Tuesday 8 January 2008

Food for thought.

This is a wonderful set of photographs. They depict the amount of food that an average family eats in a week in various countries around the world. We all know that there are huge differences in the amount of food eaten in different countries but the pictures really highlight this.

The pictures were taken by Peter Menzel and are from the book "Hungry Planet" .

6 comments:

Heather L. said...

Those are terrific! I can't believe Germans spend nearly $500/week on groceries! Wow! i guess my $140 is pretty good. :) I love the pictures with all the fresh fruit/veg. It's amazing on the other side of the spectrum -- the family in Chad was only spending $1.23/week!

My family and I have been discussing the problem of packaging on food -- it creates SO much waste -- we don't really eat prepared food ourselves, but even "healthy" food has so much packaging!

willow said...

Heather, Yes I was looking at the difference in the amount of packaging shown in the pictures, so much cardboard and cans, and all in just one week!

Moonroot said...

Very interesting. And amazing/sad how the same brands seem to crop up around the world. Globalisation of groceries.

Jane said...

I was trying to work out which country my family fits into - certainly not Britain (why did the Brits look so gloomy?)
I rather fancied Cairo.
The packaging is disgraceful - we have shopped twice at the supermarket this month as our usual organic shop is closed - the bin was full by the time we had unpacked. That was more depressing than either the cost (about 1/3 more for the weekly shop) or the quality.
J
x

Rhonda Jean said...

Like the others I was amazed at the amount of packaging. I liked seeing the makup of the families too. Very interesting photos.

willow said...

Moonroot,
yes I thought that, I didn't realise that so many breakfasts round the world featured Kelloggs cereals.

Jane,
Egypt did look good didn't it, fresh, green and unpackaged. Perhaps we have nore packaging because we tend to buy food in smallish quantities rather than sacks of grain etc. I make nearly all of our bread and get through a lot of flour but I still buy my flour in 1.5kg bags from Waitrose. It would be nice to buy it in larger quantities but I haven't found a cheaper source.

Rhonda jean
Its interesting the amount of information that can be gleaned from looking at just one photo. I've looked through them several times, at the kitchens, what they are wearing etc - a snapshot of life around the world.