{"id":27469,"date":"2021-11-09T03:51:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T03:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=27469"},"modified":"2021-11-10T10:46:12","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T10:46:12","slug":"should-elon-musk-try-to-solve-the-problem-of-world-hunger-with-6-billion-5-questions-answered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/should-elon-musk-try-to-solve-the-problem-of-world-hunger-with-6-billion-5-questions-answered\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Elon Musk try to solve the problem of world hunger with $6 billion? 5 questions answered"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jessica Eise<\/a>, The University of Texas at San Antonio<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elon Musk<\/a> hinted on Oct. 31, 2021, perhaps jokingly, that he might be willing to donate US$6 billion of his fortune to pay for hunger relief. But there was a catch: The United Nations would have to prove that it can solve world hunger \u201cright now.\u201d His comments responded to a challenge U.N. World Food Program director David Beasley<\/a> lobbed at Jeff Bezos and Musk \u2014 to \u201cstep up now, on a one-time basis\u201d to help solve world hunger. \u201c$6 billion to help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don\u2019t reach them. It\u2019s not complicated,\u201d Beasley said in an October 2021 CNN interview<\/a>, a year after he called on billionaires to pitch in with $5 billion<\/a>. Here, social scientist Jessica Eise<\/a>, who edited a book titled \u201cHow to Feed the World<\/a>,\u201d offers some context for this skirmish.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. What fascinates you about this exchange?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Musk, the world\u2019s richest person<\/a> as of late 2021, is a revolutionary entrepreneur. The United Nations is the world\u2019s largest international organization<\/a>, and its World Food Program won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020<\/a>. Naturally, there\u2019s going to be some tension, because they have completely different ways of thinking and doing things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk\u2019s ethos is all about innovation and individualism, while the U.N. is grounded in diplomacy and pluralism. Musk is accountable to his shareholders. The U.N. must heed and respect its 193 member states<\/a>. That obligation can bog down its many agencies with bureaucracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tussle between Musk and Beasley, a former South Carolina governor Trump selected for the U.N. job<\/a>, represents a clash of these two worlds. Their public conversation may seem trivial, but it also highlights humanity\u2019s most urgent and challenging task \u2013 defeating global hunger. Nearly 10% of everyone on Earth was undernourished<\/a> as of 2020, a sharp increase of 118 million people from 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my view, the world needs a blend of what both Musk and the U.N. have to offer to help everyone on Earth get enough to eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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