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Do they need to? If they make enough money they can just buy the food they need - and more stuff besides.
by hackeraccount 7y ago
Do they need to? If they make enough money they can just buy the food they need - and more stuff besides.
- reustle 7y agoBut that food has to come from somewhere, and the scale at which we do farming currently is already taking its toll on the environment.
- malandrew 7y agoIf the scale at which we do farming is taking its toll on the environment at our level of productivity and knowledge, I can only imagine that less productive and less knowledgeable countries will have a much larger negative impact on the environment. The countries they would buy food from are probably in a much better position to mitigate the harmful effects of industrialized farming. The question is whether this can be done at a price point that is affordable for Africa.
- Merrill 7y agoNet food exporters are typically countries with a lot of arable land or with relatively low populations. This includes the US, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Ukraine, and a few others. However, they have a lot of existing customers in Europe and Asia who appear to have better prospects for generating foreign exchange to buy food than does Africa. Africa generates foreign exchange mainly by selling raw materials, such as metals, petroleum, etc. Labor, per se, appears to have declining value as population increases and as AI automates more and more work. The incremental value of another billion workers is very low.