An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies

268 Pages·2012·1.18 MB·English

by  Tyler Cowen

AN
ECONOMIST
GETS
LUNCH
ALSO BY TYLER COWEN
The Great Stagnation
The Age of the Infovore
Discover Your Inner Economist
T Y L E R C O W E N
A N
E C O N O M I S T
G E T S
L U N C H
New Rules for
Everyday Foodies
DUTTON
DUTTON
Published by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd); Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue,
Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London
WC2R 0RL, England Published by Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
First printing, April 2012
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Copyright © 2012 by Tyler Cowen All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or
distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage
piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-
IN-PUBLICATION DATA Cowen, Tyler.
An economist gets lunch : new rules for everyday foodies / Tyler Cowen.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-1-101-56166-9
1. Food habits—Economic aspects. 2. Food preferences—Economic aspects.
3. Food industry and trade. I. Title.
GT2850.C69 2012
394.1′2—dc23 2011035174
Printed in the United States of America While the author has made every effort to provide accurate
telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author
assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does
not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their
content.
ALWAYS LEARNING
PEARSON
It is a hard matter to save a city in which
a fish sells for more than an ox.
—Cato the Elder
Contents
1
On the Eve of the Revolution
2
How American Food Got Bad
3
Revolutionizing the Supermarket Experience
4
The Rules for Finding a Good Place to Eat
5
Barbecue: The Greatest Slow Food of All
6
The Asian Elephant in the Room
7
Another Agricultural Revolution, Now
8
Eating Your Way to a Greener Planet
9
Why Does Mexican Food Taste Different in Mexico?
10
The Finding Great Food Anywhere Encyclopedia
11
The Stuff and Values of Cooking at Home
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
1
On the Eve of the Revolution
American food is in crisis, and rarely has more disruption loomed before us.
People are rebelling against current food-production methods involving
long-distance shipping, fertilizers, and genetically modified organisms.
Many people have returned to eating locally grown food from small farms, and
there is a fear that our agricultural practices lead to mass-produced food products
that are bad for our health and worsen climate change. But is this fear well
founded? Is local food a good thing?
On the other side of the ledger, we are spending more and more on fancy
restaurants. At a time when many economic sectors are struggling, the choices
for fine meals are expanding in most American cities. But are we spending our
money in the best way possible, or are we overlooking cheaper and possibly
superior alternatives?
In a world with some pretty big problems, is it even appropriate to think of
food in aesthetic terms as much as we do? The backlash drove a recently
published article in the Atlantic Monthly to suggest that foodies are evil for
aestheticizing the experience of eating. But what could be morally wrong with
eating good, even beautiful food?
The food crisis is not confined to cultured readers of urbane magazines. As the
fallout from our larger economic crisis continues, more than forty-four million
Americans are receiving food stamps. High unemployment has persisted far
longer than politicians expected. Starvation is no longer a major American
problem, but obesity is—especially among lower earners. The prevalence of
diabetes continues to rise.
The news isn’t all bad. The American restaurant scene has been transformed
over the last few decades since Calvin Trillin wrote (hilariously) about
pretentious dining establishments, which he collectively referred to as “La
Maison de la Casa Haus.” Bolivian, Laotian, and North Korean dishes are
staples of my dining out. I know how “Husband and Wife Lung Slices” taste (not
bad). Where government regulations allow, food trucks are proving more
popular than a lot of sit-down restaurants—and it’s not just a desire to get away
from those lung slices.
But most seriously, as our global population grows to nine billion and beyond
and agricultural productivity slows, another Green Revolution propelled by
agricultural innovations will become increasingly imperative. Food prices have
been rising, contributing to political unrest in Egypt and Tunisia, and help on this
front seems far away. Countries are stockpiling foodstuffs; and when prices
spike, governments shut down food exports with the ostensible goal of feeding
their populations. The global trade network isn’t as robust as we have wanted to
believe.
Since Upton Sinclair self-published The Jungle, his exposé of the meat
packing industry in Chicago in 1906, Americans have been repeatedly alerted to
disturbing realities of their food quality and economy. However, this is an
especially critical moment.
When it comes to food, the whole world needs some big changes. These
changes will happen only gradually, but this book is about how you can start
eating better food now for your own good and for everyone else’s. We need a
special kind of revolution.
Let’s start with a personal story about finding good food no matter how exotic
or ordinary, about finding food that simply tastes good. Constructing a better
eating experience and understanding where the quality of that experience comes
from, is, strangely enough, the first and most important step toward feeding
those nine billion people.
A Journey into the Unknown
I was on my way to Nicaragua. No one had seemed enthusiastic about
Nicaraguan food and the guidebooks were not overflowing with praise. I decided
I would figure things out on arrival. Let’s be clear: Every meal really matters to
me.
A bit of bread and cheese accompanied me on the flight to Managua. That was
to hold me over, since my flight was not arriving until the late lunch hour of 1:30
P.M. It was cheddar cheese from Safeway, extra sharp, and three-day-old
sourdough bread from Whole Foods. The point of the snack was to avoid
showing up famished; getting too hungry leads to all sorts of problems,
including eating before you have found the best available place. You could also
think of it as a kind of reverential abstinence before a culinary adventure.
Anyway, I got off the plane and searched for a taxi. Inside the airport terminal
I negotiated the price to León, a city about two hours north of the Managua
airport. Outside I picked a relatively old taxi driver. An old driver is a good way