Book Review: Hungry Planet

I have a new obsession: the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Alusio. I had seen these photographs before: families from countries around the world photographed with a week's worth of food. They include photos like this one, from India:

This one, from the United States (Texas):

And this one, from Mali:


You can see more of the photos here and here.

But I really recommend getting your hands on the book; check your local library. In addition to the photographs and captions--which break down the total amount of money spent on food weekly, by food groups--the book also includes essays about each family included in the book and statistics about each country. There are also essays by such luminaries as Michael Pollan, plus recipes from each of the countries.

On one level, this book is a visual feast, a foray through countries and cultures. (In addition to the photographs of individual families, there are tons of gorgeous photos from each featured country.) But on a deeper level, this book is also a dip into some big and crucial global issues: global inequity in the distribution of resources, the very real existence of hunger in people's daily lives, the global coexistence of malnutrition and overnutrition, and the way changing eating patterns and food-marketing patterns are contributing to an increase in diseases like diabetes and cancer. It's eye-opening to think about where each of us would fit into this global portrait, and what that really means.