What the world eats

Hey everyone! I came across an interesting series of photographs taken by photo-journalist Peter Menzel for his book called ''Hungry Planet: what the world eats''. Here are a few:

The Melander family from Bargteheide, Germany, with a week's worth of food. Food expenditure for one week: $500.07 USD

The Caven family. American Canyon, California, with a week's worth of food. Food expenditure for one week: $159.18 USD

The Mendoza family in Todos Santos Cuchumatán, Guatemala, with a week's worth of food. Food expenditure for one week: $75.70 USD

The Ayme family in their kitchen house in Tingo, Ecuador, a village in the central Andes, with one week's worth of food. Food expenditure for one week: $31.55 USD

Powerful images, right? 

Recent studies (Behrens et al., 2017) show that there is an increasing demand for foods with high environmental and health impacts. Meat consumption has grown unprecedently over the past decades, putting pressure on forests and resources. Animal products are considered a ''luxury'' food for rural populations, whereas they have become widely available and accessible in urban areas.

The first family, from Germany, spends three times as much as the American family, including many beverages, and what appears to be higher quality meats. The American family seems to eat a lot of ''brands''. Compared to the rural, the urban families eat little "natural" foods and mostly processed foods. It is also interesting to notice the food expenditures. For urban families, the ability to spend more on food reflects socioeconomic status, whereas rural families reflect wealth from the amount of food available. How much would it cost for the German family to consume as much (organic) produce as the Guatemalan's?

Equilibrium?

The supply of animal products depends on reproductive capacity, and natural resources, in general, have an equilibrium harvest. Can we say our current agro-industrial practices are unsustainable? What are the interactions between the social and the biological system when we think of our food? 

Should we think of our global food production systems as major drivers of change in terms of the linear consumption patterns of societies? 

Many questions with perhaps a variety of complex answers...