I read the 2005 edition of Hungry Planet: What The World Eats, when the planet fed 6 billion people. Today, eight short years later, the population has reached 7.16 billion, and Mother Earth is still feeding us. We are depleting our resources, though.

Menzel's photography is superb. The organizing principle is a still shot of each of the 24 families and the food they eat in a week surrounding them. The foodstuffs are also listed. The commentary by Faith D'Alusio, Menzel's wife, is thoughtful but idiosyncratic. For example, she seems to have copped an attitude toward Sicilian Piera Marretta's tobacco addiction--she sounds downright snarky about the young mother's smoking habits--but makes a passing mention of Japanese Kazuo Ukita's habit. (Smoking is a terrible addiction, and is damaging people's health around the world, as the stats provided in this book show . . . if anyone really needs proof.)

A number of essays carry heavy water, because they give the book a moral grounding, especially Food with a Face by Michael Pollen and Launching a Sea Ethic by Carl Safina. First world, post-agricultural economies are increasingly reliant on factory food, but multinational companies like Coca-Cola and Nabisco are insinuating themselves into foodways around the world, with an ill-effect on traditional cuisines. Crap is showing up on the tables of agrarian cultures still in close contact with where their food comes from. The Greenlander family hunts and butchers their seal meat, but likes lots of refined sugar on its breakfast cereal.

A book loaded with food for thought . . .

Part photo essay, part political/social commentary, part foodie exploration. It's an amazing book that chronicles the authors' journeys to 24 countries to see how everyday families eat. The book is arranged alphabetically by country. They have photographed the ordinary weekly food intake (at the authors' expense) of each family and written a companion essay touching on the circumstances of that family, general information about the country, and so forth. The pictures are high quality, and the essays are compelling and well-written. It is a political book on multiple levels, of course, but it doesn't beat the reader over the head with first world guilt, instead letting the food and the families speak for themselves. It certainly gave this reader pause to consider how much I consume and how I consume it.

Title: Hungry Planet: What the World Eats
Author: Peter Menzel & Faith D’Aluisio
Genre: Photographic Essay
Theme(s): Diversity, Differences, Nutrition
Opening line/sentence: “Peter Manzel and I invited ourselves to dinner with 30 families in 24 countries to explore humankind’s oldest social activity, eating.”
Brief Book Summary: In this wonderful photo essay, we take a trip around the world to visit different countries and experience their eating habits. Bright, delicious looking pictures of the different cuisines and diets take over the pages and introduce us to the other side of our planet.
Professional Recommendation/Review #1: The authors' Hungry Planet: What the World Eats won the James Beard Foundation Award in 2005 for Book of the Year. In this new youth edition, the creators have reworked the text, added new material, and honed the book s focus to more specifically reflect the experiences of young people. The basic concept, however, remains the same: an illustrated survey of what people across the globe eat in a single week. In preparation for this project, Menzel and D’Aluisio shared meals with 25 families in 21 countries around the globe. Each chapter serves as an intimate photo-essay of a different family and their week s worth of groceries, listed (with prices in both local and U.S. currency) and pictured in a photograph of food and family members that opens each section. Stunning color photographs of mealtimes and daily activities illustrate the warm, informative, anecdotal narratives about each family. New to this volume are the many pages of statistics, displayed in eye-catching graphics that compare various countries rates of obesity, access to safe water, daily caloric intake, and other food-related issues. Like the adult edition, this is a fascinating, sobering, and instructive look at daily life around the world, and it will draw readers of a wide age range to its beautifully composed pages. (CLCD, Gillian Engberg, Booklist)
Professional Recommendation/Review #2: If you have ever wondered what your counterparts around the world eat for their daily meals, some answers can be found in this impressive book. It takes a look at what a typical family in a variety of countries buys for a weeks worth of groceries. The families are pictured with the food and the cost is given in local and U.S. dollars. In addition, the foods are categorized: grains; dairy; meat, fish and eggs; fruits and vegetables; condiments; snacks; prepared food; fast food; beverages; and miscellaneous. Readers are presented with a fact box that summarizes information about the country and a presents a section of a world map to show where that country is located. The pages that follow describe life in that part of the world and how the family shops. There are also recipes of some of the traditional foods. A reader might assume that those from wealthier countries who have a variety of foods from around the world might have a healthier diet, but that is not always the case. Major and abrupt changes in diet such as those of aboriginal Australians, Native Americans and the like can bring on diseases like diabetes and issues related to obesity. The book is a treasure trove of facts most of which are presented in graphs and charts. Some that are really intriguing include the number of McDonald s restaurants and a comparison of the overweight and obese populations. You can see a correlation. Other charts relate information about annual meat consumption, life expectancy, access to safe water, literacy rate and fertility rates. There is extensive back matter including books, films, websites and lists of sources plus an extensive index. The author has created an excellent book for reference, report writing and browsing. (CLCD, Marilyn Courtot, Children’s Literature)
Response to Two Professional Reviews: I agree with both reviews that the photos paired with charts full of information give the reader an inside look on what other countries eat compared to themselves. I liked that the second review mentioned the assumptions that are often made about wealthier countries eating better and this book proving that theory wrong. I agree that the amount of work and planning put into this is phenomenal as they shared dinners with 30 families in over 20 countries.
Evaluation of Literary Elements: This book does a phenomenal job of showing pictures and labeling them for the students to understand. These vibrant pictures allow for students to feel a part of the different countries and experience their cuisine. Labels, charts, and recipes allow for students to be introduced to different cultures, experiences, and even languages. Though this book doesn’t follow the normal plotline of a story, it walks the reader through the world through food and cultural traditions.
Consideration of Instructional Application: Since this story focuses on different cultures around the world, this would be a great book to partner with a lesson about diversity. Students will be instructed to bring in a photo of something that makes their home home . These pictures will then be added to a classroom mural to show that different cultures and backgrounds can come together to make something great.

This isn’t the kind of book I read cover to cover. Rather you dip into for visual and factual snapshots of how various folks around the world eat. It is about a decade old now, so somewhat dated, but it still blows your mind to see all the variety culturally.

This book illustrates the food habits of 25 countries through the lens of a typical household and its consumption in a week. As in his past book about possessions - he does this by showing folks posed with those items. Then they look at a range of facts from the cost, specific foods and more. They also include other factors / health indicators. Later on they show different examples of types of foods like “street food” and other interesting snapshots.

This book was a great way to help broaden one’s cultural lens through a universal need - food. It also encourages one to ponder what is means to have “enough” vs “abundance” - which can be hard when immersed in a culture of immediate gratification and excess.

Absolutely fantastic! What an undertaking and what an achievement! I remember seeing some of the pictures blown up along a hallway in a museum and being enthralled with them (all the other groups kept passing us by...). This book includes so much more than just the week's food pictures and the description of eating habits around the word. I can't say enough good things about it.

One of my absolute favorite coffee table books. As an anthropologist, I am fascinated by global differences.

From the Publisher:
The age-old practice of sitting down to a family meal is undergoing unprecedented change as rising world affluence and trade, along with the spread of global food conglomerates, transform eating habits worldwide. HUNGRY PLANET profiles 30 families from around the world--including Bosnia, Chad, Egypt, Greenland, Japan, the United States, and France--and offers detailed descriptions of weekly food purchases; photographs of the families at home, at the market, and in their communities; and a portrait of each family surrounded by a week's worth of groceries. Featuring photo essays on international street food, meat markets, fast food, and cookery, this captivating chronicle offers a riveting look at what the world really eats.

Here is another book from Menzel, about 10 years on from "Material World". Four families from that book are also included here (Natomos in Mali, Ukitas in Japan, Namgays in Bhutan and Costas in Cuba). You can see changes in these families, including new children. The purpose of this book is to show 30 families in 24 countries, circa 2003/4, pictured with a week's worth of food and drink grouped in categories (like meat, dairy, grains, beverages), plus the miscellaneous category which includes cigarettes, supplements plus vitamisns, betel nuts, and pet food (cat, dog, bird). Some food are homegrown or hunted, which is mentioned in the list.

Included are also essays (preparing methods, slow food, street food vs. fast food, disconnection from food-making methods, fishing issues, weight issues) and photos on certain subjects (kitchen, fast food, street food, meat, fish, meals. Digital cameras, cellphones and computer were of good use in gathering information and asking late questions when making this book. Each family shares a recipe or two. At the book's end is the familier statistics table, with a lean towards food information.

As one reads, one notices the level of packaging - some countries' people have hardly any, some have it on everything pretty much. Most of the time the amount makes a mound. Many kinds of food: global, snack, fast, junk, healthy, functional, complimentary, fortified, organic, processed. You can also see clear food preference changes from generation to generation, and not always in good direction. Learned that sugar cane came originally from New Guinea.

There are clear difference even within a country (not just America, but countries like China, Australia, Chad and Japan). The Bhutan family gets electricity finally - but they have to buy lightbulbs in the future :) In Cuba there is still rations on certain foods, but otherwise freer than in the past. In Greenland they hunt for birds, fish, seal and some other animals weekly. Surprising good-sushi instance found in Poland. The Turkey family ate two of the counted breads while waiting to be photographed. And one family in Australia goes through 175 bags of tea in a week - and the information notes "this number is *not* a typo" *LOL*

For some families, seeing the food amount was thought-provoking and motivating. Or the amount of cigarettes in case (where Menzel quickly counted that they spend 2500 Euros on them per year). But it's clear here and globally that when people become better off, the trigger to eat in a way that leads towards obesity and illnesses is easy to push. The tables reflect traditions, poverty or wealth, conflicts in some cases, brands and global connections (you bump into Coca-Cola a lot)... also food avaibilities, prices and certain tastes.

You really end up thinking what the total meaning of these mounds of food mean, and certainly in my case I also started thinking what my family's display would look like. What would be 'bare' and what would be in a package? How healthy things would look like? Certainly seeing all this makes me think. It is a good book with beautiful pictures and many messages. Worth reading.

We use this alongside our geography studies each year, to meet different families from different countries around the world. I did use a sharpie to add clothing to a person or two, so give it a look through before opening up.

This was a very fascinating book. Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio make a good pair in putting their talents together and creating this masterpiece of food marvel. The main point of the book is to track the weekly food intake of families from all over the world, but goes in to much more than that.

The main focus of this book is on the families within it. They range from three people to over a dozen and the amount of food they go through in a week. The variety includes families from Kuwait, Greenland, USA, Italy, and many other countries. Some countries, like the USA and Australia, have multiple families representing them.

For each family there is a large picture of all of them surrounding the groceries they get in a week. To go with this there is usually a caption explaining who's who and sometimes what their favorite meal is. On the adjoining page the groceries are listed by type and weight and notated if they were grown by the family or not. It also lists things not pictured in the photograph. Usually on this page to a story about the family is presented and what their living situation is. The following pages include food preparation, information about the country, a recipe or two, and other pictures of the family and area. Some families have more space than others but there's usually at least four pages of information on each one.

In between these parts on the families are articles and excerpts taken from other writers on social food issues. This can range from overfishing to diabetes and other health concerns. These usually have a couple pages of associated pictures to go along with them as well. I.E. in the article about fish populations there were two pages with pictures of different kinds of seafood and the place the picture came from.

In the back of the book is an afterword, methodology, further reading section, statistics, sources, contributors, and acknowledgements.

Now into the gritty part of the book. Some of these pictures and stories are extremely sad. When you look at the refugees food supply in Chad its alarmingly low. Even though they are not starved, there is not a lot of variety and what they do have is usually grain and water. Compare this to the family in N. Carolina who has mounds of soda, beer, pizza, and other takeout and you reach a new kind of sad (luckily in the caption for this one the family saw the problems as well and vowed to change their eating habits). The stories in this book can be somewhat alarming as well. Having just read about a forced marriage for a 14 year old girl in a polygamous sect here in the USA and how it was horrible for her, it was hard to see a family in which the wife had her first child at 14 or another family with two wives without having preconceived notions. Despite this, I tried to distance myself from these thoughts and focus on the subject of the book; food.

One thing the reader should be warned about that is that the writers have very strong opinions on different things, and don't have any problem expressing them. If you disagree with articles on over-fishing, the horribleness of fast food and like-diets, the destruction of local food, and other such ideas, this may not be a good book to read. I found everything very informative however, and as long as you can keep an open mind and view everything from all angles, there shouldn't be a problem. The writing itself was more factual than emotional and while there were a few emotions included in, these were usually taken straight from the family.

The pictures in this book were great. They were exceptionally taken and helped show all parts of life for these people. Most specifically they were detailed enough to see the food clearly and determine what was what on the table. As a warning, there are some scenes of butchered animals or guinea pigs roasted whole; this could be bad for the more squeamish readers. On another note, everyone in the pictures seemed happy, which to me is the most important thing in the book.

Usually I like to just mention the content of a book rather than such things as print size, book size, etc., but I do think there's some aspects of this book worth mentioning. It is a large heavy book that is a rectangular awkward shape. The result of this, plus the fact that the print was tiny, made it hard to comfortably read. That said, it was a book worth the neck and backache.

Overall seeing the pictures and reading the stories was an eye-opening experience for me. Not only was it interesting, it also gave me a different perspective on how life is in other countries. Having never traveled myself but always having loved food from other countries, I plan on trying a couple of the recipes included in the book to see if I can have a vicarious experience of traveling through the food. This is a book I'd probably keep in my home library and read with my future kids. There's a wealth of knowledge between the covers.

Hungry Planet
Copyright 2005
287 pages

A sobering read for anyone living in a first world country. It must be a terrible thing to be undernourished and go hungry, not just for a few weeks, but for months on end. The image of the meagre amount of food the family from Chad refugee camp had to eat was heartbreaking and made me rethink the amount of money I donate to organisations like Oxfam. I feel so privileged to live where I do. Other outstanding observations: The amount of meat we eat in Australia is incredible (I personally, am not that carnivorous). The massive volume of take-away, and pre-prepared and processed foods that average US citizens eat is mind boggling – hardly any fresh food! (I’m wondering if that report is accurate.) The fact that in Ecuador, they don’t eat/can’t afford meat, but they drink tea made from Stinging Nettle (EEK!).

This is a fantastic reference book to browse through in your leisure time. I must have read through it all at least twice now. Sadly, it’s getting out of date, but the message is still there, plus a whole lot of interesting facts. I thank Amy for bringing it to my attention.

Very interesting, factual, researched book about food, costs of, and cultural backgrounds from families around the world. Beautiful pictures!! We enjoyed this book.