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Cross-cultural Activities

World Meal

Description of a Cross-Cultural Activity

James Neill
Last updated:
20 Mar 2005


World Meal

  • The goal of this activity is to experientially heighten awareness about the overabundance of food in Western society, particularly in comparison with how much the majority of the world eats.
  • Cook a World Meal and share it with a group of people.
  • A World Meal is the average meal for the average person on the planet.  It consists of a limited amount of rice and beans.
  • Herbs and spices are optional; as is anything you can forage from the local natural environment.
  • Encourage the group to, in turn, to cook a World Meal for a different group of people and thereby spread experiential awareness of how much we overconsume in Western society.

  • Continue cooking World Meals for groups of people at least until you've activated a critical mass of awareness for a snowball effect.

  • If you want exact the World Facts for exact calorie proportions, here's some starting figures, plus see figures below:

    • UN recommends 2350 calories per day.

      • Low income countries ~2100 calories per day.

      • Middle income countries ~2700 calories per day.

      • US, UK, Europe, etc. ~3700 calories per day.

 

 

 

 

Equipment
Rice, beans and spices (optional), plus basic cooking equipment, and eating utensils (e.g., bowls and chopsticks).  Make chopsticks from nature for extra touch.

Time
~30-60 mins cooking time. Beans should be presoaked for 12 hours.  Plus eating and cleanup time.

Brief description

A World Meal consists of a limited amount of rice and beans.  This is the average meal for the average person on the planet.  Cook this for a group of others and encourage them in turn to cook a World Meal for others.

 

Links

(Source: Clive Offley, Food - The Facts, New Internationalist, Issue 225, November, 1991)


Histogram of Country Average per person Caloric Intake (1995)

Note: This histogram should be interpreted carefully.  The y-axis represents the number of countries.  If the number of people was graphed, the proportion of cases in the lower calorie range would be greater, because there are more people living in low calorie than high calorie countries.

Table of Average per Person Caloric Intake by Country (1995)

Rank

Country

 Daily calorie intake

1

Ethiopia

 1667

2

Somalia

 1906

3

Bolivia

 1916

4

Burundi

 1932

5

Rwanda

 1971

6

Haiti

 2013

7

Bangladesh

 2021

8

Cent. Afri.R

 2036

9

Zambia

 2077

10

Uganda

 2153

11

Kenya

 2163

12

Cambodia

 2166

13

Peru

 2186

14

Tanzania

 2206

15

Cameroon

 2217

16

India

 2229

17

Vietnam

 2233

18

Guatemala

 2235

19

Honduras

 2247

20

Nicaragua

 2265

21

Burkina Faso

 2288

22

Nigeria

 2312

23

Thailand

 2316

24

El Salvador

 2317

25

Domincan R.

 2359

26

Senegal

 2369

27

Botswana

 2375

28

Philippines

 2375

29

Liberia

 2382

30

Gabon

 2383

31

Ecuador

 2531

32

Panama

 2539

33

Chile

 2581

34

Venezuela

 2582

35

Colombia

 2598

36

Jordan

 2634

37

China

 2639

38

Uruguay

 2653

39

Indonesia

 2750

40

Brazil

 2751

41

Paraguay

 2757

42

Malaysia

 2774

43

Costa Rica

 2808

44

Saudi Arabia

 2874

45

Iraq

 2887

46

Japan

 2956

47

Sweden

 2960

48

Mexico

 3052

49

Argentina

 3113

50

UK

 3149

51

Netherlands

 3151

52

Romania

 3155

53

Iran

 3181

54

Kuwait

 3195

55

Singapore

 3198

56

Australia

 3216

57

Turkey

 3236

58

Finland

 3253

59

Libya

 3324

60

Norway

 3326

61

Egypt

 3336

62

New Zealand

 3362

63

Germany

 3443

64

France

 3465

65

Canada

 3482

66

Austria

 3495

(Source: The data for Table 1 and Figure 1 were derived from the World95.sav dataset supplied as part of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), 2005.)