alphaQuad wrote:
> Solving world hunger is not such a
> difficult accomplishment.

I wish it were an easy problem. There are two major logistical problems
in solving world hunger, without even dealing with things on the local
level like tribal warlords who decide they need 100 times more food than
everyone else.

Problem 1: Where can food be grown?
Problem 2: How do you move that food to the people who need it?

Either people need to be able to grow, locally, everything they need for
a balanced healthy diet, or there needs to be a cheap effective
transportation infrastructure so the food can be delivered to those
people. Transportation is not going to get much more efficient. Problems
with oil prices may seem bad at the gas pump but it will be worse at the
grocery store*. There are only so many ways that food can be
transported, and some of it will spoil during that time in shipping.

The other option is growing more food closer to the people who need it.
On solution would be to put all the people of the world in one area. I
remember an article from the 60's or 70's, a demographer suggested that
there was enough space in Texas for every family in the world to have a
4 bed room house. This puts the transportation of food into a different
light, as now the food just has to be shipped to a central location and
distributed to everyone.
The problem is: How does the food get grown? People are required, and
the people are all in that one area. So some of them would either need
to live out side of that central distribution zone or would need to
themselves be transported to where the food is grown and then
transported home at night. The first solution devolves back to where we
are now, with some people spread out and lots of people clustered near
urban centers. The second solution requires a massive step up in
transportation.

It would be nice if hunger could be ended by something relatively
simple, like designing a peanut that will grow anywhere. Unfortunately,
that alone would just increase the supply of peanuts and would do little
for people who are too malnourished to farm peanuts and trade them for
the other food supplies needed for a healthy diet. Besides that, even if
they could farm that one plant, the price would decrease because of the
increased supply, netting them very little in trade-able goods.

*USA bias showing here.

Post a reply to this message