What the World Eats is a photo essay from the book Hungry Planet. It’s really fascinating, and in some ways distressing, to see people displaying what their family eats in a week.

The first thing I noted was how disgustingly little fresh produce and meat families in the “first world” countries eat, and just how much they spend to eat such a poor diet. The next thing I noted was that in the photos from families with fresh produce and meats, they were prominently displayed at the front with whatever small amount of packaged food far to the rear, almost as an afterthought … and the families with tons of pre-processed, packaged foods seemed to tuck whatever small amount of fresh produce and meat in the rear or otherwise mostly out of sight.

My understanding is the families themselves arranged the foodstuffs for the photos, so this might be a bit revealing of what they deem as being more valued. Of you ask people to arrange things on a table tp be photographed, they tend to put those things they most like or most value near the front in prominent positions … to “show them off” to the camera or person looking at them. It’s something I first noticed in myself when taking collective photos of my crafts or artwork, and then began noticing in others as well. This photo essay seems to perpetuate this idea, almost to an extreme.

Most disgusting collection of crappy food? The Revis family of North Carolina. There were a few close runners-up.

Table of food I find most enticing? The Manzo family of Sicily. Also a few close runners-up here too.

Most dismal weekly food supply? The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp in Chad. Just … wow.

After finding this photo essay last night, I discovered it had been posted to Metafilter, and some people can’t believe that this family or this family could possibly feed that many mouths with so little food. Well, yes you can. Not everyone on the planet eats an entire side of beef and a pound of veggies at every meal. The modern view of the size of an appropriate “serving” has gotten larger and larger over the years. A “serving” isn’t what most people in developed countries think it is.

I’d really love to get the book this photo essay was pulled from. It would be fascinating to page through and maybe even a little inspiring, uplifting and possibly depressing. Usually don’t spend quite that much money on what I would call a coffee table book though, so maybe someday I will find it at a used book store.

Peter Menzel’s previous book also sounds interesting: Material World. In that one, people brought all the things in their living room outside to be photographed. That would be fascinating as well.