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1) I still have a moral obligation to show some concern for my fellow human, even if they live on the far side of the planet. Cheaper, reliable access to food i

1) I still have a moral obligation to show some concern for my fellow human, even if they live on the far side of the planet. Cheaper, reliable access to food is one part of that. 2) Famine causes stability problems, unstable countries are more likely to turn into problematic countries and humanitarian crises. See: Syria 3) With globalization, a rise in food prices on the far side of the planet still has (eventual) price effects in other parts of the world, including here. 4) I don't feel comfortable washing my hands of it and saying market forces will take care of the problem, when it means the price of food will fluctuate above the grasp of the least fortunate. The resulting easily preventable deaths are on our hands if some trivial amount of subsidy or technological progress would have kept prices low enough for those who need it. 5) Same thing goes for access to water -- we should support access to water while making it more sustainable and cheaper. 6) I'd like to get to a post-scarcity world, not just a post-scarcity country.

ben_w 6y ago
3) is way smaller than I think you believe. It’s not that it doesn’t have any effect at all, but the raw ingredients themselves are what gets traded, and they are the cheapest bit for westerners — so much so that food prices were noticeably different moving from the UK to Berlin, even though I moved before Brexit. If you’re actually focused on gaming the cheapest possible calories and nutrients, then it makes a difference; but even then, the last time I ran the numbers for that the best I found was (rice + lentils + frozen mixed vegetables), and the vegetables were both the most expensive and also grown fairly locally.
Udik 6y ago
> I still have a moral obligation to show some concern for my fellow human, even if they live on the far side of the planet. Your fellow human on the other side of the planet is reproducing at crazy speed. The population of Africa is projected to double in the next thirty years. And they are the ones supposed to feel the greatest impact from climate change. If you're worried about their future access to food, the most important thing you should focus on is convincing them to stabilise their population, not climate change.

ben_w 6y ago

3) is way smaller than I think you believe. It’s not that it doesn’t have any effect at all, but the raw ingredients themselves are what gets traded, and they are the cheapest bit for westerners — so much so that food prices were noticeably different moving from the UK to Berlin, even though I moved before Brexit. If you’re actually focused on gaming the cheapest possible calories and nutrients, then it makes a difference; but even then, the last time I ran the numbers for that the best I found was (rice + lentils + frozen mixed vegetables), and the vegetables were both the most expensive and also grown fairly locally.

Udik 6y ago

> I still have a moral obligation to show some concern for my fellow human, even if they live on the far side of the planet. Your fellow human on the other side of the planet is reproducing at crazy speed. The population of Africa is projected to double in the next thirty years. And they are the ones supposed to feel the greatest impact from climate change. If you're worried about their future access to food, the most important thing you should focus on is convincing them to stabilise their population, not climate change.