Monday, August 27, 2007

The Hungry Planet: Peter Menzel photography



The Brown family of Riverview, Australia with a weeks worth of food.

The Ayme family in their kitchen house in Tingo, Ecuador, a village in the central Andes, with one weeks worth of food.

His web site, and book called 'The Hungry Planet', is filled with comparisons of what the world eats. It is a very fascinating, and at times shocking, look at the quality and quantity of food eaten from around the world.

1 comment:

Greybishop said...

I was watching "Penn and Teller's Bullshit" last night. One of the episodes is about the environmental movement against genetically modified food.

Regardless of a person's stance on the benefits/evils of GM crops, Penn and Teller point out one really harsh truth: Without GM crops, the organic production of food on the planet would currently be able to feed about 2/3 of us, and that's only IF we were able to maximize crop yield organically. That leaves 2 BILLION people out in the cold.

They have a great segment on Norman Borlaug who is a Nobel Laureate and simply an amazing man. When he won his Nobel, the committee cited his work as having saved the lives of a BILLION people. Almost no one (myself included) has ever heard of him. A BILLION PEOPLE. Through biotechnology. Screw the Nobel Prize, give this guy THE KEY TO THE PLANET!

It's also interesting to note that the people protesting are all well fed and in no danger of losing a child to starvation any time soon.

It may not be a popular position, but personally, given the choice between so called "franken-food" and children dying, well, pass the monster-mashed potatoes.