Guest Blogger: Hungry Planet

This blog post was written and created by Ann DePriest - a peer in the Community and Behavioral Health Department. 

It’s pretty common to see pictures of food scattered throughout social media. How many of us haven’t posted a picture of a meal we’ve eaten at a restaurant or made ourselves? Photographer Peter Menzel took this practice to a new level through his project “Hungry Planet,” a documentation of food consumption around the world. Menzel traveled across the globe, photographing what an average family purchases for groceries in a given week and how much they are spending on those foods.  

Flip through the slideshow here: http://world.time.com/2013/09/20/hungry-planet-what-the-world-eats/

It’s interesting to scroll through the images and see the differences in what people purchase. You see much more fresh food in countries like Egypt, Mexico, Turkey, and Guatemala. Mali, Bhutan, Ecuador, and Chad have diets that are much more grain based. The more industrialized nations, such as the United States, Germany, Great Britain, and France, feature more boxed or canned foods and premade meals. The costs vary as well. They range from $1.23/week in Chad all the way up to $731.71/week in Norway.

Food availability can depend on location, means, and what we consider to be “healthy.” This availability, through the concept of food security, has frequently been cited as a priority global health issue, especially in developing countries and as a way of creating sustainable development. The World Health Organization defines food security as “including both access to food that meets people’s dietary needs as well as their food preferences.” Food security is about much more than just having access to nutritious foods. It also takes into account if these foods are available consistently and if a person has sufficient knowledge to use them.

Although many developing countries are often identified as being food insecure, every nationality and culture has its own views on food. In our class on Designing and Implementing Interventions, we have talked a lot about the concepts of cultural humility and cultural competency. As public health practitioners, it is important to set aside our personal values and beliefs and have the cultural competency to understand these views when working with different populations about nutrition, especially when it comes to food availability.

Along with culture, it’s also interesting to think about how environment can influence the things we eat. In Community and Behavioral Health, we talk a lot about the environment as a determinant to health and well-being. Menzel’s project will be exhibited at The Nobel Peace Center as a way of raising awareness to this effect, especially in terms of how our environment and our culture can influence food costs and the nutritional value of meals around the world.