Showing posts with label Dollar a day video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dollar a day video. Show all posts

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Going to the Market with a Dollar in Kenya

When talking about global poverty, it is common to encounter a statistic about how X many people live on less than a dollar a day. The "dollar a day" metric for the international poverty line originated in the World Bank's 1990 World Development Report. In this report, the researchers found that the poverty lines in a few of the developing countries that they examined clustered around a dollar in purchasing power parity. The poverty line was meant to mark the minimum amount needed a person to feed, clothe, and provide shelter for her/himself. Today, the new international poverty line is at $1.25 a day.

Even though this definition of the poverty line has flaws (measuring absolute poverty rather than relative poverty) and these videos have some flaws (no haggling at the market?), I think this series provides an interesting look at food markets in many countries around the world.




For more about the poverty line, I recommend this article from The Economist, On the poverty line.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Going to the Market with a Dollar in Guatemala

For the next several days, I'm going to feature some videos from the World Food Program where one of their employees goes to a market and sees what the equivalent of one U.S. dollar will buy. Although the videos don't seem to show any haggling, I think they are a good illustration of food markets, differing regional cuisines, and difficulties faced the poor in affording nutritionally balanced food.

Today's video is of a market in Guatemala.



According to the FAO, the top 10 crops produced in Guatemala (by quantity) in 2008 were sugar cane, bananas, maize (corn), potatoes, other melons (inc. cantaloupes, but not watermelon), tomatoes, cow milk, coffee, pineapples, and plantains.


Source: FAOSTAT