“A few years ago, I asked family, friends, neighbors, and anyone else I could convince to save their trash for a week and then lie down and be photographed in it. I figured, it’s hard to ignore the problem of garbage when you’re lying in it! I included recyclables in these portraits because they illustrate a fundamental change in our relationship to food. We’ve grown dependent on the industries of eating and cooking and the result has been a massive increase in waste. I wondered, how are diets impacted by this revolution in the way food is produced and consumed? What if we keep a journal of everything we eat and drink for one week to bring our focus onto diet and health and take ownership of the foods we eat? Beginning with kids made sense because eating habits start young. If you don’t get it right when you’re 9 or 10, it’s going to be a lot harder when you’re older.

In 2016, I began making my way around the world, photographing children surrounded by the foods they eat in one week. I’ve found that we’re at a tipping point. The balance of what most kids eat is dramatically tipping away from homemade stews and vegetables towards ultra-processed packaged foods and snacks, many of them designed to appeal to children. Still, I’ve been encouraged to find regions and communities where home cooked meals remain the bedrock of family and culture and where love and pride are sensed in the aromas of stews and curries. The more we prepare our own meals from whole foods, the less trash we generate which is not only pleasing to the eye but easy on the environment. There’s an old adage, “The hand that stirs the pot rules the world.” When the hand stirring the pot is more concerned with profit than in our well-being or the well-being of the planet, it’s time we insist on healthier options and whenever possible, stir our own pots.”

–   Gregg Segal