Food on a Global Scale

We Americans complain bitterly about the rising cost of food. Most Americans don't realize just how good we really have it in the land of plenty. In countries where people make much less money, they spend a much higher percentage of their incomes on food.

Wealthier industrialized nations spend a small percentage of their weekly budgets on food. According to the Economic Research Service, we spend only 5.7 percent of our total household budgets on food. In the U.K. and Denmark, people spend about 10 percent, compared with 40 to 50 percent for people in less developed nations. Azerbaijan tops the chart at 50.4 percent.

In their delicious book, "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats," photographer Peter Menzel and writer Faith D'Aluisio document the weekly food budgets of 24 international families in full-color photos. A family of eight in Guatemala spends about $75.70 in groceries each week. The average yearly income is about $4,000, making groceries the greatest expense for most families. Most families grow a good portion of what they eat and barter with the excess.

Meanwhile, back in the states, a family of five can spend a whopping $242.48 per week on groceries out of an average income of $35,000 per person. Though the cost sounds much greater, if you include income and other expenses, Americans eat the cheapest food in the world — and lots of it.

We humans need about 2,000 calories per day to be healthy. We've moved from an average of 2,358 kilocalories available per person each day in 1965 to 2,803 kcals in 1999 to a projected 2,940 in 2015, according to the World Health Organization. But not everyone has equal access to the all-you-can-eat buffet. In developing countries, only 2,681 kcals per person were available each day in 1999, while industrialized countries had 3,380 kcals per person available each day.

D'Aluisio writes: "Here we have the great irony of modern nutrition: at a time when hundreds of millions of people do not have enough to eat, hundreds of millions more are eating too much and are overweight or obese. Today ... more people are overweight than underweight."

In the U.S., 72 percent of men and 70 percent of women are overweight. Cheaper food does not translate into healthier food. In fact, our current agricultural policy is to subsidize corn to the point that it is ridiculously cheap and ubiquitous in our food system — so cheap that we even burn it as fuel for our automobiles, a crime against humanity when you consider all the starving people who could be fed.

Corn is one of the cheapest food additives and the most highly subsidized crop in the world. This mountain of cheap corn is used primarily in processed foods. Corn and corn syrup products as sweeteners can be found in almost every product on supermarket shelves, and they are primary ingredients in most fast foods. That makes processed foods much cheaper than whole, natural and nutritious foods. Plus they don't spoil as quickly as fresh produce and taste better to humans, who are already evolutionarily inclined toward sweet and fatty flavors.

Looking back at our Guatemalan family cited above, their weekly diet consisted mainly of potatoes, rice and beans, and vegetables from their garden. Meat was added to a meal less than once a week. The American family ate mostly processed foods — such as canned soups, frozen meals, packaged cookies, cakes and crackers — and lots of meat. Another major difference is cooking. The Guatemalans eat every meal at home, and one person spends most of her time cooking, preparing and purchasing ingredients for meals. Americans eat 1 in 3 meals at home.

How can we curb our national eating disorder?

—Eat local! When we eat what is grown in our own regions, we eat healthier foods at the peak of their freshness. This is better for our health and the environment, and it also boosts local economies.

—Grow your own food! Victory gardens helped our grandparents survive the wars and Great Depression. Save money at the grocery by skipping the imported produce and processed food.

—Eat lower on the food chain! Meat is a threat to our health and environment. Treat it as a condiment, and purchase locally raised meats from farms you trust. Go to http://www.EatWild.com and http://www.LocalHarvest.org for more information.

Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning columnist and founder of the Wallkill River School in Orange County, N.Y. You can contact her at Shawn@ShawnDellJoyce.com.