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Books of possible interest

Food and Nutrition Economics by George Davis and Elena Serrano published by Oxford University Press.  

Food and Nutrition Economics offers a much-needed resource for non-economists looking to understand the basic economic principles that govern our food and nutritional systems. Comprising both a quick grounding in nutrition with the fundamentals of economics and expert applications to food systems, it is a uniquely accessible and much-needed bridge between previously disparate scholarly and professional fields.

Douglas Southgate sent me a review copy of his book with Lois Roberts, Globalized Fruit, Local Entrepreneurs How One Banana-Exporting Country Achieved Worldwide Reach just published by University of Pennsylvania Press.  Here's how the book starts:

A tropical commodity bought and sold by the boatload throughout the world. Agribusinesses with worldwide reach, including a firm that has been a lightning rod for anti-corporate criticism since the Great Depression. Minor Latin American states on the receiving end of globalization. An uncomplicated, and oft-told, story of banana republics and the misfortunes visited on them by multinational companies. What more need be said?

Bananas are the ultimate nonlocal food.

But . . . (from the publisher):

Instead, Southgate and Roberts show that a competitive market for tropical fruit exists in and around Guayaquil, a port city dedicated to international commerce for centuries. Moreover, that market has consistently rewarded productive entrepreneurship.