Category Archives: Economics

Hungry Planet: A Comparison of Diets in Chad and the United States

In his photographic essay Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, Peter Menzel provides an intimate look at what families around the world eat. Of the many places featured, two countries stand out in particular: Chad and the United States. In Chad, refugee families subsist on rations of various grains provided by the World Food Program. Families pose by large bags… Read more »

Hungry Planet

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    The modern world is divided economically into the global north and global south, or simply put, developed and developing nations. Due to the economic inequalities between developed and developing countries, there are vast disparities in the daily lives of the citizens of France for example, and those who call Chad home. While families in France visit a local market… Read more »

Hungry Planet

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While reviewing Peter Menzel’s photographic essay “Hungry Planet”, I was struck by the dramatic differences in food culture between developing and affluent countries.  For my paper, I wanted to find two countries that unparalleled each other.  One of the countries I chose for my paper was Chad, a country that is extremely under developed and is facing a food crisis… Read more »

Is Guatemala stuck in poverty?

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Guatemalans’ inability to break out of poverty is a direct relationship to the late 20th century global food and fuel price shocks that targeted the cost of imports that developing countries couldn’t keep up with (Clapp, 64). After the inflation of interest rates and import taxes on fuels in the 1970’s, the IMF and World Bank sought a remedy to… Read more »

Hungry Planet: From Chad to Australia

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The Hungry Planet paper helped me to look closer at different countries and how they eat. It helped to show me how much different eating habits are across cultures, while also showing how similar others are. Families in Australia eat similar foods to the United States, where countries who do little importing eat very basic, raw type foods. It made… Read more »

Bounties

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Arrayed on the table before the Guatemalan Mendoza family was a colorful bounty of fresh food for the week – tomatoes, squash, carrots, green beans, garlic, potatoes, and among other things, two large burlap sacks full of grain. In sharp contrast, the Caven family from California were the beneficiaries of an industrialized food system which processes many of the raw… Read more »

Hungry Planet Paper: Japan and Ecuador

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Peter Menzel’s Hungry Planet depicts the various dietary and health lifestyles choices from various families around the globe. The Western diet, generally consisting of red meats, refined grains, processed foods, high fat and sugar content, as well as large food chains such as McDonalds have become popular making its way to countries like Japan, but not so much in countries… Read more »

Sugar-coated: Your Politically, Economically, Globally Significant Grocery List

When we think of the types of exports that, in this modern 21st century day and age, significantly shape or change the course of a nation(s), food is not at the top of the list. Most attention, especially in common news media, focuses on the big post-industrial power markets of things like oil, gold, coal, copper, diamonds, weapons, electronics and… Read more »

Like a Raisin in the Sun

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Just grapes and sunshine–that’s all that Sunmaid Raisins claim go into their humble boxes of dried fruit. This declaration comes at the end of their advertisement, after insinuating that eating raisins will also make you a celebrity, just like all the fit and healthy Hollywood locals. This is called lifestyle advertising, a more recent trend in marketing. Rather than make… Read more »

Illustrating Systems in Motion

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In contemplating living systems, it’s difficult to imagine that so many “dead” systems form relationships with human bodies that can bring such differences in how lives unfold. Humanity brings to life systems that are otherwise inert. It is easier for me to imagine how living systems theory works in an interactive way between organisms and the environment when I imagine… Read more »