Gluttony on the High Seas

Ever wondered just how much food gets consumed in one week on a cruise ship?    I got these stats from the Carnival Freedom, a behemoth that holds over 4000 people, and hosted my first cruise experience.   

• 24,500 cans of soda
• 28,150 bottles of beer (on the wall?)
• 4,000 litres of liquor
• 3,502 bottles of wine
• 1000 lbs of coffee
• 900 gallons of milk
• 22,000 eggs
• 3,000 lbs of fresh tomatoes
• 7,000 pizzas
• 4,800 hamburger
• 2,200 hot dogs
• 6,000 lbs of beef
• 6,500 lbs of chicken
• 36,000 slices of bacon
• 4,320 bananas
• 2,500 apples
• 12,900 slices of white bread
• 6,700 lbs of potatoes
• 900 lbs of salmon
• 1000 lbs of lobster tail
• 2,500 steaks
• 20,000 Danish pastries
• 5,400 heads of lettuce
• 1,100 pineapples

...and a partridge in a pear tree.  ​

That's replenished every week, for just one of the many dozens of cruise ships feasting their way around the world.  Here's an article about food supply on a cruise ship.   What to make of all of this, in a world where people go hungry?  
I defer to the Roman poet Horace, who wrote: 
"Clogged with excess, the body drags the mind down with it."  
Then he drank some more wine and fondled some grapes.   ​