For many Americans, Thanksgiving means football, TV parades, and food. Lots of food. On this most gluttonous day of the year, it’s interesting to consider what the rest of the world has on its plate. In their new book Hungry Planet, photographers Peter Menzel and Faith D’Alusio of Peter Menzel Photography offer some perspective. These photos, selected from the book, show families from five different parts of the globe, each with a week’s worth of food. Bon Appetit.

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In Shingkhey, a remote hillside village of a dozen homes, Nalim and Namgays family assembles in the prayer room of their three-story rammed-earth house with one weeks worth of food for their extended family of thirteen. Cooking method: clay stove fueled by wood fire. Food preservation: natural drying. Family members (left to right, standing): Sangay Kandu (39, husband of Sangay), Sangay, 35, holding Tandin Wangchuk (7 months), Sangay Zam (12, daughter of Sangay Kandu and Sangay), Chato Namgay (14, monk, son of Sangay Kandu and Sangay), Chato Geltshin (12, son of Sangay Kandu and Sangay), (left to right, seated): Zekom (9, daughter of Nalim and Namgay), Bangam (also called Kinley, 21, daughter of Nalim and Namgay), Drup Chu (56, brother of Nalim), Choeden (16, daughter of Sangay Kandu and Sangay), Nalim (53, family matriarch and wife of Namgay), Namgay (57, family patriarch and husband of Nalim), Geltshin (9, son of Sangay Kandu and Sangay). The Namgay family is one of the thirty families featured in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats (p. 36). Food Expenditure for one week: $5.03 USD. (Please refer to Hungry Planet book p. 37 for the family's detailed food list.)

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Posted on Nov 21, 2006 at 2:00 PM
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