They eat what?!

Consider this a drive-by post: I'm not sure where it's going, but it happened really fast, and I may have hit something. Or not, and I've swerved into a ditch. In either case, I often get curious about what the rest of the world is doing, and some of the data on the per-capita consumption of various foodstuffs is fascinating...


Consider this a drive-by post: I’m not sure where it’s going, but it happened really fast, and I may have hit something. Or not, and I’ve swerved into a ditch. In either case, although – or, perhaps, because – I spend so much of my time thinking about, preparing, and consuming local foodstuffs, I often get curious about what the rest of the world is doing, and some of the data on who-eats-what is fascinating:
Highest Per Capita Consumption of
Wine… Vatican City
Meat… Denmark
Chocolate… Germany
Sugar… Brazil
Eggs… Mexico
Cigarettes… Greece
Energy (total BTU)… Gibraltar
Food (total calories)… United States
Clearly, some of these data points are a bit misleading (e.g., due to the tiny population of Gibraltar, or the role of cane-based ethanol in Brazilian automotive fuels), and others are probably profound (e.g., total caloric consumption in the US), so take it all with a gain of salt (for which, despite several forays, I couldn’t find any good data on per-capital consumption…).