Book Review: Hungry Planet

"Peter and I were (respectively) photographing and talking with a tall skinny man and his two sons, all three of whom showed the marks of hard living. Like many in the village, the man was blind in one eye from vitamin deficiencies; the children had skin diseases and looked seriously undernourished. As we were talking, the older boy pulled a dry brick of instant ramen noodles out of its wrapper and munched it down. His naked, pot-bellied little brother tipped the ramen's flavoring packet into his own mouth and worked the powder around with his tongue until it dissolved. I was mesmerized. I saw this scene play out again and again during our time in Sawa, a place with next to no connection to the rest of the world--children eating an uncooked convenience food intended to simplify the busy lives of people very far away.

I asked a Catholic priest, a longtime resident missionary, about the noodles. He said that logging money had begun to trickle into the villages of these hunters and gatherers. Accompanying the cash came the first merchant to Sawa, a Sulawesian who sold dried food and snacks. Now there's nothing intrinsically wrong with the occasional quick snack of ramen noodles in processed broth, but you don't have to be a food activist to wonder if it is a good idea for the Asmattans, already stuggling to find basic nourishment, to dose themselves with jolts of sugar, salt, and artificial flavors." -Faith D'Aluisio, Hungry Planet

I loved this book for many many reasons. The book highlights forty families from all over the globe and what they eat in one week. It is amazing how telling food can be, not only socio-economically, but culturally and politically as well. For example, the Aboubakars from Darfur province, Sudan are refugees in Breidjing Camp, Chad. What they eat in the refugee camp is obviously affected by the modern history of Darfur. You learn about how they were forced from their home by the Jinjawiid, the workings of refugee camps, UN food distributions, and the effects of the refugee camps on the native people of Chad. While for some families, the book focuses on globalization and the loss of a country's traditional foods in favor for the easy, multi-national food chains and brands, for other families, the authors are searching for the "fountain of youth" in traditional foods that have caused certain groups of people in China and Japan to live longer lives with almost no incidence of heart disease and diabetes. Yes, this is a book about food, but it is so much more. It really makes you appreciate all of the different factors that go into play in getting food on your family's table each day, and take a second look at what you're feeding them as well.

This book review was written by Tiffany Keck. If you are interested in borrowing the book, she is willing to lend out her copy

If you are interested in writing a book review for this website in the future, contact Michelle Brown or Tiffany Keck