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The Economics of Everyday Things

64. Sushi Fish

The Economics of Everyday Things

Freakonomics Network

Business

4.81.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2024

⏱️ 22 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How does a fresh tuna get from Japan to Nebraska before it goes bad? And how does its journey show up in the price of your spicy tuna rolls? Zachary Crockett gets schooled.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

On a shopping strip along Nebraska's Highway 64, you'll find a Walgreens, a church, a couple dive bars, and between a tattoo parlor and a cannabis dispensary, a restaurant you might not be expecting.

0:24.0

We've got all the niggidi, sashimi, and sushi rolls and all that.

0:28.0

We've got items like our Hamatost, which is essentially a yellow tail hamachi sushi bite that's been kind of reworked.

0:37.0

That's David Utterback.

0:40.0

I run Yoshi Tomo here in Omaha, Nebraska.

0:43.2

Utterbach is a sushi chef.

0:46.0

He spent part of his childhood in the greater Omaha area.

0:49.6

And when he opened the restaurant in 2017, his goal was to prove that middle America could make high quality

0:55.7

sushi too.

0:57.5

At Yoshi Tomo, the selection of fish is as varied as what you might find in New York City

1:02.4

or San Francisco.

1:04.6

We carry a pretty standard repertoire of fish, your tuna, salmon, yellow tail, and then we also

1:10.7

carry sort of a daily selection of specialty fish that we fly in from Japan.

1:17.0

The fact that we can enjoy a fresh piece of fish in Omaha, Nebraska,

1:22.0

a few days after it's caught off the coast of Japan

1:24.8

is a marvel of modern technology and logistics.

1:28.4

But the journey also involves some very tricky economics,

1:32.3

and a race against the clock.

1:34.3

There's no commodity on earth that can lose as much value as a piece of high quality tuna destined for the sushi market.

1:46.4

And that causes challenges for people all the way through the supply chain.

1:49.6

For the Freconomics Radio Network, this is the economics of everyday things.

1:55.0

I'm Zachary Crockin. Today, sushi fish.

...

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