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Meanwhile in South Africa there are food issues... Why not plant vegetables instead of flowers? Also to note: workers get $70/mo, while all other middle-men in

Meanwhile in South Africa there are food issues... Why not plant vegetables instead of flowers? Also to note: workers get $70/mo, while all other middle-men involved get more.

exhilaration 6y ago
In the United States, farmers are destroying their crops and dumping milk because of drastically lower demand during the pandemic: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/business/coronavirus-destroying-food.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/business/coronavirus-dest...
kumarvvr 6y ago
I would assume that the market is self correcting. If there was shortage of food, it's price would be up and farmers would plant food crops.
- bluGill 6y ago
  There isn't a shortage of food. Farmers growing food are essential and doing what they did before. There are logistical issues. Restaurants order food differently than grocery stores so some supply chains are overfull while others are empty. Both are looking to the other for help but the setup makes it in efficient
- mariushn 6y ago
  Right. I was imagining that poor people without food can't pay too much for vegetables, while others in EU/US can pay more for flowers.
gwbas1c 6y ago
> Why not plant vegetables instead of flowers The world has more than enough food growing to feed everyone. It's a logistics problem. In this case, when everyone working to pick the plants and distribute the food makes everyone sick, the system fails.
- turnipla 6y ago
  > The world has more than enough food growing to feed everyone. That's quite a statement you made there, especially in the context of Africa.
  - saystupidthings 6y ago
    Except it's been true for a couple decades now. We throw away enough food to feed the world. You been under a rock?
  - blotter_paper 6y ago
    >Currently, worldwide food production exceeds 2,750 kilocalories per person per day [15], which exceeds the amount required to feed the global population. Although these data account for farm-level waste, they do not include the estimated 20% household food waste [44]. Hence, currently available calories are likely to be about 2,200 kilocalories per person per day, which is sufficient for the world’s current population [23]. Sauce: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6198966/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6198966/ Right under that they note that our food groups are out of whack, but in terms of calories, we could feed everybody... we just don't. It's not just a problem of profit motives; as GP noted, distribution is a real issue. Many places with famine problems also have issues with government stability, and dropping crates of food from the sky just gives food to the people with guns and vehicles who can secure it. If you think about this problem from the point of view of a legitimately charitable entity with tons of cash, it's still not entirely clear how to end world hunger without either propping up small dictatorships or undermining local sovereignty. The last mile is a hard problem. Edit: and obviously, some people eat too much, and we throw away food because of weird profit motives. I'm not trying to downplay those causes of human misery, just trying to point out that there are other hard decisions to be made on the path to feeding all humans.
  - Tuna-Fish 6y ago
    > That's quite a statement you made there, especially in the context of Africa. As the [dead] sibling states, it is absolutely true, and has been true since the maturing of the Green Revolution in the 70's. Famines since then have all been caused by war and politics, not by weather or crop failures.
jhallenworld 6y ago
I can tell you that in the US, decorative plants are so much higher a cash crop than food that it would not be worthwhile. Think of tobacco or marijuana vs. tomatoes... On the other hand, some greenhouse businesses I know that do grow some food can be classified as essential businesses and stay open. Actually there is an interesting optimization problem here. You are a greenhouse grower with a certain number of acres: which plants do you grow to maximize profits? You can grow the most profitable one, but then you don't have a very diverse stock, so you might not get as many buyers. On the other hand, many crops are expensive (in terms of seedling cost, greenhouse heating costs during the winter, opportunity costs because they take a lot time in the greenhouse).. You could sell planning software for this.
- wil421 6y ago
  They already use software. I called a pecan orchard in the southern part of my state. When I asked when they would be ready to harvest they gave me a specific date. When questioned she said they take measurements of the nuts, a few other inputs, and their software gives them an ideal harvest date. They roasted the nuts themselves so they could give you a very accurate ship date early in the season.

Meanwhile in South Africa there are food issues... Why not plant vegetables instead of flowers? Also to note: workers get $70/mo, while all other middle-men involved get more.

exhilaration 6y ago

In the United States, farmers are destroying their crops and dumping milk because of drastically lower demand during the pandemic: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/business/coronavirus-destroying-food.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/business/coronavirus-dest...

kumarvvr 6y ago

I would assume that the market is self correcting. If there was shortage of food, it's price would be up and farmers would plant food crops.

bluGill 6y ago
There isn't a shortage of food. Farmers growing food are essential and doing what they did before. There are logistical issues. Restaurants order food differently than grocery stores so some supply chains are overfull while others are empty. Both are looking to the other for help but the setup makes it in efficient
mariushn 6y ago
Right. I was imagining that poor people without food can't pay too much for vegetables, while others in EU/US can pay more for flowers.

gwbas1c 6y ago

> Why not plant vegetables instead of flowers The world has more than enough food growing to feed everyone. It's a logistics problem. In this case, when everyone working to pick the plants and distribute the food makes everyone sick, the system fails.

turnipla 6y ago
> The world has more than enough food growing to feed everyone. That's quite a statement you made there, especially in the context of Africa.
- saystupidthings 6y ago
  Except it's been true for a couple decades now. We throw away enough food to feed the world. You been under a rock?
- blotter_paper 6y ago
  >Currently, worldwide food production exceeds 2,750 kilocalories per person per day [15], which exceeds the amount required to feed the global population. Although these data account for farm-level waste, they do not include the estimated 20% household food waste [44]. Hence, currently available calories are likely to be about 2,200 kilocalories per person per day, which is sufficient for the world’s current population [23]. Sauce: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6198966/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6198966/ Right under that they note that our food groups are out of whack, but in terms of calories, we could feed everybody... we just don't. It's not just a problem of profit motives; as GP noted, distribution is a real issue. Many places with famine problems also have issues with government stability, and dropping crates of food from the sky just gives food to the people with guns and vehicles who can secure it. If you think about this problem from the point of view of a legitimately charitable entity with tons of cash, it's still not entirely clear how to end world hunger without either propping up small dictatorships or undermining local sovereignty. The last mile is a hard problem. Edit: and obviously, some people eat too much, and we throw away food because of weird profit motives. I'm not trying to downplay those causes of human misery, just trying to point out that there are other hard decisions to be made on the path to feeding all humans.
- Tuna-Fish 6y ago
  > That's quite a statement you made there, especially in the context of Africa. As the [dead] sibling states, it is absolutely true, and has been true since the maturing of the Green Revolution in the 70's. Famines since then have all been caused by war and politics, not by weather or crop failures.

jhallenworld 6y ago

I can tell you that in the US, decorative plants are so much higher a cash crop than food that it would not be worthwhile. Think of tobacco or marijuana vs. tomatoes... On the other hand, some greenhouse businesses I know that do grow some food can be classified as essential businesses and stay open. Actually there is an interesting optimization problem here. You are a greenhouse grower with a certain number of acres: which plants do you grow to maximize profits? You can grow the most profitable one, but then you don't have a very diverse stock, so you might not get as many buyers. On the other hand, many crops are expensive (in terms of seedling cost, greenhouse heating costs during the winter, opportunity costs because they take a lot time in the greenhouse).. You could sell planning software for this.

wil421 6y ago
They already use software. I called a pecan orchard in the southern part of my state. When I asked when they would be ready to harvest they gave me a specific date. When questioned she said they take measurements of the nuts, a few other inputs, and their software gives them an ideal harvest date. They roasted the nuts themselves so they could give you a very accurate ship date early in the season.