2% of Elon Musk's wealth could solve world hunger, says director of UN food scarcity organization

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Abu Dhabi, UAE (CNN Business) A small group of ultra-wealthy individuals could help solve world hunger with just a fraction of their net worth, says the director of the United Nations' World Food Programme.

Billionaires need to "step up now, on a one-time basis", said David Beasley in an interview on CNN's Connect the World with Becky Anderson that aired Tuesday -- citing specifically the world's two richest men, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk

"$6 billion to help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don't reach them. It's not complicated," he added.

A "perfect storm" of several crises, such as climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic , mean many nations are "knocking on famine's door," Beasley said.

Half of the population of Afghanistan -- 22.8 million people -- face an acute hunger crisis, according to a WFP report released Monday. Rampant unemployment and a liquidity crisis means the country is teetering on the edge of a humanitarian crisis and 3.2 million children under the age of five are at risk, the report concluded.

David Beasley, director of the United Nations' World Food Program

series of new reports from the Biden administration issued a stark warning last week: The effects of climate change will be wide-reaching and will pose problems for every government.

Among the reports, the administration details how climate change is driving migration, the first time the US government is officially recognizing the link between climate change and migration. The WFP has warned about this swell of movement in the past, particularly in the "Dry Corridor" region in Central America.

"For example, take the United States and the region in Central America, the Dry Corridor, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua -- just down in that area alone," said Beasley Tuesday. "We're feeding a lot of people down there and the climate is just changing with hurricanes and flash flooding; it's just devastating."

Humanitarian organizations like the WFP have struggled to get supplies to those in need in the region, compounding the crisis.

"I don't know where they're getting the food from," said Beasley in the wide-ranging interview. "We're out of fuel. We're out of cash, in terms of paying our people and we are running out of money and we can't get our trucks in."

furyofsaints on October 28th, 2021 at 07:45 UTC »

World hunger is not a fiscal problem. It is a political and people problem.

CasualObserverNine on October 28th, 2021 at 07:31 UTC »

Could anyone explain how this arbitrary, finite amount of $ could solve the non-finite problem of hunger?

Is the claim that it “solves” hunger for a day? A week?

JohannReddit on October 28th, 2021 at 07:18 UTC »

https://www.globalgiving.org/learn/how-much-would-it-cost-to-end-world-hunger/

Estimates of how much money it would take to end world hunger range from $7 billion to $265 billion per year.

The website notes that it's a crazy estimate range because there are so many factors that affect / cause hunger and not all of them are the same in each country or region. And "experts" don't agree on what would solve the issue in each.

But I think it's safe to say that the characterization that you could throw $6B at this problem one time and fix it is ridiculous.