What's wrong with this picture?

I always knew that there was a dichotomy between developed and developing countries, and have often heard statistics such as "more than 40% of the world's population survives on less than $2 a day". However, I saw these pictures today which really put the numbers in perspective. A photo journalist and a television news producer, Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio took a trip around the world visually documenting what "average" families eat during the week and published the book Hungry Planet in 2007. These two images are from their book. The first is of the Revis family from North Carolina who spent $341.98 on their weekly food. The second is of the Aboubakar family, Sudanese refugees from Darfur living in Chad. They spent $1.23 on their food for the week.


There is such a stark contrast between these images. They demonstrate the inequity and the waste in this world. I would also like to see an image of the weekly wastes of each family. Mentally subtracting the food from the American family's groceries doesn't reduce the pile very much because of the large amount of packaging in processed foods. These photos really make me think that I would be doing the necessary and right thing by going to Africa, and by starting a sustainable farm in the U.S. to encourage people to eat locally and sustainably. These photos have something very wrong with them, and I hope my actions will change both of them.