End Food Insecurity Everywhere
I applaud the work that you and Bryan Tyler Cohen perform.
I offer a different project for you. It seems that all we do is play defense, keep even worse disasters from occurring. I propose getting the public´s attention with low expenditure projects that will be beneficial to everyone on earth.
In the US, one person in 6 is food insecure. In other countries, the situation is worse.
In the US and many countries, one-third the harvested food hits a dumpster and never reaches anyone’s home or restaurant. There has to be a better way to do things that will require imagination. Since we have had Apollo 11, the Internet and the James Webb Telescope, I am confident that humans can feed everybody.
For all those who like the idea, I recommend looking up Matthew Desmond’s presentations on YouTube and reading his book. Poverty by America. Mr. Desmond documents what is wrong with the current system to help the poor. Congress allocates much funding but the states have wide discretion on how they spend the money or if they spend the money at all. Tennessee has $10,000 for every poor kid in the state but they refuse to spend the money. Much money goes to the non-poor.
I ask individuals and organizations to contact state and federal officials to:
1) Write legislation that requires state governments to spend funds allocated to the poor to actually spend money on the poor and not something else.
2) Devise imaginative plans that encourage supermarkets to send food to food banks rather than a dumpster.
3) I have seen YouTube presentations showing how many people in many countries are using labor intensive innovations for land reclamation and water harvesting. Subsidize these projects in the poor countries.
Where will money come from make a large scale effort? Reductions in the Pentagon budget are long overdue. The Soviet Union closed its doors on December 26, 1991 but you would not know it by looking at the US military budget which is equal to the next 10 countries in line.
The US military has 750 overseas bases and 5,500 nuclear warheads. I ask the Pentagon to identify the savings from closing 650 overseas bases and decommissioning 4,500 nuclear warheads. Ask them for an analysis showing our defense posture after these measures are implemented.
What I propose here is a second Marshall Plan to end poverty everywhere. This will enhance our national security and everybody´s else´s. I make my proposals for humanitarian and religious motives. Even Ebenezer Scrooge would like to see fewer people crossing the Chihuahua Desert and the Mediterranean to look for menial work. Happy people chose happy politicians to guide their societies.
Animal cruelty, wife beating, child abuse and violence occur in every society. As someone who has lived in Medellin, Colombia since 2008, I observe there is more senseless violence in underdeveloped countries. Ending poverty everywhere will enhance chances for world peace.
In a deeply divided society, ending food insecurity is something that people in the entire political spectrum would welcome. This is our new national and world goal.
Reducing food insecurity world-wide will benefit everybody.