Why can't we solve world hunger?

[Someone here]

https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-world-hunger

We have enough resources in this planet to end all world's hunger today. There should be no longer such thing as dying from hunger in the 21st century. We have the potential to create heaven on earth. Where survival is not even an issue anymore for everyone. Except that's the greedy nature of man. Millionaires are wasting their money buying stuff that they don't even need. You find people who have 10 big houses already and they go buy another one! . On the other side of the globe you find a kid literally dying from hunger! What kind of world we live in? Why is this still the case given all the technological and economical advancement we've reached at this point in our history. I know I'm being utopian and cute and this is not how society and government works. Mostly because of capitalism. 

Tbh I have a poor understanding of these issues.. If anyone can clarify this out for me! 

 

[Leo Gura]

If it was so easy, we would have done it a long time ago.

It's a super complex political and systemic issue. It's not simply a matter of food delivery. Many people in poverty have serious mental health issues. How you gonna magically solve that? You give them food, they will sell it to buy crack. You give them food, a local warlord will bully it away from them to sell. Delivering free food to many of the worst countries is impossible because local dictators, mafias, and warlords will not allow it.

[PurpleTree]

this might sound horrible but maybe it would be better if people in poor countries had fewer children.

i get why they want so many children though and contraception is a huge issue in these places.

[Leo Gura]

6 minutes ago, PurpleTree said:

i get why they want so many children

They don't necessarily want the children. They just got nothing to live for but sex and drugs.

Very underdeveloped humans behave like animals. You can't reason with them.

[PurpleTree]

1 minute ago, Leo Gura said:

They don't necessarily want the children. They just got nothing to live for but sex and drugs.

Very underdeveloped humans behave like animals. You can't reason with them.

I think in really poor countries, having many children is also a kind of "old age insurance" and the chances are bigger that one of them "makes it" 

also still high rates of child deaths, diseases like ebola etc.

[Girzo]

We can, but it's a matter of effort.

The thing is food production and waste has to get REDUCED in rich countries. Then use the machines and fertilizers used there to support local food production in poorer countries. Yet, you can't copy exsisting forms of agriculture 1:1, but have to adjust them to the soil and climate in those countries. One of the problems is that, for example in Africa, countries are distributed on different latitudes and every latitiude can differ quite a lot in climate.

[Someone here]

1 hour ago, PurpleTree said:

this might sound horrible but maybe it would be better if people in poor countries had fewer children.

i get why they want so many children though and contraception is a huge issue in these places.

Yeah ironically these poor countries tend to have over-population and over-reproduction proplems. When it should be the opposite of that. 

 

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

If it was so easy, we would have done it a long time ago.

It's a super complex political and systemic issue. It's not simply a matter of food delivery. Many people in poverty have serious mental health issues. How you gonna magically solve that? You give them food, they will sell it to buy crack. You give them food, a local warlord will bully it away from them to sell. Delivering free food to many of the worst countries is impossible because local dictators, mafias, and warlords will not allow it.

So what do you think is the solution for the poor countries if it can't be a help from outside? What do you think is the long-term solution? And do you see us ending world's hunger in the next few centuries? 

Edited November 18, 2020 by Someone here

[snowyowl]

23 minutes ago, Girzo said:

We can, but it's a matter of effort.

The thing is food production and waste has to get REDUCED in rich countries. Then use the machines and fertilizers used there to support local food production in poorer countries. Yet, you can't copy exsisting forms of agriculture 1:1, but have to adjust them to the soil and climate in those countries. One of the problems is that, for example in Africa, countries are distributed on different latitudes and every latitiude can differ quite a lot in climate.

I agree with reducing waste, as well as moving to less processing of food. But not reducing production necessarily, that would just mean more imports which take food away from poorer countries surely? Eg in the UK we only produce about 60% of our own food requirement, we've not been self-sufficient for a long time and create cash crops in poor countries rather than crops for their own consumption. Foreign aid and private charity to help poor countries is all very well, but only as a temporary fix. 

One of the biggest drivers of hunger is war - eg the current conflict in Ethiopia & Tigray creating refugees without the means to grow food. How long have they had fighting and famines in that part of the world. 

Edited November 18, 2020 by snowyowl

[Corpus]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

They don't necessarily want the children. They just got nothing to live for but sex and drugs.

Very underdeveloped humans behave like animals. You can't reason with them.

I'm not sure it is quite so simple. In the 3rd world, where child mortality has historically been (and to some degree, remains) high, having a large number of children with the knowing that a significant proportion are not going to make it through to adulthood with the knock-on consequences to the parents' own well-being, remains a key factor in explaining this issue. If its always been the case that this wastage is to be expected, it can take some time to alter ones thinking to align with the more current situation.

[UnbornTao]

Talking about utopia: money seems to me a central issue. Take a look at the Venus project, for example. 

Think about it: money limits everyone’s potential. Image a scientist wanting to research cancer treatments but being stopped or severely limited by lack of capital. Theft, material greed, etc. is largely motivated by one’s own financial “status.” The poorer you are, the greater the motivation/need to steal. Whether you think doing away with any form of monetary exchange is visionary or utopian, I really think humanity will have to transcend the need for it if it wants to thrive.

Imagine a society not held back by scarcity and bare survival, with all its basic needs met. Now visualize humanity in the year 3000, maybe as an interplanetary species. Going moneyless doesn’t seem too utopian now.

Of course the negative potential would be real and could be devastating, too. However, providing high quality education on a global scale, and with money out of the equation, how much theft would occur, for example? A lot of corruption would disappear.

Still, this would be external and there would have to be a lot of inner work done individually, but it sets the stage for that. 

Call me naive.  

Edited November 18, 2020 by Arzola

[aurum]

@Someone here

Think of Humanity as a single, large organism with its own limiting beliefs and psychology.

We could say that the current limiting belief for Humanity is a belief in scarcity. We believe there is not enough. And as such, Humanity is manifesting systems, institutions and situations that reflect this scarcity.

But the reality is that the scarcity belief is made up. It's not the deepest spiritual truth. And the scarcity of modern society perfectly reflects.

In other words, the scarcity is artificial. It has to be.

That's what you're seeing. When you see people who don't have nearly enough food while others overindulge, that means the scarcity is artificial.

There's no actual shortage of food. It's beliefs and the systems that have been created AS A RESULT of these beliefs.

It's also all self-reinforcing. As our systems are born of a scarcity mindset, they generate situations that confirm our scarcity based beliefs. Which just keeps Humanity stuck in a loop.

The good news is that people are recognizing this. New consciousness is being born, and with it new systems and beliefs will take shape.

[Ibgdrgnxxv]

What do you guys feel watching this? 

 

[PurpleTree]

20 minutes ago, Ibgdrgnxxv said:

What do you guys feel watching this? 

 

i'm not watching the video, the picture is already enough

and it makes me feel/think how can "western" countries sell weapons and do business with a country which wages such an inhumane war on its neighbouring country. all that just for money and geopolitics? they probably just use that conflict as a testing ground for their army and weapons to get some experience. sad. put sanctions on them or f you  

Edited November 19, 2020 by PurpleTree

[Shin]

Stage orange.

That's why.

[mandyjw]

 I think it's a problem of disconnection. The movie Blood Diamond did more to educate people about a major issue than the news did, mostly too late. People only pay attention to what effects their lives day to day or certain fears that might affect them unless there's a strong emotional pull. It's hard to make people care about things that seem so distant from their day to day lives. It's an art. 

The easiest thing to do is to donate monthly to the best organizations that work toward improving these issues. https://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/c.php?g=496970&p=3626027

They have to be improved in areas all around. For example, educate women and there's less overpopulation and hunger becomes a smaller issue over time. Everything works to improve the overall situation together. 

 

 

 

Edited November 19, 2020 by mandyjw

[DocWatts]

4 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

They don't necessarily want the children. They just got nothing to live for but sex and drugs.

Very underdeveloped humans behave like animals. You can't reason with them.

In under-developed countries with no Social Safety Net to speak of, having lots of children in the hope that at least some of them will be able to take care of you when you're old is the closest functional equivalent.

Edited November 19, 2020 by DocWatts

[Ibgdrgnxxv]

To me it felt like a heartless documentary. You could do better. This is taking their image in such a condition, showing every inch of their body, that's not good. (I got sick watching these images in the media). Where is their privacy/respect?

If you genuinely want to help, just help without such exposure. 

 

Who created the scarcity mindset?

From this video alone, I could tell the problem. Selling something that people couldn't afford. This is translating money into wealth. 

Solution : plant their own crops. Farming their own animals. 

I'd say help them with good education. 

No food = creating more foods not money. 

 

[Willie]

The answer to the question is greed. Purely egoic. Solving world hunger is as simple as everyone surrendering their ego.

[Leo Gura]

5 hours ago, Girzo said:

We can, but it's a matter of effort.

The thing is food production and waste has to get REDUCED in rich countries. Then use the machines and fertilizers used there to support local food production in poorer countries. Yet, you can't copy exsisting forms of agriculture 1:1, but have to adjust them to the soil and climate in those countries. One of the problems is that, for example in Africa, countries are distributed on different latitudes and every latitiude can differ quite a lot in climate.

This kind of stuff requires higher forms of world government which even America and Europe is not yet ready for.

The notion that you can just treat the whole world as one giant collection of humans and just distribute resources to whoever needs it << we don't live in such a world, not politically. The world is deeply divided and tribal still. Which creates all sorts of inequalities that cannot be easily equalized from one part to another.

5 hours ago, Someone here said:

So what do you think is the solution for the poor countries if it can't be a help from outside? What do you think is the long-term solution? And do you see us ending world's hunger in the next few centuries? 

Help from outside can work. It just has is limits.

The country has to develop to a higher point on the Spiral, which takes hundreds of years. Any country Orange and below will have crippling poverty. We at least need stage Green. And people love to hate Green these days even in developed countries. Which shows you the depth of our problem.

Poverty is not really a farming or shipping problem, it's a mental development problem. It's a catch-22. You need better access to food to increase mental development. But you need high mental development to create better access to food. So there is a lot of struggle and slippage as the process tries to bootstrap itself.

[Preety_India]

The only solution is. 

 

Go stage Green. 

 

Everything below stage Green leads to massive entropy and destruction in the name of Iron clad weaponized survival. 

I see poverty with my own eyes everyday. Stage Orange mentality will never fix it. 

A Green Revolution all around the world is needed. 

But the Western Civilization is hell bent on calling Green the Mean Green. 

That's a big road block to Tier 2 Development. You can't block Green from your life. It's the pathway to Turquoise and Yellow.