Oxfam Photo Essay Shows What Seven Families Across the Globe Eat in a Week

Posted By Tafline Laylin On February 2, 2013 @ 10:00 am In carousel showcase,gallery,Sustainable Food | No Comments

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There's a lot of talk about the combined problems of food waste ^[6], obesity and, paradoxically, unprecedented hunger ^[7], but nobody has been able to put food politics into perspective as succinctly as Oxfam America ^[8]. With an aim to raise awareness of issues of poverty and injustice throughout the globe, Oxfam staff snapped up photos of seven different families from as far afield as Azerbaijan and Zimbabwe and the food that each family will consume in one week. Browse through our gallery of Oxfam's images and compare your weekly food consumption with each of these families.

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^[9]Photo: Tom Pietrasik/Oxfam

The images include families from seven different countries, including Azerbaijan, Sri Lanka, Armenia, the United Kingdom, Tajikistan and Zimbabwe ^[10]. Some of the families own their own land and others don’t, and they each have a different number of dependents. Naturally each family has access to different crops depending on their location, but as Oxfam puts it, the series is strung together by one central fact: we all have to eat.

^[11]Photo: Abbie Trayler-Smith/Oxfam

Perhaps most shocking is the image from the United Kingdom. The only photo in the series to depict a family from the developed western world highlights the prevalence of processed foods. While all of the other families eat food in its original state—harvested straight from the ground or tree depending on what it is—the family from London sits in front of a pile of processed food ^[12] provided by a local food bank.

+ Oxfam International ^[13]

Article printed from Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building: http://inhabitat.com

URL to article: http://inhabitat.com/oxfam-posts-seven-photos-of-what-seven-families-eat-in-a-week/

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[3] Email: mailto:?subject=http://inhabitat.com/oxfam-posts-seven-photos-of-what-seven-families-eat-in-a-week/

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[5]  : http://inhabitat.com/oxfam-posts-seven-photos-of-what-seven-families-eat-in-a-week/ian-kerr-with-his-family-and-a-weeka%c2%80%c2%99s-food-supplied-by-a-charity-foodbank/?extend=1

[6] food waste: http://inhabitat.com/tag/food-waste/

[7] unprecedented hunger: http://inhabitat.com/tag/obesity/

[8] Oxfam America: http://www.oxfamamerica.org

[9] Image: http://inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/02/Ethiopian-Family-Oxfam-Foodfor1week.jpg

[10] and Zimbabwe: http://inhabitat.com/building-modelled-on-termites-eastgate-centre-in-zimbabwe/

[11] Image: http://inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/01/oxfam-food-uk.jpg

[12] processed food: http://inhabitat.com/tag/tesco/

[13] + Oxfam International: http://firstperson.oxfamamerica.org/2013/01/23/7-photos-that-reveal-what-families-eat-in-one-week/

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