Chowhound Weighs In
- USA Today: 'An Economist Gets Lunch' offers new perspectives
- WSJ: Invisible Hand to Mouth
- Boston Globe review
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