What the World Eats

[bandgeek]

What the World Eats, a Time photo essay by Peter Menzel, excerpted from his book Hungry PlanetEach photo shows one of fifteen families with their food for a typical week laid out in their living room/area, tells what they paid for it, and tells their favorite food or family recipe

Comments

[spiffarific]

I really enjoyed that actually. It was horribly stereotypical, but it also showed something I was surprised about regarding commercial globalization. I bet you had the same experience, knowing what you'd find ahead of time and still being surprised at the amount of familiar brands.

I saw several things I hadn't expected to find here in some of those other countries (Like Pringles! Which should not have been surprising. But sometimes I am very obtuse. When my mother was here, she refused to do any conversions of the exchange rate because she's pants at math, but I made her buy me them, because what are mothers for if not occasionally manipulating, and suddenly she knew enough to give me the eyebrow and a "Why am I paying $5 for you to have these?").

And regarding the Ecuador one, I saw something a little different. We shouldn't have to want more than that. They were one of the larger families, yet had one of the smaller displays, yet were all smiling. I think that is the standard with which more people should judge happiness. Just having the basics. It isn't enough, not nearly, but I'm willing to assume that they, or neighbors, had some part in the production of what is in front of them. And I'll bet that one or more of the kids works. These are the values I wish I had grown up with, because at the end of the day I'd rather have a close family and less to eat than have a plastic world where we have the tendency to get caught up in materialistic things.

At any rate, you always find all the cool things. Thanks. :)

[bandgeek]

I agree that it plays into some stereotypes, but when you've got one family per country, and not even every country represented, that's gonna be hard to avoid. I suppose it's best if we just try not to think of each family as representing their country, and more of them just as individual portraits. (Although I'll admit that that isn't my initial instinctive reaction.)

Heheh, we have Pringles here, but no Doritos or Cheetos. Those are what I really miss. Mmm, fake cheese. There are, however, a lot of paprika-flavored potato chips that I've come to like, and I know I won't be finding those back in the States.

I suppose I may have come off wrong on the Ecuador thing; I agree with you. Mostly, my reaction is, what sort of materialistic, overfed, privileged asshole am I, that I have all this and think it's not enough to be happy? Whereas you have this family who is -- I argue -- underfed, at the very least in terms of the apparent lack of variety in their diets -- and looks so incredibly happy. I don't mean to say that their lives would be better if they ate like, say, the American families, but clearly they are impoverished, and they're smiling anyway. I have a lot of respect for that.

You have a good point in that part of their happiness probably comes from the hard work and dignity of producing their own food, and in working so damn hard for it that if I went to live with them I'm sure I would wimp out.