Map: World Food Statistics
Part of the Food for 9 Billion project
This map of World Food Statistics compiled by the Center For Investigative Reporting, the U.S.’s oldest non-profit investigative news organization, is the most fascinating set of visually-presented data I’ve seen in recent memory. You can compile this information yourself as the sources are all publicly available, but this javascript map does the work for you in a simple way, allowing you to compare countries with a mouse hover rather than scrolling through tables of data. Roll over any country for a snapshot of its food situation. Compare countries by using the drop-down menu.
As you can see by the screencap of Canada’s stats, it includes other data such as water resources (ours is HUGE) and CO2 emissions. We are among the top 10 emitters of greenhouse gases per capita.
Another interesting statistic to compare is percent of income spent on food. The USA spends a relatively small percentage of income on food (6.4%, less than any other country on this map), yet three-quarters of Americans are overweight, one-third are obese, and 8% have diabetes. There is obviously something very wrong with not making food a priority, especially because it affects health directly.
I love statistics, but even if the mere idea of stats puts you to sleep, the information provided in this map may surprise you. Check it out.
