Hungry Planet

Hungry Planet photographer Peter Menzel photographs families from around the world with a week's worth of groceries (link to photos in German magazine article) (link to NPR interview with Menzel and D'Alusio). Published by Ten Speed Press in Sept 2005.

Photographed in the same style as the Material World project (where families were photographed with all of their possesions in front of their home), the diets are sometimes astonishing, sometimes inspiring (I must eat more veggies!), and sometimes embarrassing (try Bhutan vs. Brooklyn). How much food do we need? And what are we eating?

Here's a blurb from their site (note foreword and essays by some of my favorite authors):
To assemble this remarkable comparison, Menzel and D'Aluisio traveled to twenty-four countries and visited thirty families from Bhutan and Bosnia to Mexico and Mongolia. Accompanied by an insightful foreword by Marion Nestle, and provocative essays from Alfred W. Crosby, Francine R. Kaufman, Corby Kummer, Charles C. Mann, Michael Pollan, and Carl Safina, the result of this journey is a 30-course documentary feast: captivating, infuriating, and altogether fascinating.