Fascinating photos. It would be interesting, to interpret the weekly budgets, to have some kind of indicator of the prices levels of food in each country, and of the equivalent in number of calories per person that these amounts of food represent. I guess it's all in the book? I'm very very tempted to order it now...

Thanks a lot for the link! That's a really interesting subject.

That photo essay was first published in The Walrus (in their December issue).

It's a great photo essay!

That was so interesting, and the amount people spend was interesting too. It seemed wierd to me that some families seemed to have so much more food than others and it didnt necessarily reflect in their sizes. I guess I'm not really accounting for calorie density.

"The pictures include pet food". Ah yes, but the Bainton family of Cllingbourne Ducis (51º16'55.47N 1º39'16.79W) of Great Britain included their pet (right below Dad).
Also interesting to note the differences in meat (eg Britain vs Mongolia) and carbs.

How was this photo essay accomplished? The American family with two large delivery pizzas and an array of fast foods including: fries & fried chicken... I'm presuming they don't have this food simply lying around the house awaiting consumption. I know Americans eat a lot of fast food, but we don't keep it in the pantry.


And what would your picture look like right now if you gathered your food up and posed it for a shot?

And why does that Mexican family have enough Coca-Cola to last out a nuclear winter? At least it's made with sugar and not HFCS in their country.

Also, the German family proudly had their beer placed front and center.

@Rick: *lol* I know. The beer got me, too. I'm german, and I just had to laugh at it. We're quite proud of our laws regarding how beer is to be made, so I guess that's one part of the answer for why it was right there.

I liked the family from Poland with all the food stacked in the fetching entertainment furniture (no clue what you really call those) and that huge blue elephant.

I also thought about how those photos were taken, the italian family with all that bread which looks like it'll go stale after a day or two. And I know for a fact that germans don't usually keep their ham in neat rolls on a plate, takes up way too much room in our (compared to american) tiny fridges.

It's interesting to me how only three world families ate no processed/packaged foods. Every other "representative" family had at least some industrial food included. For some families it's the bulk of their diet.

Hi there. Interesting discussion. If you read the book you'll find the answers to 95% of your questions. Read the methodology as well to find out how we did the coverage and what the particular constraints were that we had to surmount.
Bon Appetit from Madrid,
F. D'Aluisio
Hungry Planet

Fascinating, really! I would assume that Germans are not the only ones consuming alcohol (there are 4 bottles of wine just behind beer) on weekly basis, but, if I remember correctly, in some European countries beer and wine are considered food items and that might be the reason they are shown next to all the other, non-alcoholic beverages. Also, it seems to me that the idea was to show what a typical family consumes in a week - I don't think they asked them to just get the stuff they had in their pantries.

Btw, I've been reading your site for a while and have only compliments for you.