Sushi and the global economy

Sasha Issenberg provides a fish's-eye view of tuna's path from the sea to your dinner plate

from the July 24, 2007 edition

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The author seems most concerned with the biggest players in the sushi economy – the reader gets only a superficial sense of what happens to the striving sushi chefs who never make it or the communities that suffer the fate of declining fish stocks. Issenberg posits that sushi consumption around the world tracks with corporate wealth as a symbol of the modern economy. But his focus remains on those profiting from the sushi business rather than on those marginalized by the accumulation of that wealth.

While this is not another book on how to make and eat sushi, the reader does get a few gems of wisdom. For example, a top chef reveals that the people who sit at the sushi bar get the best cuts of salmon, whereas those sitting in the dining room – or ordering California rolls – will most often be served an inferior piece of meat from the salmon's tail. Accounts of delectable sashimi dishes and rolls could leave even reluctant sushi fans salivating.

Issenberg's training as a journalist explains his palatable writing style, and his analysis of market relationships and asymmetries will satisfy devote globalization junkies of the sort who display Thomas Friedman prominently on their bookshelves. He sprinkles the book with witticisms and colorful metaphors: In Los Angeles the sushi lunch culture is as ubiquitous as "valet parking and empty flattery," and tuna aquaculture is capable of turning "one of nature's most peripatetic and rapacious eaters into a spoonfed baby in a crib."

During the moments he compares Japanese retailers to matryoshka dolls or fish market auctioneers to "a battalion of street-corner Santas," the book transforms into a whimsical travelogue, though at times weighed down with detail.

Changing hands nine times

A fish destined for a sushi roll might change hands nine times in two different hemispheres before reaching your dinner plate. Issenberg leads us through the intricacies of these transactions, pointing out that to eat sushi is to display "an access to advanced trade networks, of full engagement in world commerce."

His exploration of the global economy from a fish eye's view does not paint an entirely encouraging picture. Yet he doesn't predict what will happen as the industry's supply of bluefin tuna deteriorates – nor does he explore what's happening to the other fish species that play a role in the sushi economy.

Issenberg gives us a taste of the intriguing stories to be found in the global marketplace for sushi, but he leaves us to develop our own ideas about the future of our global appetite.

• Bina Venkataraman is a graduate student in public policy and an intern at the Monitor.

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