Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World

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W założeniu ta książka miała być super ciekawa: autor miał powiązać historię różnych produktów spożywczych z historią ekonomii. 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.

In Edible Economics, Chang makes challenging economic ideas more palatable by plating them alongside stories about food from around the world. There are a few awkward transitions and pacing issues but nothing severe enough to overcome the good.

Because one thing that comes through in Edible Economics, which is more absent in his Chang’s previous books, is that development is difficult. In chapters with titles such as Noodle and Banana, Ha-Joon Chang sketches out the story of his home country’s rise.

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. The author also likes referring back to other chapters in the book which I thought was unnecessary and slightly chaotic. This book is myth-busting, witty, and thought-provoking, Edible Economics serves up a feast of bold ideas about globalization, climate change, immigration, austerity, automation, and why carrots need not be orange. Explaining everything from the hidden cost of care work to the misleading language of the free market as he cooks dishes like anchovy and egg toast, Gambas al Ajillo and Korean dotori mook, Ha-Joon Chang serves up an easy-to-digest feast of bold ideas. 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.That development obviously shaped Chang’s outlook – in chapters with titles such as Noodle and Banana, he sketches out the story of his home country’s rise, with an emphasis on its protection of infant industries and close regulation of multinational corporations. Of course his conclusion says he hopes this book gives us deplorables an appreciation for the variety of economic viewpoints. This is particularly obnoxious because the author recounts throughout the book his international diet. P132 “…consumers do not have the time and mental capacity to process all the information on the carbon footprints of their food items…. The author is from South Korea and there is a lot of Asian influence in the food discussion and background, but it adds to the depth of the book.

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.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. The author does address the strange connections he makes in the afterword, though perhaps I would have liked to have known what to expect a little more in the beginning.

Each chapter is a bit of a stand alone essay of a food item and then the discussion morphs into something economic.Autor najpierw zajmuje się tematem kulinarnym, by następnie przejść do konkretnego zagadnienia ekonomicznego. Permite viajar en el tiempo, por lugares diversos, conociendo detalles sabrosos de los alimentos y de ricas tradiciones culinarias, enlazando todo aquello con reflexiones convincentes sobre problemáticas económicas que repercuten en la vida cotidiana de todos los habitantes de este planeta.