george mason university economist, bloer and "new york times" contributor tyler cowan joins me now, authoreconomist gets lunch." good to have you on the program, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. you're not a fan of some of the current food trends out there. what are for example food snobs as you write and what do you think is wrong with them? >> often food snobs are people who use the food world to feel better about themselves. they'll glorify local food or slow food when in fact those practices don't do much for the environment. i think we need to take a more rigorous look at food using economics. >> do you consider yourself a foodie? >> i am absolutely a foodie and i have been for most of my life. >> you say big agribusiness and industrial food companies have gotten a bad rap. what's good about huge food Ñi companies? >> the era of cheap food is arguably the greatest human achievement of all-time. we're now feeding billions of people around the world more than ever before. agribusiness has played a critical role in doing that. we do in some ways need to regulate it better but foodies