Questions Answered: Can The World Hunger Problem Be Solved By Elon Musk And His $6 billion?
Jessica Eise, The University of Texas at San Antonio
Elon Musk hinted on Oct. 31, 2021, perhaps jokingly, that he might be willing to donate US$6 billion of his fortune to pay for hunger relief. But there was a catch: The United Nations would have to prove that it can solve world hunger “right now.” His comments responded to a challenge U.N. World Food Program director David Beasley lobbed at Jeff Bezos and Musk — to “step up now, on a one-time basis” to help solve world hunger. “$6 billion to help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don’t reach them. It’s not complicated,” Beasley said in an October 2021 CNN interview, a year after he called on billionaires to pitch in with $5 billion. Here, social scientist Jessica Eise, who edited a book titled “How to Feed the Worl...