Around the World,  Art,  Food Supply

Hungry Planet: What The World Eats

By The Editors

Hungry Planet: What The World Eats, has been around for a few years, but the photography is still very appealing, the descriptions insightful and the topic up to date.  Just looking at the pictures is a sure way to increase one’s awareness of different cultures.  The book also includes excerpts from leading  scientists, nutritionists and environmentalists.

In true global spirit, Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio traveled to twenty-four countries and visited thirty families from all around the world to find out what people eat during the course of one week.  The result of their work is 30 family profiles.  Each family’s profile includes a detailed description of their weekly food purchases; photographs of the family at home, at market, and in their community; and a portrait of the entire family surrounded by a week’s worth of groceries.  Menzel and D’Aluisio are also very generous in sharing their personal experiences in the countries they visited.  All together, this is beautiful artwork presented at the intersections of worldwide politics and nutrition.

Below is a video showing some of the family profiles.


4 Comments

  • FurElise

    This video really opened my eyes on how something as simple as grocery shopping can be extremely different across different countries and cultures. In some countries, groceries consist of only the essentials: meat and vegetables. However, in countries like the U.S., groceries consist of much more than just the essentials. I never even thought how lucky people in the U.S. are just to have extra items such as chips, cookies, or other snacks.

    • awilliams199

      I agree with you FurElise this video also caught my attention and allowed me to become more aware of the differences between the types of grocery families buy in different countries. You make a valid point about some countries just obtaining the essential forms of food for their groceries, however maybe those people feel lucky as well with the groceries that they have. In many other countries cultures are different which affects many things including the types of food that you eat. In many countries junk foods such as chips, sodas, and twinkies are not eaten. For example, in many Caribbean countries fried plantains are eaten as snacks.

  • Alejaaa21

    The Hungry Planet video made me realize how one week of groceries is interpreted in a completely different manner from country to country. When taking the family in North Carolina and comparing it to the family in Japan the choice of food products are obviously quite different, but the costs come out to be about the same. But from my point of view the family in Japan is getting less food for the amount they are paying, but the quality of the food choice is much better and a lot healthier than that purchased by the family here in the US. Why is it that here in the United States people tend to spend more money on poor quality food products than purchasing poultry or fresh fish product? Is it that we as US consumers have become infatuated with all of these junk foods that have lead us to the obesity problem we are facing today?

  • Haley M

    This video goes to show that in some places, food is more plentiful and the resources to afford them are not hard to come by. This is depicted by the vast amount of groceries purchased each week and the presence of junk food, or unhealthy food. In other locations, the prices of weekly grocery shopping was very little and the groceries consisted of only necessities such as meat, vegetables, and water. this made me realize that it is not good to take food for granted and that I should not waste food because there are families around the world that could only imagine eating a full three course meal as we are accustomed to in the U.S. However, the families with healthier purchases were less likely to experience obesity which is very common in the U.S.

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