What The World Eats

Once again via Boing, Boing (that superb repository for endlessly fascinating things) this wonderful link to a series of photographs at Time.com depicting the weekly grocery shop for various families all over the world. These photographs are from a book called Hungry Planet: What The World Eats, by photographer Peter Menzel and journalist Faith D'Alusio and it's a real eye opener as to quite how much we spend on food here in the West. Compared to other cultures, we are gut-busting, greedy, guzzlers, stuffing literally tonnes and tonnes of food into our snouts every year. Obesity problem? What obesity problem?

What is particularly striking is the extraordinary varience in packaging used in the different parts of the world - there's no doubt we use far too much here in the UK.

Above is my genuine favourite of the sixteen pics featured in the link - The Batsuuri family of Ulaanbaatar - all this food, feeding entire family for an entire week for just over $40.00 USD (or 41,985.85 togrogs!). Given the projected profit margins, I'm forthwith cancelling our expansion plans for a Mongolian branch of North Star!