Ed Conway, Part 1: How the West Accidentally Built Its Greatest Competitor

Ed Conway on Trade Wars, Bread Monocultures, and the Fragile Supply Chains Behind Modern Life

Sky News Economics editor Ed Conway discusses his book Trade World, based on two years of research into how bread, cars, and textiles are made and traded, arguing globalization has made goods cheaper by concentrating production into a few places, creating dangerous vulnerabilities. He highlights monocultures in crops such as wheat and bananas, focusing on the wheat disease UG99 and how industrial bread relies on just one or two wheat varieties, drawing parallels to the Gros Michel banana collapse and risks to the Cavendish.

This is the first part of our interview with Ed. The second part drops later this week.

Watch the full interview on YouTube here.

Chapters

00:00 Food Supply Sword

00:29 Meet Ed Conway

02:08 Will We Run Out

05:05 Bread Still Matters

06:44 Innovation Beats Doom

13:37 Writing Material World

18:32 Three Products Focus