Hungry Planet

Some 275 miles north of the Arctic Circle, a family enjoys Greenlandic Seal Stew, prepared with the fresh seal they hunted the evening before. In Beijing, girls choose deep-fried scorpions and starfish as snacks from a stand, while in Chad, Sudanese refugees survive on rations that cost the equivalent of $1.23 per week. In telling these families' stories, the writer and photographer behind "Hungry Planet" visited 30 families in 24 countries, finding that though tastes and cultures diverge, one fact remains: Humans' relationship with food is a fascinating and delicate one.

The authors befriended families everywhere from Manila to Tingo and photographed them with a typical week's food. More than a photographic whirlwind, each portrait's accompanying, complementary stories help the Ahmed family's stack of vegetables, the Casales' rows of Coca-Cola and the Celik family's crusty loaves of bread to become meaningful and telling.

Peppered by culinary meditations and sprinkled with favorite recipes, "Hungry Planet" is not only a veritable snapshot of what the world eats, but, in its telling, becomes a study on what food itself represents throughout the world: sustenance, tradition, wellness.

The included statistics point out a stark reality: In the country where 37 percent of women are classified obese, a North Carolinian family spends $72 a week on fast food, while a 15-person household in Mali — a country in which 21 percent of the population is malnourished — spends a mere $26 total per week; Okinawa, Japan, where a naturally low-fat diet is traditionally preferred, is home to more centenarians than anywhere else on the globe. Still, the work manages to reveal certain truths about these families and their societies without employing politics; instead, their snapshots, statistics, stories and recipes speak for themselves.

Anyone fascinated by eating, preparing and sharing food will find in "Hungry Planet" a revealing masterpiece, an artful explosion of color and humanity.

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