How Much Food Will a Dollar Buy?

You may remember that teacher and IHE M.Ed. graduate, Christopher Greenslate, and his partner, teacher Kerri Leonard, wrote a book that stemmed from their experiment living on a dollar a day (the amount more than a billion people in the world have to find a way to live on). With food prices continuing to rise, food insecurity is increasingly of concern for more people around the world, and discussions about food, the impact of our food choices, and issues of food policy always make great topics for students to explore.

Recently I came across a post from our friends at the Center for Ecoliteracy(CEL) highlighting a project of photographer Jonathan Blaustein, which focuses on The Value of a Dollar. Blaustein, who lives in northern New Mexico, photographed examples available in his area of a dollar's worth of food, from potted meat, to organic blueberries to a cheeseburger from a fast food restaurant, to rice. Blaustein's project raised a number of questions for him, such as:

• How much food will a dollar buy?
• How much of it is healthy?
• How much of it should even be considered food?
• How can a cheeseburger and a double cheeseburger cost the same?
• Why is processed food so much cheaper than fresh food?
• Why are organic blueberries from Chile cheaper than organic blueberries from the U.S.?

As CEL blogger, Karen Brown, mentions, "These questions open into larger issues that influence the availability and quality of food, including government subsidies, global trade, 'cheap' energy, and workers’ rights." There are also the larger issues of the impact of these food choices (and of food policy and systems) on animals and the environment.

Additionally, students could delve into issues surrounding the types of foods Blaustein chose to (and not to) photograph. He mentions in a New York Times article that part of his criteria was to show "how interconnected global commerce can be," which probably reflects why items like escargot and fenugreek seeds are two of his choices. However, there are other types of foods, such as oatmeal, dried beans, and certain types of fruit that would allow much larger servings for a dollar than say, the organic blueberries, or the pork floss. So, for example, how might the foods he photographed influence the lens through which we view the way we think about food?

We at IHE have often said that the exploration of our complicated food systems and policies could serve as a Ph.D. dissertation. There's so much to investigate that encompasses so many subjects. Balustein's images are a useful resource to add to the mix.

~ Marsha

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