How Elon Musk could solve world hunger with $13 billion

As world leaders descended on Glasgow this week for COP26, Twitter exploded as Elon Musk and David Beasley, the head of the World Food Program (WFP), faced off about how to solve world hunger. The WFP asserted that just 2 percent of Elon’s wealth could help stop world hunger. Elon rose to the challenge, asking the WFP to back their claim with an explanation.?

“If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it,” he Tweeted back, insisting on spending transparency as part of the process.

But how much would it cost to solve world hunger? We can solve global hunger and pave the way for sustained prosperity today with $13 billion. An additional $13 billion will be needed to solve global hunger through 2050. We can do this by helping farmers better control the input that most determines the amount of food they can grow—water. The numbers need to be fleshed out some more, but this should give you an indication of how this is possible today.?

Like Musk, I run a technology company, but ours aims to bring affordable, renewable energy to smallholder farmers in emerging markets to improve productivity, enhance resilience, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

While 88 percent of Kenyan farmers indicated they are worse off financially because of the Covid-19 pandemic, 81percent of our customers reported improving their incomes and 95 percent reported improving their quality of life.?

We’ve dedicated our company to solar irrigation because we deeply believe, and data confirms, that investment in this space is the most powerful, effective, sustainable, and quickest way to address world hunger. We need to get this technology into the hands of millions of smallholder farmers now.?

Elon, here is our plan to permanently end world hunger with solar irrigation. If this high-level plan is interesting, give me the green light and I’ll come back with a detailed budget and profiles for the team we’ll need to hire to make this work.?

The Plan?

Food security is a wicked problem, so by definition, this issue is full of seemingly insurmountable abstractions and complexities. We know this already, and it is why many of us have dedicated our careers to tackling global food insecurity. I anticipate scrutiny toward this plan because of how simple it is, but it is meant to be directional. A simple plan cannot be equated with an easy or obvious plan, but with the best mobilizers, designers, and implementers in the world (...and money), this is a solvable problem.?

Solving global hunger happens in three steps. First, grow enough food. Second, provide access to this food. And third, ensure this food is affordable.?

Step 1: Grow Enough Food

According to David Beasley, “$6B will not solve world hunger, but it WILL prevent geopolitical instability, mass migration and save 42 million people on the brink of starvation.” What he means is that $6 billion would allow the WFP to supply 42 million people with one meal a day, the basic need to stay alive, for 12 months.

42 million people represents the number of people living with severe food insecurity, who go an entire day without eating. Feeding people living in severe food insecurity one meal a day for one year is not a good use of $6 billion, and doesn’t solve the underlying issue.?

We need a solution that feeds everyone who is hungry, including people living with moderate food insecurity, who eat less than they would like because access to food is uncertain. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), “these people might have to sacrifice other basic needs, just to be able to eat.”

If 26 million farming households had access to solar irrigation systems, they would collectively be able to produce 1.2 billion more metric tons of food. This would be enough to feed everyone on the planet today. This singular investment in solar irrigation would allow for increased food production in perpetuity, while maintaining healthy levels of groundwater, preventing deforestation, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and promoting climate resilience.?

Step 2: Provide Access to This Food

Then we have to figure out where we put all of these solar irrigation systems to ensure people have access to this food. The logistics part of this plan can be separated into two phases. In Phase One, or the emergency alleviation phase, food production would be centralized in Africa. With an abundance of arable land, groundwater, and smallholder farmers to fill this global food production gap, Africa is poised to become the breadbasket of the world.

Africa remains a net importer of food, although it has 60 percent of the world's uncultivated arable land, and the International Water Management Institute’s recent research confirms that we can install over 100 million solar irrigation systems in Africa without creating groundwater scarcity. Even considering global supply chain restraints, Africa can use existing export channels, which are primarily used for horticulture/high-value crops, to supply production globally. It is important to note that much of the food grown will stay in Africa, as 21percent of Africa’s population faces hunger, more than twice that of any other region in the world.

As the global population continues to grow over the next three decades, we can expand this model globally to support localized production as a viable and sustainable long-term solution, using Africa’s playbook as a blueprint. This would be Phase Two of the plan, and it is the longer-term alleviation phase.

According to estimates compiled by the FAO, by 2050, we will need to produce 60 percent more food to feed a world population of 9.3 billion. Localized food production means reduction in food wastage and greenhouse gas emissions associated with supply chain and geopolitical stability as countries can (largely) be their own producers.?

Step 3: Ensure This Food is Affordable

Perhaps the most complex sub-issue is developing a sustainable mechanism with which the poorest of the poor can access food. Carbon revenues generated from displacement of diesel and petrol water pumps (the methodology already exists) can be distributed to people that are food insecure to purchase food via direct cash transfers. Governments, non-profits, and researchers agree that direct cash distribution is an effective way to help people living in poverty.

At the end of the day, we believe food scarcity is a low bar. Food abundance is the goal. With $13 billion, we will transform Africa’s food system into a global breadbasket and eradicate the perpetual need for food aid. I know we’re singling out Elon because he stepped up to the challenge, but there are nearly 3,000 billionaires and nearly 50,000 people worth over $100 million. There’s enough money to end global hunger today. Let’s get this done.