Hungry planet: global food systems and sustainability

Hungry Planet

The video displays the different people from different backgrounds and the food that they will consume within the one week ahead. It indicates the size of the family and the typical foods tat is to be c consumed to the minimum of the quantity. The video gives the baser minimum quantity that the families would consume without undue or unnecessary foods added to the pictures (You Tube, 2007).

The video of the photos is a classic example of cultural relativism within the global communities. It gives the different staple foods that different communities depend on. These foods are seen to be different across the globe. It also shows the varying sizes of a typical family across the globe and it cannot be said that one type or size o family is the ideal size but each society depicted has its own right to take and apply the size of family as is deemed right by the community and their culture.

Looking at the video critically, it is not certain to place a finger on the right quantity per person as depicted in the video since in each photograph, there are a different number of people who are to consume the food before them, it is utterly impossible to apportion the individual consumption and the general allocation of the sums in terms of dollars is misleading since one or two people could be consuming more than the rest. It is also worth noting that the eating cultures of these groups must be differing significantly according to the prevailing season hence using a level yardstick to determine the quantity of food consumed could be misleading. During the bountiful harvest times, the farming families in Africa must be consuming larger quantities than during the dry spells hence the video could be misleading. The value of the dollar in these communities also significantly differ since what one dollar can buy in U.S. would be far less than what the same one dollar can buy in a remote village in Asia or Africa. This means that placing a standard dollar calibration to give the value of the foods consumed could be misleading and not as accurate as mat be thought to be.