#762 Over-packaged, Underfed

A friend of mine, let’s call her Judy, recently sent me an email with a group of pictures. The pictures were of various families from across the world and were ranked by the amount of money they spent on food in a week.
In each picture were the smiling members of the family. Arrayed around and in front of them were the actual food items they would consume in a week’s time. The top amount spent for food was for a German family of four that consumed over $500 worth. The bottom was a family of five from Chad that spent $1.23.
Of course, the quantity difference was appalling, but I noticed something else; there was a huge real difference in the variety of the food and in the quantity of manufactured and complex food.
We are a society that reaps the benefit of food complexity daily. Or perhaps benefit is not the right word. Like a fast food, sometimes that complexity overwhelms. Still I’d be willing to bet the family from Chad would appreciate a hot sauce packet or two.
If only to marvel that the wealth generated by western technology was squandered to design and package a quantity of food that amounts to no more than a tablespoon.
For it was in the packaging that the pictures of the various families differed most. The German family had cartons of frozen pizzas, cans of beer, bottles of water, boxes of breakfast cereal, cups of yogurt, tins of sardines, tubs of margarine, and numerous shrink-wrapped bunches of fresh vegetables and fruit.
Did you notice how many non-repeated words I just used for packaging? shrink-wrapped, cans, bottles, boxes, cartons, tins, and tubs. Hmmm.
By contrast, the Chad family had bulk stuff—in burlap bags. Dried rice, beans and lentils. Smaller cloth bags of nuts and what appeared to be dehydrated peppery vestiges of the capsicum family.
And, oh yeah, three small gourds.
Nothing like finishing off a meager plate of rice with a special dessert—half a gourd.
Anyone got a hot sauce packet?
America, ya gotta love it.