Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on his Twitter account that, if the World Food Programme can describe how $6-billion would solve world hunger, he would sell Tesla stock to donate to the cause.Mike Blake/Reuters
Elon Musk and David Beasley are two globally powerful alpha males who relish a good fight, especially in the full public glare of Twitter. The two Americans have now got one – with each other. Here’s betting that the far lesser-known and poorer of the two – Mr. Beasley – will come out on top.
Mr. Musk is virtually a household name. He is the founder and chief executive of Tesla , the world’s leading electric car maker, and SpaceX, the rocket company Mr. Musk wants to use to colonize Mars, since he is all in favour of planet hedging as humanity trashes Earth (Note to Mr. Musk: Maybe your goal of stuffing every road with EVs is part of the problem. Like, the world needs more cars?).
He is also the richest man on Earth, now that Tesla’s stock market value has vaulted to US$1.2-trillion. Mr. Musk’s 17-per-cent stake is worth about US$208-billion at last Friday’s closing share price. But Mr. Musk is rather cash poor and doesn’t pay much in tax. He resolved to solve both problems the other day by asking his 63 million Twitter followers whether he should sell 10 per cent of his Tesla shares. They answered with a resounding yes.
Elon Musk offers $6-billion if UN shows how it will solve world hunger
Mr. Beasley is the executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, based in Rome. It is one of the world’s largest humanitarian-assistance organizations, and last year fed 115.5 million people in 84 countries and regions, from Palestine to Madagascar – a record high for the agency.
Mr. Beasley also has some street cred: The WFP won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020. What he and the WFP lack is Mr. Musk’s extraordinary wealth, which has soared during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past year alone, Tesla shares have climbed 175 per cent, making the company worth more than all rival automakers combined.
Mr. Musk’s worth can rise US$10-billion to US$20-billion on any day. Contributions to the WFP in all of 2020 were US$8.5-billion (Canada is typically among the agency’s top five donors).
The vast financial firepower differential gave Beasley an idea: Why not ask Musk and the other billionaires whose wealth has reached the heavens during the pandemic to help feed the 42 million people who, as the WFP put it, “are at famine’s door”? To the WFP’s delight, Mr. Musk took the bait – then he hedged. The question now is whether he will actually stump up.
Acute food insecurity
Millions of people by International Food Security Phase
Classification, 2021
Phase 3
Phase 4
Phase 5
30
25
47,000
401,000
20
15
108,000
10
28,000
5
0
Afghan-
istan
DR
Congo
Yemen
Ethiopia
Sudan
South
Sudan
Mada-
gascar
IPC phases
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Phase 4
Phase 5
More than
four in five
households
are able to
meet es-
sential and
non-food
needs with-
out assist-
ance
Even with
assistance
at least one
in four house-
holds have
minimally ad-
equate food
consumption
but unable to
afford some
non-food
essentials
Even with
assistance at
least one in
five house-
holds have
food con-
sumption
gaps with
high or
above usual
acute mal-
nutrition
Even with
assistance at
least one in
five house-
holds have
large food
consump-
tion gaps
and very
high acute
malnutrition
and excess
mortality
Even with as-
sistance at least
one in five
households
have extreme
lack of food and
other basic
needs where
starvation,
death and des-
titution are
evident
the globe and mail, source: ipc
Acute food insecurity
Millions of people by International Food Security Phase
Classification, 2021
Phase 3
Phase 4
Phase 5
30
25
47,000
401,000
20
15
108,000
10
28,000
5
0
Afghan-
istan
DR
Congo
Yemen
Ethiopia
Sudan
South
Sudan
Mada-
gascar
IPC phases
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Phase 4
Phase 5
More than
four in five
households
are able to
meet es-
sential and
non-food
needs with-
out assist-
ance
Even with
assistance
at least one
in four house-
holds have
minimally ad-
equate food
consumption
but unable to
afford some
non-food
essentials
Even with
assistance at
least one in
five house-
holds have
food con-
sumption
gaps with
high or
above usual
acute mal-
nutrition
Even with
assistance at
least one in
five house-
holds have
large food
consump-
tion gaps
and very
high acute
malnutrition
and excess
mortality
Even with as-
sistance at least
one in five
households
have extreme
lack of food and
other basic
needs where
starvation,
death and des-
titution are
evident
the globe and mail, source: ipc
Acute food insecurity
Millions of people by International Food Security Phase Classification, 2021
Phase 3
Phase 4
Phase 5
30
25
47,000
401,000
20
15
108,000
10
28,000
5
0
Afghan-
istan
DR
Congo
Yemen
Ethiopia
Sudan
South
Sudan
Mada-
gascar
IPC phases
Phase 4
Phase 5
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
More than
four in five
households
are able to
meet essent-
ial and non-
food needs
without as-
sistance
Even with
assistance
at least one
in four house-
holds have
minimally ad-
equate food
consumption
but unable to
afford some
non-food
essentials
Even with
assistance at
least one in
five house-
holds have
food con-
sumption
gaps with
high or above
usual acute
malnutrition
Even with
assistance at
least one in
five house-
holds have
large food
consumption
gaps and very
high acute
malnutrition
and excess
mortality
Even with assist-
ance at least one
in five households
have extreme lack
of food and other
basic needs where
starvation, death
and destitution
are evident
the globe and mail, source: ipc
To recap, Mr. Beasley set his trap in late October when, in a CNN interview, he said that a mere 2 per cent of Musk’s total wealth (not just Tesla) – about US$6-billion – was needed to prevent starvation. “Six billion to help 42 million people who are literally going to die if we don’t reach them,” he said. “It’s not complicated.”
Mr. Musk apparently found the hunger analysis either simplistic or not credible. “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 wrote on his Twitter account, where he now bills himself as “Lorde Edge.”
The game was on and Mr. Beasley did not have to open the WFP books to justify the figure – they were already open and plainly available on the WFP website.
The 42 million is the estimated number of people at the IPC level 4 or 5. IPC is short for Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which is put together by various UN agencies, research centres and relief charities. The system is considered the global standard to measure acute food insecurity. Level 4 means food “emergency” – one step before Level 5, which is “famine.”
The hardest-hit Level 4 countries are Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen and Ethiopia. The countries in which Level 5 famine can be found are Ethiopia, South Sudan, Yemen and Madagascar. Collectively, 584,000 people in those four countries are in famine conditions.
Nor was the US$6-billion (actually US$6.6-billion) pulled out of thin air. The figure represents the 42 million people in Levels 4 and 5 multiplied by the cost of one meal a day (43 US cents) over 365 days.
In an interview, WFP chief economist Arif Husain said the hunger numbers are bound to rise because of what the agency calls the four Cs – conflict, cost, climate and COVID. “You have more conflict, more climate crises, more inequality caused by COVID,” he said. “At the same time, food and fuel prices have increased a lot, making it harder for us to feed people in need. Last year, it cost us US$1,000 to deliver a container of food by ship. This year, it’s US$4,000.”
Afghanistan, where the Taliban have taken control after the American military withdrew at the end of August, and Ethiopia, where the civil war is intensifying at an alarming rate, face a very high risk of rising malnutrition and an extreme lack of food.
So far, Mr. Musk has not responded to the WFP’s defence of its hunger numbers and the price required to prevent famine. The agency has no idea whether he will come up with all, some or none of the US$6-billion that was on offer if Mr. Beasley could back up his numbers. Maybe Mr. Musk was just trolling the WFP, hoping that Mr. Beasley would fold. Instead, Mr. Beasley did the opposite.
Even if Mr. Musk signs no cheque, the WFP has already won. The Twitter sparring between perhaps the world’s most famous businessman and Mr. Beasley has shone the spotlight on the food emergencies that are erupting in Africa and elsewhere. That publicity may generate more private donations and show the world that food for the poor is more important than electric cars for the rich.
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Eric Reguly