What the World Eats

The Time Magazine website currently features a photo essay depicting what 15 families from different nations and cultures eat in one week. I was most curious to see what the photographer would show for the ‘average’ American family in comparison to their counterparts around the world. The difference was, to say the least, striking.

I picked two families, but I could have lined them all up to make the obvious comparison to an American family. Let’s start with the Ahmed family in Cairo, Egypt.

Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53

Now, the Revis family of North Carolina

Food expenditure for one week: $341.98

There are many differences that I could point to in these two pictures. The disparity in the budget, for example.

In light of my current battle of the bulge, let’s play a little game of Where’s Waldo? Tell me dear reader… do you see any fruits or vegetables? (I see the grapes too, I think they are plastic)

Pictures from the book Hungry Planet