Saving the World with $100 billion.

[Xist]

Rusty, this discussion is more for me, but the paper will need to be for him...

This is my last semester and I have not earned a single "A" since my previous Bachelor's.

Well, anyway, I should get back to my on-line test...

[redneck]

Xist,


To me this exercise is futile. It's a hypothetical question that requires a hypothetical answer. In other words, BS.


But I'll try.


Take the 100 Billion and buy...



Monsanto Company -



Monsanto - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


A leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed and of the herbicide glyphosate, which it markets under the Roundup brand.[6]


Net income
Increase US$ 1.659 billion (FY 2011)[1]

Total assets

Increase US$ 19.844 billion (FY 2011)[1]



Get rid of GMO seed and terminating seed. Reduce pesticide and herbicide use.

(the bees will thank us)






Cargill -



Cargill - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Some of Cargill's major businesses are trading, purchasing and distributing grain and other agricultural commodities, such as palm oil; trading in energy, steel and transport; the raising of livestock and production of feed; producing food ingredients such as starch and glucose syrup, vegetable oils and fats for application in processed foods and industrial use. Cargill also operates a large financial services arm, which manages financial risks in the commodity markets for the company.





Net income
Increase US$ 2.31 billion (2013)[1]

Total assets
Decrease US$ 62.58 billion (2013)[1]



Take the last 10-20 billion and buy some more companies.



Then take the companies profits and the CEO excessive salaries and use them to help feed the hungry.

These corporations could then sponsor workshops in agricultural to educate the public and put aside land specifically for that purpose. Then take the food grown and give it to soup kitchens and food banks. Or sell the produce and use the money to expand the program.


Be a leader in the world by example. Show the world how helping one another

and not exploiting one another makes us all richer. (Kumbaya)



Throw in the earlier posted catch phrases "save the children" and "it takes a village" in your paper.


And.......


Guaranteed #%©@ing "A"...



Your welcome.


>

[sheepdog 44]

Something about teaching a man to fish? What you want is for the money to fill a longterm need, not disappear in a few years. You also don't want to buy food wholesale when growing it is cheaper. I personally like the idea of Cuba's urban farming initiative. If i owned a home i would tear up the lawn and grow a garden. It's a good financial investment as well. Herbs like basil are expensive in a supermarket, and chicken in a grocery store is actually cheaper than many vegetables.

If you wanted to end world hunger, water is the biggest issue. Fresh water = food. Take a look at how big Africa is. They already have plenty of land and sunlight.


I was completely ignorant of this until a short while ago. The roll down maps you saw on the chalk board in grade school are a complete lie. Alaska for one is a lot smaller than the map suggests.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Xist

Strange how I keep missing posts, especially in my own threads. I did not post my entire assignment, although I included the in-line citation. Here is the full one: DeParle, J. (2009, November 16). Hunger in U.S. at a 14-Year High. New York Times, p. A14.

Doing a Google search for "DeParle, J. 2009 hunger" yielded an archive of the article as the very first result. Here is a direct link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/us/17hunger.html?_r=0

For the record, I like my idea of investing most of the money and using the interest for science fairs.

I think that if that news article accurately reflects whatever study was done (don't immediately see link to source), then there are major problems. For instance:

The 18-item questionnaire asks about skipped meals and hunger pangs...

Now I'd have to answer yes to that: I have hunger pangs pretty much every morning, quite often skip meals when I'm involved in something else, and just generally don't eat unless I AM hungry - which is part of the reason why I'm not overweight. Does that mean I can't get food any time I want?

Nor does it seem to ask how many of those who couldn't afford food at some point couldn't afford it because they spent all their money on booze, cigarettes, drugs, non-necessity consumer goods, etc.

[Xist]

JamesQF, RustyLugNut questioned the validity of that survey, pointing out that it included people that worried about having enough food in the future, which I believe should have been a separate statistic. I tend to skip meals also, my girlfriend does; I imagine that it is fairly common.

Doing another search, I found Hunger Statistics, Hunger Facts & Poverty Facts | Feeding America

In 2012, 49.0 million Americans lived in food insecure households, 33.1 million adults and 15.9 million children.

[Coleman-Jensen, A., Nord, M., & Singh, A.. (2013). Household Food Security in the United States in 2012. USDA ERS.]

I will rely on the USDA, at least for now, but that number, which uses "food insecure" instead of "hungry," even if they weren't, is ten million lower. It also says that the majority receive help from the government.

I asked my mother about this yesterday and explained that I had gone from the idea of ending domestic hunger to spending a small portion on science fairs and the rest on trying to improve living conditions in third-world counties.

She got all emotional about kids going hungry in this country. More trying to end the conversation, I said "Okay, fine. I spend all of my money providing free school lunches, run out, and everybody goes hungry again."

"They will still be hungry on weekends!"

If they are currently alive, they have some minimum quantity of food, and if I provide food on school days, whatever they used to survive for seven days should be adequate for two. We have discussed why people go hungry in the United States. The food is here. That sounds like a very messy problem and if I try to discuss it, I will only have more people harassing me for only caring about the United States.

Redneck, there you are again with useful information! I had been talking about investing most of the money and only spending the interest. Of course, I had not specified where I would invest it, but Monsanto and Cargill are profitable companies, and purchasing them would allow me to benefit people with all of my money, while establishing something long-term.

Sheepdog, Greenland is accurately depicted on the map, right? I believe that I have brought up water supply before, but we have not had any details.

I just found 2013 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics by World Hunger Education Service

Interesting details:

There are two basic types of malnutrition. The first and most important is protein-energy malnutrition (PEM). It is basically a lack of calories and protein.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that nearly 870 million people of the 7.1 billion people in the world, or one in eight, were suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2010-2012. Almost all the hungry people, 852 million, live in developing countries, representing 15 percent of the population of developing counties. There are 16 million people undernourished in developed countries

How many hungry people do we have in the United States?

Countries in Asia and the Pacific are making great progress overcoming hunger and Latin America and the Caribbean are also making progress, although there are more hungry people in Africa than before.

Then they mention that they changed their estimation method. Doesn't that make it impossible to compare data?

Geographically, more than 70 percent of malnourished children live in Asia, 26 percent in Africa and 4 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Wait, are there more malnourished people in Asia than hungry ones?!

The principal problem is that many people in the world do not have sufficient land to grow, or income to purchase, enough food.

Hunger Notes believes that the principal underlying cause of poverty and hunger is the ordinary operation of the economic and political systems in the world. Essentially control over resources and income is based on military, political and economic power that typically ends up in the hands of a minority, who live well, while those at the bottom barely survive, if they do.

Hunger is also a cause of poverty, and thus of hunger. By causing poor health, low levels of energy, and even mental impairment, hunger can lead to even greater poverty by reducing people's ability to work and learn, thus leading to even greater hunger.

Climate change is increasingly viewed as a current and future cause of hunger and poverty.

Many of these issues seem too big to fix, so let's focus on the ones that we can. I still like the Monsanto and Cargill idea, although it almost sounds the hungry need more protein than anything else. From an article that I read last week for class:

[…]the shift from foraging to farming occasioned a new way of living, new kinds of settlement patterns, and new foods, all having a profound impact on human health and lifestyle. In general, the shift resulted in the consumption of a less varied diet and reduced meat consumption and access to key micro-nutrients, such as iron (Larsen, 2003).

That is, increased carbohydrate consumption (domesticated plants) results in increased tooth decay and associated oral problems (reviewed in Larsen et al., 1991; Larsen, 1997).

Evidence also indicates that the shift from foraging to farming resulted in a change in nutritional quality for many settings. Maize is deficient in amino acids lysine, isoleucine, and tryptophan. Moreover, iron absorption is low in maize consumers, and vitamin B3 (niacin) is chemically bound in maize, reducing its bioavailability (Ashworth et al., 1973). Millet and wheat contain little iron, and rice is deficient in protein, which inhibits vitamin A activity (Wolf, 1980). Moreover, the focus on domesticated plants would have resulted in a reduced availability of essential micronutrients found in meat but not plants, such as iron, zinc, vitamin A, and vitamin B12 (various papers in Demment and Allen, 2003).

[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...0618206000334]

Yes, well, according to vegetarian\vegan propaganda, meat takes way more resources than plants. Heifer.org looks interesting (Thanks, P-Hack).

How about this?

Micro-lending Shows Promise for Clean Water
Digging is Easy

So, purchase Monsanto, Cargill, and other profitable agriculture-related companies and then donate half of the annual profits to The Heifer Project and the other half to Water.org?

[Frank Lee]

There is only so much that can be done to increase food production, but people left to themselves always produce more kids than the previous generation, so at some point population outstrips food supply.

Not too sure about each generation out-reproducing it's last. Years ago it was far more common to have a dozen spawn than now- here, Mexico, and in many places.

I do think it isn't a totally "free" market though. There are many, many subsidies- income tax deductions, not having parents pay for schools, myriad govt programs for kids not paid for by parents, etc.- for breeders that encourage them to breed more. With no human shortage, I'd think the subsidies are, in fact, counterproductive.

I'd use a good chunk of that 100B to provide sterilizations.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Xist

Wait, are there more malnourished people in Asia than hungry ones?!

Hunger and malnutrition are not the same thing. One of the great ironies of modern life is that on the stereotypical American diet, it's quite possible to be both obese and malnourished.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Hunger and malnutrition are not the same thing. One of the great ironies of modern life is that on the stereotypical American diet, it's quite possible to be both obese and malnourished.

I imagine that giving everyone grain without meat would do the same thing--or vegetables.

[freebeard]

Well, Five pages late[r]...

• Malthus: Falsified
  
• The underlying problems? Money is not speech and corporations are not people. It shouldn't take money to fix that. Follow Lawrence Lessig.
  
• Energy: R.B.Fuller explained that an electrical grid intertie across the Bering Strait would allow the global shifting of solar input. In the 70s. Everyone has forgotten that, as well as World Game. In fact people keep reinventing that—and it is an ideal model for your 'science fair' idea.

So... saving the world without USD$1beelion: Put governance on the blockchain.

As Einstein pointed out, you can't solve problems with the level of thinking that created them. Ergo; all of humanities intellectation needs to be elevated simulatenously, that no-one be left behind. Bucky Fuller's Design Science revolution, that brings even the super-rich into a world they otherwise couldn't enter.

I'd always wondered how to crack that nut. It turns out you tie it to money. Specifically cryptocurrency. Making the bankers unemployed before the burger-flippers sucks 'em in, but then they get unassailable attestation and stock markets and voting systems as an unexpected bonus.

[Xist]

Well, I guess that as long as it is far more socially acceptable to bring people into this world than take them out, we will have population problems, and as I understand, people enjoy the process of reproducing.

Well, I guess that I am okay with people preferring that to the other one.