How soon will ALLFED be able to actually deploy emergency nutrition?
I don’t know how many additional people died from a lack of nutrition following the invasion of Ukraine, but I’d be a little surprised if it were fewer than direct combat deaths which are probably over 100,000 this year.
Aside from the direct value of saving lives, it’s important to demonstrate that emergency food supplies can be deployed at a substantial scale before a global catastrophe actually happens.
The food shock resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine ultimately turned out comparatively small. ALLFED is looking mainly at food shocks of >10% of global calories. For events below that, especially if they are regional, it is much more cost efficient to trade grain globally. ALLFED’s work is about what we could do if this current mechanism fails. Therefore, Ukaine and the resulting food problems are not really solvable with resilient foods, but more of a political problem.
Though I agree with you that it would be great to test out many of the ALLFED solutions before a catastrophe. However, this would cost magnitudes more money than ALLFED currently has.
How soon will ALLFED be able to actually deploy emergency nutrition?
I don’t know how many additional people died from a lack of nutrition following the invasion of Ukraine, but I’d be a little surprised if it were fewer than direct combat deaths which are probably over 100,000 this year.
Aside from the direct value of saving lives, it’s important to demonstrate that emergency food supplies can be deployed at a substantial scale before a global catastrophe actually happens.
The food shock resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine ultimately turned out comparatively small. ALLFED is looking mainly at food shocks of >10% of global calories. For events below that, especially if they are regional, it is much more cost efficient to trade grain globally. ALLFED’s work is about what we could do if this current mechanism fails. Therefore, Ukaine and the resulting food problems are not really solvable with resilient foods, but more of a political problem.
Though I agree with you that it would be great to test out many of the ALLFED solutions before a catastrophe. However, this would cost magnitudes more money than ALLFED currently has.