I know it may be a little trite but this has always been something that’s made me slightly cynical as far a humans being an “enlightened” species.
You know, we can afford to spend billions on war yet still we have people across the globe dying of starvation. (blah, blah blah, you’ve heard it before)
-But then I got to thinking. Do we even have the resources to feed everybody on the planet?
Yes, there are sufficient global foodstocks, apparently. However, getting enough food isn’t the problem and hasn’t been for quite a while. The problem is distribution. Some places simply cannot move food fast enough. Moreover, corrupt governments are the cause of most famine these days, using it as a deliberate weapon to starve their opponents. Witness Ethiopia 20 years ago (though I hear they cleaned up their act), North Korea today. North korea has been given plenty of food. But they keep it and feed it to the army to keep it loyal. The villagers and peasants? Ha! Let the proles starve.
I read an article (can’t remember where but it was some global organization like the UN) that described the constant process of modifying rice to grow in more diverse areas to keep up with worldwide food demand.