Visualizing the World's Food Consumption

http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/calorie-viz/

by illdave • 15 years ago

40 29 15 years ago

mc322• 15 years ago

If food is relatively cheap in the US (>7% of income) why are we so poor† at making sure everyone is fed to a certain modicum?

†http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/us_hunger_facts.ht...

hugh36• 15 years ago

Mostly a combination of

(a) that article being largely made-up BS to exaggerate the size of a problem that barely exists (i.e. by using ridiculously broad categories for "food insecure" and a measurement methodology which involves cajoling people into agreeing that they are indeed "food-insecure") and

(b) the fact that a few people are terrible at making life decisions and somehow manage to prioritize some variety of stupid crap or another (drugs, alcohol, gambling) over feeding themselves and their families.

Talking about "one seventh of households in the United States being food insecure" is a complete joke, when there's people in those orange countries that really can't get enough to eat.

VladRussian4• 15 years ago

>that article being largely made-up BS to exaggerate the size of a problem that barely exists

it is not a "problem that barely exists" for the children [or the other dependents] of these few from the (b)

mc322• 15 years ago

I understand that there are people who make poor decisions. Nutrition, however, since it's so relatively cheap and one of the most basic needs, I think should have a safety net even for those who, thru their own fault, lack access to such.

I know there are food programmes and soup kitchens --but those suffer from poor funding. I mean, I feel that we should make sure everyone has access to balanced nutrition (not talking gourmet --just good nutrition) regardless of why they might not be able to afford it themselves.

thenextcorner2• 15 years ago

Everyday I'm stunned about the low quality food we get served in the US. Walking through a supermarket, reading labels, all processed food is too high in calories, includes corn syrup and loads of sodium. Ever wondered why a wonder bread can stay good for 2 weeks?

Yikes!

julsonl2• 15 years ago

Either you're being sarcastic, or you have no idea how third-world country food is like (and I grew up on one of those countries). People are tremendously lucky here, and I'm not kidding.

thenextcorner2• 15 years ago

Oh, I was not being sarcastic, but you are completely right with regards to third-world country food. My apologies if my comment sounded insensitive, was not intended to do.

The point I was trying to make, is that why is such a rich country as the US serving such low quality food.

hugh36• 15 years ago

This is a tired complaint. In fact, one of the most tiresome things I find about America is the insistence of Americans upon complaining about how awful things are in America (despite apparently limited experience with how things are in other countries). It's some kind of mark of social status; due to the tendency of lower-middle-class Americans to be irrationally patriotic, upper-middle-class Americans feel the need to be irrationally anti-patriotic as a status marker.

Anyway, the other poster is correct: while you can if you're sufficiently stupid go to an American supermarket and fill your shopping trolley with garbage, you can also get a huge variety of amazing high quality food that would be absolutely astonishing to anyone living in all but a handful of other countries, and mega-astonishing to anyone living in any time period prior to today. Your ancestors hoed fields for ten hours a day to scrape together enough nutrition to not die, and you're turning up your nose at a loaf of bread that can feed you for two days, costs the equivalent of 90 seconds' labour, and will remain edible for three whole weeks? Get some perspective!

PS. Anyone thinking of replying to say that bread is evil and I should be on a paleo diet: can we just assume we've already had this conversation and get on with our days?

marquis• 15 years ago

When I visit the U.S. I love the variety that's available - it's extraordinary. Whole Foods is a carnival to me and Trader Joes.. I don't know how they do it. My U.S. friends complain about how expensive Whole Foods is, but have they shopped at the Albert Heijn in The Netherlands lately, for comparison? (not that I'm knocking Dutch cheese).

brosephius• 15 years ago

is anyone else a bit skeptical at the number of countries averaging over 3,000 calories/day? wouldn't such a person consistently gain a pound or two a month, every month?

nsxwolf• 15 years ago

3,000 is not hard to reach if you eat 3 times a day, especially if it's "healthy home cooking". Paradoxically, if you skip breakfast and eat 2 middle-of-the-road fast food meals a day, it's hard to hit 3,000 calories.

All sounds like such luxury to me though... 1,200 calories a day to just to remain forever 50 pounds overweight... ugh...

hugh36• 15 years ago

It's not hard to reach, but as an average over the entire population?

Is there any explanation of the methodology by which these numbers were derived? I don't think it's possible to accurately measure this kind of thing -- heck, I have enough trouble keeping track of how many calories I, personally, am consuming, so I have no idea how you could average it over the entire population. You could measure food production, but we don't know exactly how much is wasted.

VladRussian4• 15 years ago

the professional sportsmen (or people working very phisically challenging jobs) may consume up to ~10K/day. Doesn't look overweight in my view:

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/08/13/the-michael-phelps-di...

It all depends on where the calories go/spent on.

>wouldn't such a person consistently gain a pound or two a month, every month?

Looking around [Bay Area, smart people filling up gyms on weekdays and trails on weekends] there are a lot of people with 30-50+ pounds of extra weight - it just looks so typical, that it became a new normal (I myself being in relatively good physical shape is 190lb at 6' height - this is about 30lb heavier than when i was 20 years ago a student back in Russia and 40lb lighter than what i became after the first year in the US before i got back in shape.)

luser001• 15 years ago

I was thinking the same thing. They probably divided calories_produced/num_people (calories_produced being derived from agricultural output).

I suspect it's a mix of undercounting people and WASTED food being counted as eaten.

I read an estimate somewhere that 25% of food in the US is wasted (it's not that high in my house, my shamefully it's too high, and I have absolutely no problem believing that number).

VladRussian4• 15 years ago

>I suspect it's a mix of undercounting people and WASTED food being counted as eaten.

no, it is what left after the wasted amount is taken out.

>I read an estimate somewhere that 25% of food in the US is wasted (it's not that high in my house, my shamefully it's too high, and I have absolutely no problem believing that number).

"In 2004, the U.S. food supply provided 3,900 calories per person per day. Accounting for waste, the average American consumed 2,775 calories per day in 2007– an increase of 28% from 1970"

http://css.snre.umich.edu/css_doc/CSS01-06.pdf

pyoung• 15 years ago

For those that do not want to open the sources spreadsheet, Short answer, the do not compensate for food waste. Interestingly, they also do not account for the food your pets eat.

"The food consumption refers to the amount of food available for human consumption as estimated by the FAO Food Balance Sheets. However the actual food consumption may be lower than the quantity shown as food availability depending on the magnitude of wastage and losses of food in the household, e.g. during storage, in preparation and cooking, as plate-waste or quantities fed to domestic animals and pets, thrown or given away."

olegd• 15 years ago

no Russia?

archangel_one• 15 years ago

It only shows the top 20 and bottom 20 countries, and Russia isn't in either of those.

mikecp3• 15 years ago

Indeed. According to the source links from this page, Russia averages 3,320 calories daily. Not sure about the percentage income spent, though.

Visualizing the World's Food Consumption

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