About Me
Welcome to I’ll Have What They’re Having. I’m Ethan Engler, and I’m the creator of this blog.
As a part of Gen Z, I grew up in a generation where chronic conditions like allergies, asthma, obesity, and anxiety were abundantly common, even normal. Like most kids, I eagerly sought out the junk foods advertised on TV, and happily gorged on the sweets they sold at school. I didn’t think twice about the foods I ate, nor the systems that brought them to my plate.
I first began learning about nutrition through exercise, when I sought to pair my weightlifting with an optimal diet. What started as a simple curiosity about protein and calories turned into a deeper interest, however, as I learned just how important food is to our wellbeing—and how carelessly I had been eating.
As I read books like Marion Nestle’s Food Politics and waded deeper into the realities of how our food is produced and regulated, I saw that the nutritional environment I had grown up in was not normal at all. In fact, the United States stood far behind other high-income countries across most metrics of public health, and diet-related disease was only becoming more common with time. Our food system, I realized, is exceptionally broken. Reforming the structures that shape that system became an important cause to me.
I’m not a scientist, nor am I a late-career expert or a food industry insider. In fact, I’m only 23 years old. But despite my youth, I’ve had opportunities to look far inside the workings of the U.S. government, and I bring those perspectives to this blog.
My first ever internship was in the U.S. Senate, and my office gave me the opportunity to have near-daily “coffee chats” with staffers from multiple Congressional offices. These chats, characterized by wide-ranging questions and candid answers, gave me meaningful insight into the way Congress functions. Similarly, my first full-time professional job was as a government consultant in Washington, D.C, where I was tasked with making government agencies operate more effectively. Through this work, I was quickly exposed to the entrenched inefficiencies and policy failures plaguing our government.
I firmly believe that reforming our nation’s food governance is the best way to make the American food system safer and improve our nation’s health.
I plan to go to law school in the coming year, and I aspire to one day use my J.D. to help shape better governance—not only in the food system, but across our institutions. As for now: I’ll Have What They’re Having is my passion project, and I will use this platform to share my insights, research, and ideas on how to build a healthier food system, in the hopes that my content can help spread awareness and bring about change. Join me as I dive into food law, policy, and culture in the United States and abroad, and let’s discover how Americans, too, can Have What They’re Having.
I'll Have What They're Having 