Edible Economics By Ha-joon Chang

Over five episodes he zooms in on garlic, bananas, okra, rye and chocolate, using the histories behind familiar foods - where they come from, how they are cooked and consumed, what they mean to different cultures - to explore economic theories. Witty and thought-provoking, Professor Chang sets out to challenge ideas about the free-market economy which he believes have been too easily accepted for decades.

In this first episode, the focus is on garlic.

`We Koreans don't just eat garlic. We process it. In industrial quantities. We are garlic. South Koreans go through a staggering 7.5 kg of garlic per person a year - twelve times what the Italians consume. If you have lived all your life among garlic monsters, you don't realise how much garlic you get through. That was me in late July 1986 when, aged twenty-two, I boarded a flight to start my graduate studies in the University of Cambridg

Over five episodes he zooms in on garlic, bananas, okra, rye and chocolate, using the histories behind familiar foods - where they come from, how they are cooked and consumed, what they mean to different cultures - to explore economic theories. Witty and thought-provoking, Professor Chang sets out to challenge ideas about the free-market economy which he believes have been too easily accepted for decades.

Today - the banana. We hear about Elvis Presley's favourite sandwich (banana and peanut butter), and about the banana companies that came to dominate Central and South America in the 19th century.

`These days many people in the United States and other rich nations know the term `banana republic` only as a clothing brand. But it was originally invented to describe the dark reality of near-absolute domination of poor developing nations by large corporations from rich countries. The choice of clothing brand name is at best ignorant and at worst offensiv

Over five episodes he zooms in on garlic, bananas, okra, rye and chocolate, using the histories behind familiar foods - where they come from, how they are cooked and consumed, what they mean to different cultures - to explore economic theories. Witty and thought-provoking, Professor Chang sets out to challenge ideas about the free-market economy which he believes have been too easily accepted for decades.

Today: okra, a vegetable Ha-Joon discovers when he first arrives in Britain:

`There were some vegetables that I had never tasted before coming to Britain but whose existence I had known about through books and movies - broccoli, beetroot, turnip and suchlike. But I had never even heard of okr

Over five episodes he zooms in on garlic, bananas, okra, rye and chocolate, using the histories behind familiar foods - where they come from, how they are cooked and consumed, what they mean to different cultures - to explore economic theories. Witty and thought-provoking, Professor Chang sets out to challenge ideas about the free-market economy which he believes have been too easily accepted for decades.

Today - rye.

Ha-Joon had never encountered rye in South Korea, but he was a lover of English detective stories, and coming to Britain he was determined to taste the food which inspired his favourite Agatha Christie detective story, `A Pocket Full of Rye`. Once tasted, he never looked back - soon he was snacking late-night on rye crispbread when burning the midnight oil as a graduate student. Exploring the history of rye, he discovers that it's so important in Germany that it's crucial to the creation in the late 19th century of the first welfare state in the world - by Otto von Bismarck.

`People in today's rich countries owe their security - and prosperity - to a humble, hardy grain - rye.`

Professor Ha-Joon Chang teaches economics at SOAS University of London, and is one of the world's leading economists. His books include Economics: The User's Guide, Bad Samaritans and 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism.

Reader Arthur Lee is a British actor of Korean descent who made his international debut on HBO Cinemax's Strike Back in 2015 and who recently appeared in Doctor Who. Arthur grew up mostly in London, but also spent several years in South Korea advancing his knowledge of Korean language and culture.

Abridged and produced by Elizabeth Burke

Executive Producer: Jo Rowntree

A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4

Read by Arthur Lee. Today, rye and the welfare state.

Over five episodes he zooms in on garlic, bananas, okra, rye and chocolate, using the histories behind familiar foods - where they come from, how they are cooked and consumed, what they mean to different cultures - to explore economic theories. Witty and thought-provoking, Professor Chang sets out to challenge ideas about the free-market economy which he believes have been too easily accepted for decades.

Today - chocolate.

As Ha-Joon Chang says, `I have a confession to make. I am an addict. My habit started in the mid-1960s, when I was a toddler (yes, I was precocious). The illegal substance that I first got hooked on was smuggled out of American military bases and sold on the black market in the South Korea of my childhood. It was called M&M's.

Black market in M&M's? I am not making it up. At the time in Korea, the importing of foreign goods other than the machines and raw materials directly needed for the country's industrialization was banned - passenger cars, TVs, biscuits, chocolates, even bananas, you name it. Smuggling in things like cars and TVs from abroad was very difficult, but enterprising Koreans smuggled smaller consumer items on a large scale out of the American military bases that dotted the country at the time (we still have some). Chocolate was one of the most popular item