Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

by Peter Menzel

Other authorsMarion Nestle (Foreword)

Paperback, 2007

Call number

641.3 M

Collection

Nonfiction

Publication

Material World (2007), Edition: 1, 288 pages

Description

"A photographic collection exploring what the world eats featuring portraits of twenty-five families from twenty-one countries surrounded by a week's worth of food"--Provided by publisher.

Subjects

Diet Pictorial works

Food Pictorial works

Food habits Pictorial works

User reviews

LibraryThing member readasaurus

Quite possibly my favorite book. Menzel captures the eating habits of statistically average families from countries around the world by taking photos of what the families eat for one week. He puts ALL the food on a table in front of the family, which makes for stunning photography.

Menzel shows us

the world's people and the world's problems by showing us the world's food. We see the starving refugees in Chad, surviving of UN ground mush. We see the American diet filled with pizza and soda. We see two families from China and the differences between urban and suburban life, reflecting globalization.

This book could be used across the curriculum--in Math, children can compare statistics of diabetes or calorie consumption. In Social Studies, children can learn about the lifestyles of different countries. Hungry Planet can be used to discuss current events or to learn about making inferences in English class. This would be an ideal book for a Health or Nutrition class.

When used in a sixth grade classroom, my students felt great appreciation for what they had to eat and became activists in the fight to end global hunger. This is an amazing teaching tool that can be used for middle school-college classrooms.

Show Less

19 more

LibraryThing member annarama

A great picture book! Lots of factoids and statistics about food consumption around the world.

LibraryThing member datwood

Menzel has traveled the world, picking a family to represent a country. He then photographed the family at their home with a week's supply of food. Accompanying essays show how even in the most remote areas, homonization in food-stuff is taking place. Candy, American fast food, and non-essentials

are showing up all over. It is a sobering reflection of the wealth of food available in parts of the world.

Show Less

LibraryThing member SelimaCat

This book is full of beautiful, intricate photographs of families from across the world in their kitchens with a week's worth of food spread around them. Each family is accompanied by a narrative essay, photos of their markets and grocery stores, a detailed list of every item in the photo with

accompanying costs, and facts about their country. Totally fascinating, but slow going as there is much to look at and think about. I guarantee you'll be depressed at all the great bread the rest of the world (even by much poorer families) is eating compared to the limp, squooshy stuff on your countertop. A *great* read.

Show Less

LibraryThing member cinesnail88

I had heard about this photo-essay book a little while ago and was interested enough that I decided to buy it. It basically covers a lot of families in countries all over the world and what they eat in a week, how much it costs, etc.

If you live in a first-world country, this book can be incredibly

eye-opening. Seeing the sheer amount of soda, fast food, and prepackaged foods an average family in Great Britain, France, the US, Germany, or Australia consumes certainly made me consider a lot about diet. Also, the sad fact that the family whose food costs the least per week (about $1.50 a week) in Darfur is completely separated (in all ways - food choice, food amount, modes of preparation) from the family whose food costs the most per week (about $500) in Germany.

I'm probably not explaining it well, but this book not only has beautiful photos of every family with the food they eat in a week, but also contains illuminating essays and commentary, making it a truly wonderful book that I was more than willing to read cover to cover. Highly recommended.

Show Less

LibraryThing member abbylibrarian

The author interviewed families from around the globe to find out what they eat, what kinds of food they buy, and how much they spend on groceries weekly. The result is an interesting comparison between such diverse countries as Australia and Bhutan, China and the United States, Ecuador and Poland.

Color photos bring the families and foods to life and Menzel aims to put our consumption into perspective. Great for browsing.

Show Less

LibraryThing member librariankristin

The highlights of this fascinating book is photographs of families representing twenty-one different nations surrounded by a week's worth of food. The cost of the food and many other statistics about life-expectancy, etc. are also included. Professionally tested recipes from some of the countries

are also included.

Show Less

LibraryThing member iBeth

eye opening, with gorgeous photos and interesting commentary.

LibraryThing member Fraucopter

This is the kid's version of Hungry Planet: What the World Eats. It has the same photos and similar text to the adult version, so if you've read Hungry Planet you don't need to pick this one up. If you're shopping for an adult reader or an older teen, pick Hungry Planet up instead of this one. They

are very, very similar.

The layout is the same as Hungry Planet: A photo of a family with a week's worth of groceries, a text list of their grocery bill, and a passage discussing the role of food in their lives. Sprinkled throughout the book are recipes from the featured families.The highlight of this book for me were all the beautiful photos. It's certainly pretty enough to be a "coffee table book."

All in all, this book is food writing, cookery, travel writing, and a sociological study all rolled into one. Half a star off for some typological errors. A visually appealing book, wonderful for a child curious about the world and its people.

Show Less

LibraryThing member AnnieHidalgo

This book is so interesting. Its basic premise is that the author traveled to many, many countries, stayed with a family he felt to be typical of the culture, ate with them and watched them shop, then photographed absolutely every ingredient they would use for an entire week, with a complete

catalogue of these foods on the page facing. It's a fascinating look into other cultures - how similar they can be, and how different, from your own. There's another neat one, also by Peter Menzel, called Material World, where he did a similar thing, a photographic catalogue of a family's life. But the photography in this one is better. In MW, the pictures are taken from so far away that it is slightly difficult to see detail, and that detail, for me, was what made this one so interesting, like being able to momentarily step into another country and browse someone else's life. Like traveling, without the expense of airfare - you really feel like you know a place when you know what they eat.

Show Less

LibraryThing member Stbalbach

Thirty families in twenty-four countries spread a weeks worth of food on a table and pose for a picture, followed by a few pages about the family and their shopping and eating habits, sort of like a National Geographic article with one article (chapter) per family. It includes very specific

shopping lists of every food item, family recipes and pictures of the family in their daily lives, usually involved with cooking or shopping. The authors of the book are Californian organic eaters so they are sensitive to the health aspects, in particular noting fast food purchases and per-country obesity rates.

Show Less

LibraryThing member JackieHancox

A fascinating and thought provoking book that would make an excellent resource for researching and discussing global differences in health and food resources. The contrasts between the countries is astounding, particularly when looking at the photographs of a weeks' worth of food and its cost. The

list of books and websites for further reading at the end is particularly good. This is a must have resource for all school libraries!

Show Less

LibraryThing member Buella2140

So much potentail for so many grades to show cultures and diversity across the grades. Valuable and current book that would cover many topics not just social studies but health (looking at what we eat in North America vs. families in Asia or some European countries) to environmental science when we

look at how things are packaged.

Show Less

LibraryThing member VHLWYATT

An informative book displaying photos and text, celebrating cultural diversity around the world.

LibraryThing member allaboutliteracy

Contains pictures from around world of families and what they eat in a week. Great comparison to student's own lives and includes facts about different countries. Great for any culture/country study.

LibraryThing member LASC

Hungry Planet presents a photographic study of families from across the globe revealing what people eat during the course of the week.

LibraryThing member elizabethhart

What the World Eats is a read-aloud informational book that follows more than twenty families from around the world and their weekly eating habits. A compilation of photographs, grocery lists, health statistics and societal and cultural characteristics make this text informative and engaging. The

author compares and contrasts families from different cultures to accurately depict how differently people from around the world buy, cook, consume and ration their food. I found this book to be a wonderful non-fiction resource for cultural awareness.

Show Less

LibraryThing member annabelle5585

This informational text provides a wealth of information along with photographs about various countries and their eating habits. Students can see the shocking similarities and vast differences between the cultures of the world.

For instance, students might be quite surprised by how recognizable the

McDonald's symbol is across the globe. In fact, you learn from this book that it can be found in many nations, even the Philippines.

Whereas in Beijing, China, you have easy access to street foods like sea horse and cicadas. I think students will be very interested to learn about foods across the world because eating is a universal event. They will get to learn about eating traditions that may stun and intrigue, but are completely common place for another culture. I enjoyed the real photographs of people and their families, as well as the pictures taken in the various countries.

Show Less

LibraryThing member keatkin

This is a fascinating study of eating habits and diets all over the world.

LibraryThing member auntieknickers

Although I didn't get to finish this book, I gave it four stars for concept. The parts I was able to read and the pictures I looked at were informative and fascinating. The physical format of the book was a problem for me. It is so large and heavy that I would have had to sit at a desk or table to

read it; and the glossy paper made necessary by the color photo reproduction made it hard to read. Also, some of the most interesting information was in rather small print in a shaded box, thus even harder to read. I can't even visualize how one would read this on an e-reader; a website seems like the best option. I would recommend it if you have good eyes and strong arms.

Show Less

Fewer