Economics, food, the curriculum

rosemary
11 minutes ago
8 min read

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery" Charles Dickens

Economics is actually the third in the PPE trilogy of high class degrees - Philosophy, Politics and Economics, but because it was the turn of Economics on Friday, in this year's VCE exams I'm skipping Politics for now. The three are inextricably linked of course, as are food and economics, in complicated ways. I do not really understand the diagram above, and I do not really understand economics but I do think the diagram shows how interconnected everything is.

Or does economics just come down to Charles Dickens' simple words - meaning don't live beyond your means and you will be happy? Again - as always - it's a bit of both.

We didn't 'do' economics as a subject at school in my day, although it was touched upon in Maths - when we did a little bit about the stock exchange and interest rates, in history, sometimes obliquely and sometimes directly - a lesson on Adam Smith I seem to remember, and in geography - the bit about growing and trading food. At university I attended a series of lectures on economics, that theoretically we were all supposed to attend as part of our Foundation year course - every faculty gave a set of generalised lectures on their subject. The economics professor who delivered the lectures was not an inspiring speaker, and for me anyway, it was an uninteresting subject at that stage of my life, and so I think I might have been one of those who skipped a few of his lectures. These days it's a high school course, and one grandchild at least has made it one of his VCE subjects. My sons did too.

Being at university and away from home, was however my first real lesson in budgeting, although I was aware of the need to do so as my parents did not have a large income and it was obvious that by the end of the month - my father's salary was paid monthly - the food we ate was cheaper. Well there were lots of other signs of economy I guess. At university I had a grant, but I had to buy books - that was necessary - but there were also snacks, drinks, the occasional outing and haircuts. Little things but from a small pool of money - supplemented by work in the bar washing glasses. And alas I did sometimes go into debt at the end of the term but the Barclays bank was happy to give overdrafts - well they charged interest and also they were capturing future possibly high-earning customers. Canny economics - short time loss for long-term gains, although there probably weren't really any losses for them at all,

So - economics - "the branch of knowledge concerned with the production, consumption, and transfer of wealth." says Oxford Languages although other definitions seemed to say it was all about nations. Surely not? Economics has several levels - global, national and national's subdivisions - down to households, and then to individuals. But yes - money, money, money - is definitely involved.

But does it have to be? After all money - i.e coins did not come into use until the 7th century BC. Prior to that there was barter - goods and services for goods and services - the goods often being food - a system which still exists in some of the least urbanised societies on earth, and also in times of war and other similar catastrophes. The first official forms of currency were shekels in Mesopotamia back around 3000BC - a system based on weights - such as rings of silver and stones:

And today you would have to wonder whether actual currency is involved at all. It used to be that currency - coins and notes - had to be backed/guaranteed by an equal amount of gold stored in the national banks' vaults. Today actual currency has all but disappeared, and most of our transactions are done digitally, with bitcoin also a new kind of currency, which frankly I just don't understand. So ethereal to me - like the internet sending billions of messages through the ether.

I stray from the connection with food. Nowadays. at the weekend we buy the Australian Financial Review Weekend edition newspaper, and this was my other impetus for getting on to economics because although there is always at least one item in it - a newspaper focussed on economics - that has something to do with food, this week there were several. Let me just list a few to show how food inserts itself into finance in many different ways.

Clinkers - unless you are a TikTok fan you are probably unaware of the latest viral TikTok thing - the clinkers challenge. You may not even be aware of clinkers - these chocolate bites, that come with a crunchy centre in three different colours. For the challenge apparently you make a promise to do something depending on which colour you choose. Clinkers were invented in Tasmania back in 1923, and the challenge has also been around for ages, but TikTok made it viral because an influencer with 1.1 million followers promised something - I don't know what - followed by others, including a guy promising free delivery of his goods, and Bill Shorten promising to dance. It became a craze and the clinkers sold out - all gone from the supermarket shelves with smaller suppliers charging up to $30 for an $8 bag - a perfect example of supply and demand. The demand was heightened by Halloween of course. And the demand cannot be satisfied quickly because the production process takes three days.

AI and the NSW economics exam - this one is not really connected to food - but I include it because of the exam connection. Apparently the AFR tested out the multiple choice questions on financial experts and AI as well as last year's top students. And AI didn't shape up all that well. Interesting, but irrelevant.

Sydney Capella hotel voted 12th best in the world - a hotel is a provider of food- and being voted 12th best in the world "brings global visibility and influences booking choices among discerning guests." Money, money, money, for the hotel itself, those that work there, and those that provide everything they need. And Sydney itself must get more prestige and visitors as well. For the guests it's an experience and a potential memory. Valuable in ways other than financial. It doesn't look that wonderful does it, but as the AFR says:

"the hotel's ranking signals that design and service now trump water views on the world stage."

Gen Z, alcohol and yoghurt

There are actually three articles in the AFR Weekend, on Gen Z - those born between 1996 and 2010. One is a more general - but very long analysis of how Gen Z views the world, but the other two are food related. The picture here relates to how Gen Z are apparently deserting nightclubs for wine bars, frozen yoghurt bars and an early night. No more dancing. Such venues are closing and the wine bars and yoghurt bars are opening. The loss of dancing as part of the courtship ritual is rather sad, but obviously one can't really criticise this move to a less hormone charged environment. Merivale - one of the big hospitality companies:

"seems to have cracked the Gen Z code. Except for the flagship Ivy, Merivale venues don't for the most part, revolve around a crazy night out. They're about a holistic experience, good food, nice drinks and a lively but not too lively, atmosphere."

Economics is also involved in this because nightclubs just became too expensive, so that now they go out for some food and maybe a couple of drinks, that frozen yoghurt and then go home, which then has an effect on "Taxis, convenience stores and late-night food outlets". In fact the economic ramifications are many and various and this double spread article covers them all - including statistics and graphs to illustrate. The focus is undeniably eonomic, but it's interesting - maybe because of the food, maybe because of the behavioural analysis ...

Then there's Gen Z's desire to drink less which doesn't just mean no alcoholic drinks although that does play it's part but it also means new products - low and no alcohol beers - and wines too, although the article in the AFR is all about beer. According to beer companies sales of low alcohol and low carb beer are up between 20% and 60%. It's yet another supply and demand sitiuation in which the nimble and observant win.

China, wagyu beef and caviar Did you know that China is the word's top exporter of caviar from sturgeon? They are responsible for 44% of the world's sales. Caviar, however is not the only high-end food that China is developing at some pace - wagyu beef, foie gras and truffles are also catching up. A research report noted that:

"producers scale up output of what were once expensive imports, then ratchet down costs with improved technology, cheaper labour and better logistics. To boost domestic interest in the goods, companies are lowering prices and dreaming up new ways of using them."

This must be a trickier balancing act, because you don't want to flood a luxury market with cheap goods too far. The opposition may disappear, but if your product is cheap those who buy it just for the perceived luxury will find something else. Rarity = luxury.

Coles versus Woolworths - Coles is up and Woolworths is down in their financial reports and subsequent share prices - hence value of the company, and there is an interesting article on why that should be, the personal failures and successes of the former CEOs and how the current two ladies in charge will cope. Most of the article is in finance-speak but pay attention particularly if you have shares in them that you manage personally - a very large number of Australians do. They do say to never invest in anything you do not understand, and I guess we all really understand food and the supply and demand effect on prices and profits. Economics is inextricably connected with food if only in terms of trade and the people responsible for its production and sale.

Donald and Xi - those tariffs - an example of trade which has been a fundamental of human behaviour since the coming of homo sapiens. Brute force may often have been a player of course, but generally speaking trade has been a major driver of human development. And now Donald has got Xi to buy his soy beans and Xi has got Donald to lower some of his tariffs. Win/win they said. Well maybe, maybe not.

All of the above are examples of how food is inextricably entangled with economics, all along the food chain from the producers - whether they be farmers or industrialists - to the traders and merchants - the sellers and the buyers and how each section has to adapt to changing circumstances along the way, in order to be out of that debt that Charles Dickens so rightly told us, leads to misery.

The AFR, of course has more to say in a more general manner - mostly with its stock exchange tables that tell you how your shares are going; its articles on the national economy, on inflation, interest rates, government debt and so on. It's a newspaper focussed on economics after all, but the examples it gleans to illustrate various different aspects of the economy at large - from how the world is dealing with trade, with famines, wars, to the economic situation of the ordinary man on a minimum wage - are often associated with food.

I have no doubt that the school economics curriculum would have examples related to food to demonstrate all of the economic principles they need to learn. I'm also sure that you could use food to demonstrate each bit of the economic syllabus, because the two are inextricably linked in so many ways.

The AFR Weekend edition even always includes a page long interview/chat with celebrities of all kinds - this week it was Blanche d'Alpuget - over lunch. I think the idea is that in a relatively informal setting your interviewee may drop their guard and reveal all - or at least something interesting. The AFR pays for the lunch. It's one of their costs. The benefit, hopefully is a revealing interview, which will sell more copies of their paper.