In today’s monetary world, economic troubles are due to a number of political, ecological and cultural factors, where one may seemingly blame one more than the other. The international food system and political hierarchies from leader to pawn are certainly both economically intertwined on a worldwide scale. Coming from a global background, I have been able to see the effects of… Read more »
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 »
Taking a look at Peter Menzel’s online Hungry Planet gallery , a photographic essay on the dietary habits of families all around the world… Making a side-by-side comparison of the food cultures of the two contrasting countries, Germany (an affluent one) & Chad (a developing one), stirs up a plethora of heavy economic, political, and social subject matter and disparities simply… Read more »
When we take a minute to look at these pictures side by side, several differences begin to show. The pictures show an American family and Egyptian family with the food they will consume in a week. The thing that first jumps out to me is the types of food that each family chooses to eat for a week. This… Read more »
While reading about the cause of the Irish and Indian famines this week which killed millions of people, I continually asked myself, “How could they so brazenly end these people’s lives?” How could a few powerful people so apathetically decide the fate for millions of innocent people. As I wondered about this question something struck me and I wondered, is… Read more »
For the love of coffee, I thought I would never compromise my daily habits. I sheltered myself away from the knowledge of clear-cut forests for its sake. Then I tried not to consider the workers who processed the bean for my morning ritual. Ultimately, I found a sustainable and affordable alternative, which assuaged my guilt of privilege. I would not… Read more »
I have a precarious relationship with hunger as a physiological and mental phenomenon. Because of my past experience with and ongoing feelings around hunger, I live my life in such a way to avoid encountering this sensation. Hunger creates tremendous panic in me. It’s the harbinger of certain and impending loss of safety, stability, and control. I developed anorexia in… Read more »
Have you ever experienced hunger? Of course you have. But have you ever experienced the kind of chronic hunger where you can’t physically move because you have no energy? Where you can’t go to school or your job? Where you are so terrified because you know you are a few short days away from death? Malnutrition and hunger affect about… Read more »
When you are hungry how you do feel. (Shoe) Usually tired? Foggy? Often angry? After taking the time to contemplate hunger in our contemplative practice this week I came to see hunger in a more multifaceted way. In addition to the terrible condition of being hungry, people who are going hungry are also adversely effected by the condition that huger… Read more »
Check out Tristram Stuart’s TED talk on the global food waste scandal. I felt that it really accentuated a large bounty of the political ecology of the world food system. It also touched upon Peter Quinn’s work in his article Hunger Games: Who Gets to Eat & Who Decides. Essentially, as Stuart described the modern-day realities of the world… Read more »