World Food Crisis
I’m not sure where this is from originally - it was sent on (thanks Nick). It features families from round the world displaying what they eat in any week…
Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide
Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07
United States: The Revis family of North Carolina
Food expenditure for one week $341.98
Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily
Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11
Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca
Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09
Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna
Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27
Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo
Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53
Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo
Food expenditure for one week: $31.55
Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village
Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03
Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Ca mp
Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23
May 1, 2008 at 4:34 pm
This is from a book called “Hungry Planet: What the World Eats” by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio.
I think it came out in 2005 - it is one of the most interesting books I’ve ever read!
May 1, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Every time I see those pictures I feel ashamed. And I wonder what would be in some of those food baskets if the pictures were taken this week.
Joanna
May 1, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Wow, these pics really are something. Definately humbling.
May 1, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Quite an eye-opener. What I noticed though, apart from the obvious difference, was the worrying lack of fresh food and vegetables in the diet of the family from the States! Maybe they just didn’t need veg that week, or maybe they just didn’t like veg.
May 2, 2008 at 7:57 am
That really is enough to break your heart. I started off congratulating myself that our picture would be nothing like the German or USA one, and that our weekly food costs were a lot less, and by the end was feeling really emotional. We do not realise how lucky we are that the food crisis just means things cost us a little more. Will we ever learn, do you think?
May 6, 2008 at 8:31 pm
I’ve seen this a couple times in the blogosphere and it made me start taking a critical look at my own weekly groceries. While we have eliminated almost all processed and packaged foods we still have a ways to go before we can say we are plastic and high fructose corn syrup free.
The other thing I noticed was how the convenience foods and sodas that are the hallmarks of the American diet are creeping into societies across the globe.
May 6, 2008 at 11:53 pm
No, Elaine, we will never learn. We are too human. But, the world food crisis will not end, it is a matter of supply and demand, as demand goes up, the individual supply goes down. We have doubled our population in the US since I was born. It will double again around 2060 I guess, that is, if we have enough food. Of course, we won’t. The food wars are alrealdy starting in Africa, it won’t be long before it spreads to Asia. I believe that we have reached the top of our productive capacity for the world. Be prepared for rising food prices and shortages.
May 7, 2008 at 5:03 am
와!! Very interesting. Definitely a dearth of veggies for the folks in NC. If I had to pick a house to eat over, I’d go with the Egyptian family for sure, but even they have a bottle of Coke hidden in their bounty.
May 12, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Here are some more details on the amount of food each family had.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5005952
I think it would be interesting to take a photo of one weeks worth of food in each season. This could either be done by keeping careful records of food eaten in one week and repeating it for the next or doing detailed planning for the week. The only tricky part might be harvesting a week’s worth of produce from the garden all at once for the photos.
If this were done for several years, I bet the picutres would show a steady increase in local and fresh foods and in some seasons home preserved foods.
Some friends and I have discussed trying the Aboubakar’s diet for one week to get a sense one extreme end of the local food spectrum.
And we have also thought about trying a week from one of the other countries in the book which has lots of fresh seasonal foods. But so many of them appeal to us, that we are having trouble narrowing it down to one. Which ever one we chose we’d try to do it when we could have most of their fresh foods fresh from our own gardens. Any suggestions about which to choose?
May 22, 2008 at 7:13 pm
thanks for this
June 11, 2008 at 2:07 pm
There is Coke or Pepsi on every table between $50 to $500