The Challenge, How much does “World Hunger” cost to “Solve”?
Last week( November 1, 2021 ), Elon Musk offered to sell Tesla stock, and cut a check for $6B if they can prove they will “Solve” “World Hunger” for $6B, and I have a hunch this will NEVER HAPPEN. Not because Elon isn’t good for his word, but because I think Elon is calling the UNs bluff on being able to solve world hunger for $6B.
As an engineer, and an investor, I have a hunch what Elon is thinking here. He’s thinking 100% from a logic and literal perspective. And the UN is speaking more from an emotional standpoint. In further interviews the head of the UN Hunger Taskforce explained the $6B gap, as a “crisis” gap which is already stepping further away from the primary statement. These orgs like to make a current crisis seem solvable and tractable, and to have larger wins than they will create to move politics in favor of their cause.
I’m sure Elon looked at a tweet, and thought $6B to solve world hunger, I’ve got that, I’d love to solve world hunger (permanently). However, he also knew that was too good to be true. So I think he tweeted in jest to call the UN on their sales pitch bluff.
Even if the UN does show their work, I’d expect their work to be some sort of math like this. We spend X dollars, feed P people, and have a cost per meal per day, and we need to feed Y people, M meals per day, and at a cost of X’ per meal. However, the problem with this calculus is that shipping, production, and political conflicts start growing the cost per meal non linearly as you try to push past natural boundaries.
What we really need is for someone to actually do a cost analysis and have a plan in place to SOLVE WORLD HUNGER. We need to know the cost of energy, desalination, pumping, irrigation, farming, automation, transportation, etc… the total cost, not on an annual basis, but on a capital basis to make world hunger and fundraising to never to be an issue again. If we can automate the production of food, even better. If we can farm it indoors to reduce variables, even better. If we can green deserts, and put people to work, even better.
The most advanced Desalination Plant in the US, was built in Carlsbad, CA and produces 50 Million Gallons of water a day, and cost $1B alone to fund and build, and that doesn’t even cover it’s annual costs to operate. Worldwide how many desalination plants would we need to build?
Then how many power plants would we need to build to help those people? To power the desalination plants, to pump the water to farms, to power the farm equipment? To transport the food locally, regionally, and globally?
