And speaking of Chef on a Shoestring, Time magazine has a fabulous photo essay on what a typical family spends on food for a week, called appropriately enough, What the World Eats.
The photos are beautiful, and come from a book project called The Hungry Planet.
The lowest amount, and the saddest photo, come from an African family in a refugee camp. They manage to survive on just $1.23 per person, and from the amount of food in front of them - just barely.
The most expensive family is not from the US. It's a family from a place called Bargteheide, a little town in Germany. They spend $500 a week.
Interestingly, most of the European or first world countries averaged around $200 a week, while less developed countries were between $35 and $60 a week, with not a whole lot of variation.
The happiest family seems to be this happy group from Ecuador:
Did you notice the difference in fresh produce? Virtually all of the countries except the US and England had quite a lot. But the American and English spreads were practically all packaged foods -- I think I saw one piece of broccoli on the English one and that was it! Really interesting.
Did you notice the difference in fresh produce? Virtually all of the countries except the US and England had quite a lot. But the American and English spreads were practically all packaged foods -- I think I saw one piece of broccoli on the English one and that was it! Really interesting.