this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024
270 points (92.2% liked)
Showerthoughts
30476 readers
841 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted, clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts: 1
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- If you feel strongly that you want politics back, please volunteer as a mod.
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I read a paper a few years ago that basically said that food insecurity is not a problem with production, but is instead a problem with distribution. The USA throws away enough food to feed another good sized country. I don't know the exact nature of the distribution problem and whether it's a problem of resources or something else, like s political problem.
Sure it makes sense. You got some dairy making way too much milk, how are you going to get it around the world? The fuel spent is worth a lot more than you would get for selling it. Plus it has to be kept cold. That's why all the cheap food we eat is made pretty close by and if you are getting something imported chances are it costs more. And that doesn't even get into what if the place is unstable which would add more costs.
The shit thing is the very people who need food the most are the ones who can't afford it.
So yeah the food is there but getting it where it needs to be is the tricky part.
The biggest issue involves the logistics on the ground, and in places with extremely high food insecurity, there tends to be little to no legitimate government, and so getting anything done involves dealing with local gangs and warlords. It doesn't matter how much money you have if every shipment you send will just be stolen at gunpoint and sold to fund the local thug's next golden toilet. This is not a problem that can really be solved by throwing money at it.
... You could fund your own local gang to take over and do your bidding.
CIA tried doing that, it didn't go too well. Probably just a skill issue I'm sure
That's proven to be both unpopular and often having unintended side effects.
You've never heard of mercenaries?
The distribution problem in 100% of famines is that some government somewhere cracks down on the free transfer of food. They either physically stop food from moving, or they provide huge financial incentives for moving food outside the famine area.
Many grocery stores give expired food to charity. You will often see a Walmart truck making deliveries to the Homeless shelter
This is a great thing. I didnt know that Walmart was doing it, I have only heard of local grocers in Europe doing this.
I know right? We may not be able to get them off the streets but we can at least keep them fed.