Cheap transfer of food from developed to developing nations poses its own risks (which this article touches on). It can undercut developing nations own farmers,

Cheap transfer of food from developed to developing nations poses its own risks (which this article touches on). It can undercut developing nations own farmers, and realigns incentives, and is also more easily corruptible (these large imports usually need to pass through government hands). Here's a paper (I am certain there are a lot, expressing every possible view point) http://www.fao.org/3/ag301t/ag301t.pdf http://www.fao.org/3/ag301t/ag301t.pdf I think the abstract sums things up well: > Although food aid can have negative unintended consequences, the empirical evidence is thin and often contradictory. The available evidence suggests that harmful effects are most likely to occur when food aid arrives or is purchased at the wrong time, when food aid distribution is not well targeted to the most food insecure households, and when the local market is relatively poorly integrated with broader national, regional and global markets This assertion (which I think is sound) re-emphasis the importance of the entire system working well, not just having cheap supply. Another thing to help think about the first world's "food waste" problem (and I do think its something we need to manage), is to imagine what the target food waste goal should be. How much over-supply on average do we want to insure us against shocks and disruptions? For shits and giggles, I looked at the USDA's stats on bushels of wheat harvested (https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_Subject/result.php?945CA714-48B3-3560-9585-8DF6578FF9A0&sector=CROPS&group=FIELD%20CROPS&comm=WHEAT https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_Subject/result.php?9...) from 2000 to 2019. The average (both mean and median) production divided by minimal over that time frame is ~1.3. I think that helps set an useful scale.