Book Review: Hungry Planet: What the World Eats By Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio
Hungry Planet: What the World Eats By Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio, Material World Books/Ten Speed Press, Paperback, 2007, $24.95
There's nothing more telling than having it all laid out before you: the food you and your family, however small or big it may be, consume in a week, displayed on your kitchen table. That is, if you have a kitchen table.
If you're the Aboubakar family of Chad, your table is a woven carpet spread on the ground of the Breidjing refugee camp. Set there, for the family of six, is a small gathering of rations: 40 pounds of sorghum; nearly five pounds of a corn-soy blend; nine ounces of dried goat, seven of dried fish; a handful of limes; roughly five pounds of lentils, chick peas, beans and peas; sunflower oil, sugar, salt, pepper; and water.
The four-member Bainton family, of Great Britain, does have a table upon which to place their weeks' repasts, but it's not big enough; they also need three small side tables and the mantle of their fireplace. Upon these surfaces rest a surplus of goods: potatoes, white bread, wheat bread; Coco Pops cereal and corn flakes; pork, eggs, canned tuna, ham, bacon, prawns; ketchup, mayo, jam, organic peanut butter; French fries, candy bars, nachos, pizza; juice, milk, coffee, tea, wine. And more and more.
It's a telling contrast. And, in Hungry Planet, just out in paperback, it's also a humbling, surprising, and at times, saddening contrast, one that reveals how some of us consume far more than our share.
Of course, that's not news. By now, we've had it drilled into our little noggins that the Western world outpaces the rest of the globe when it comes to just about everything. Which makes it all the more surprising to learn that other places are catching up, and fattening up, when it comes to food. But being told this and being shown this: these are two vastly different ways of communicating. Luckily for us