I think a lot about food in general and food in regards to budgeting. I am very concerned about what I put into my body (for health and weight reasons) and what I provide for my husband to put into his (just for health reasons). I'm also concerned about the cost of said food. One reason is to ensure that our budget works, but also from an ethical point of view. Just because we
have the money to spend on expensive/fancy food doesn't mean it is right to do so-we also try HARD not to be wasteful. As silly as it sounds, I really do struggle with this in my mind. I can't really shake the image of what people in Ghana eat, compared to my at times, wanton consumerism for what I
'deserve, work hard for and need'. I do need food. However, I don't need to stock up on expensive, unhealthy trash, because I simply feel like it.
I stumbled across the following on
Holli's Ramblings, it made me think about these things even more and I had to share.
This excerpt is from a book called
Hungry Planet - in which a sampling of families from around the world open their homes up and show us exactly what they consume in a given week. Each family is photographed with their entire weekly food/drinks spread in their kitchen, and the amount spent is recorded to the penny.
I was blown away by some of the findings. Notice the amount of soda and alcohol in the high dollar families. I wonder what my weekly shopping would look like...
Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide
Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07
United States: The Revis family of North Carolina
Food expenditure for one week $341.98
Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily
Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11
Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca
Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09
Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna
Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27
Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo
Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53
Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo
Food expenditure for one week: $31.55
Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village
Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03
Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp
Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23
Wow. As Holli states....So many things are striking - the sheer cost of living in Germany, the massive prevalence of process and take-away foods in America, the absence of all processed foods in Egypt and Bhutan and the glaring poverty of the family in Chad with just over $1 a week to feed a family of six.
United States: The Revis family of North Carolina
Food expenditure for one week $341.98
Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily
Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11
Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca
Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09
Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo
Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53
Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo
Food expenditure for one week: $31.55
Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp
Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23
Wow. As Holli states....So many things are striking - the sheer cost of living in Germany, the massive prevalence of process and take-away foods in America, the absence of all processed foods in Egypt and Bhutan and the glaring poverty of the family in Chad with just over $1 a week to feed a family of six.
2 comments:
Love it! Just came from grocery shopping, two stores, bags and bags, about $250, family of 3+ a Big Lunch, for two weeks. I think we do pretty well. Not much processed, lots of real food, no alcohol but paper goods. What a great glimpse into what the rest of the world eats.
You say that, “Just because we have the money to spend on expensive/fancy food doesn't mean it is right to do so”. While I can see why you would say that, cost of living plays a role in how much money one has in one location vs another and also the prices. Buying cheaper foods in the States means buying heavily subsidized, GMO products, so you have to go out of your way to buy organic foods, while in Ghana, whether your food is organic has varying factors. It is much easier to get, but knowing whether it is organic is another story. When you buy GMO in the States, you are feeding into a system of poor working conditions and low wages for farmers. While buying organic does not guarantee the opposite, when you are able to find fair trade products, the cost increases, even more so if also organic (and often if something is fair trade, it is also organic).
Spending money willy-nilly on everything you don’t need for very cheap, but spending most of what you have is definitely something we do not have a right to do, as this means we are impinging on the human rights of others. BUT, spending more money on fair-trade, organic products (food, yes, but also other products) that we need and nothing more both saves our money and also ensures we are taking the first step in ensuring our spending habits do not impinge on the human rights of others.
http://obibinibruni.org/
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