World Hunger

[Mister Mister]

A girl I work with invited me to an event put on by this organization.  Looking at the website, it is really heartbreaking to read the numbers and see the pictures, but I suspect it is not entirely accurate.  Especially when it says "Yet in today’s world, poverty and hunger are not inevitable. They persist, not because we lack the technologies or expertise, but because we lack the collective will, the imagination, and the compassionate intent to bring poverty to an end.", I question if this is true, because of all the billions of dollars poured towards Africa the last century.  Does anyone have better info/explanation on this subject?

[Will Torbald]

The only tried and true way out of poverty is capitalism and industrialization. They propose teaching poor people in the jungles how to farm. I'm not seeing how that's going to fix anything in the long run. The only reason countries have enough food for anyone is because they either import it or have modern technology. I think it's irresponsible to have children at all in countries where you know there is no food. Instead of teaching people how to make rice in a swamp, teach some birth control.

[dsayers]

There are tons of private sector efforts towards ending famine and poverty. Let's look at all the unnatural things that interfere with their efforts.

 

First of all, the biggest of them all: State power. From arming oppressors, to paying first world farmers to destroy yields, to creating artificial hoops for people to jump through just to leave a country, for even a short period of time. As Stef frequently points out, that which some call "foreign aide" only serves to exacerbate the problem. Or how about the ways the State intervenes, artificially culling competition, leading to things like medicine being prohibitively expensive.

 

Next up, we have the "fashionable elite." People who talk about the worker as an oppressed class and demonize "sweat shop" labor. Working in a so-called sweat shop is where any developed nation begins. By railing against such things, people are using ostracism to try and prevent these people from earning capital to improve their local economies. Then you have things I refer to as "anti-progress." Such as anti-GMOs. "Let us, who have too much food, condemn technology that helps to feed people who don't have enough food." It's disgusting.

 

I have the occasional "sucking at the State teet" gripe with them, but the youtube channel The Good Stuff does better than most at staying impartial. They recently did a pretty good series about food technology moving forward. It was an interesting watch. Especially the episode on indoor farming. Norman Borlaug would be proud! Link to playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsRLUurFnvvWvSYB7hJ-WNdiyZ-aWJpy7

[Crallask]

They've also had their economies crushed via foreign aid.

 

You know, the curse of good intentions and all that.

[Mister Mister]

They've also had their economies crushed via foreign aid.

 

You know, the curse of good intentions and all that.

Right, well the event in question doesn't say anything specific  about solutions.  Just feels like an appeal to "compassion", and shame for having more.  But I am recently aware of the phenomenon of pathological altruism, so I am skeptical even of private charities.

[Crallask]

Right, well the event in question doesn't say anything specific  about solutions.  Just feels like an appeal to "compassion", and shame for having more.  But I am recently aware of the phenomenon of pathological altruism, so I am skeptical even of private charities.

I have an unproved hunch that being too sympathetic actually just humiliates the other side. "Ooohh, we need to help these poor people by dumping stuff onto them!"

 

Isn't that condescending in the way of basically saying "You can't figure these things out on your own."

 

But solving hunger? Well, I think we're headed there as the links below will indicate.

 

http://www.sciencealert.com/this-giant-floating-farm-could-produce-almost-10-tonnes-of-food-each-year

http://www.sciencealert.com/floating-vertical-farm-systems-offer-food-solutions-to-the-densist-countries-on-earth

http://www.sciencealert.com/world-s-first-underground-urban-farm-opens-for-business-in-london?utm_source=Article&utm_medium=Website&utm_campaign=InArticleReadMore

http://www.sciencealert.com/this-indoor-farm-is-100-times-more-productive-than-an-outdoor-one?utm_source=Article&utm_medium=Website&utm_campaign=InArticleReadMore

 

Happy Reading!