There's about eight billion people on the planet. One of the most urgent issues that "global overpopulation" causes is a need for food security to prevent famine in part because famine is one of the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."
I have come to see this trope as recognition of a pattern that certain things go together: Famine causes war and war causes famine. Pestilence -- aka disease -- is associated with both. Death is typically the "fourth horseman," though some lists vary the exact details.
I think we can either find real solutions -- peaceful solutions that help build a more civilized and secure world across the globe -- or we can let those local problems fester and spread their problems to the rest of the world. The war in Ukraine is already causing food shortages and higher food prices globally and that's just the tip of the iceberg of how much damage can grow out of serious local problems.
See also: AIDS began in Africa and spread outward from there. Continuing to fail to really address the issues in Africa is already biting us in the butt.
I like this because ramen already exists, is already popular in a lot of places and the main "trick" here is ignoring the instructions that say "Add boiling water" and instead adding tap water or bottled water plus diced raw veggies to make a field-friendly healthy, nutritious meal. You don't need manufacturers to change anything.
You just need to put the word out that "just add water" works for the same reason ramen noodles are popular as a crunchy snack: They are already fully cooked and don't actually need additional cooking, so it does not need to be boiling water. AND you can dramatically and easily enhance the dish by adding raw diced veggies or even things like beef jerky.
This also can help people in challenging situations that are more normal, like poverty housing without adequate kitchen facilities, people who need to take a brown bag lunch to work and handicapped people who struggle to put together a healthy meal even when there is plenty of money and adequate kitchen facilities.
So while I am not a big fan of veganism per se, I do fully agree that helping people get adequate nutrition via a mostly vegetarian diet is an excellent means to foster food security and reduce the odds of war.
The Humble Potato has long been known as the only food staple we have that you can nearly live on. If you add a food with some of the missing B vitamins, you are good to go. I recall "buttermilk" being suggested as sufficient to address that issue.
Initial research suggests seaweed may be able to provide those B vitamins without animal products. If dieticians, nutritionists, etc. researched it further to identify specific types of seaweed -- because that is an umbrella term covering a number of plants from the ocean used as food -- that have the right B vitamins for seaweed plus potatoes to be nutritionally complete and then developed recipes compatible with local cuisine traditions and tastes, this would be one means for countries to help feed their people while also working on more long-term solutions.
We could also develop more recipes for raw potatoes in specific. The world over, we tend to not eat raw potatoes, probably in part because cut raw potatoes turn brown. So you would need to add lemon juice or salt water or vinegar or something to keep the potatoes from rapidly turning brown, but this is very much a solvable issue and raw foods -- or foods minimally cooked, as is done in some nominally "raw potato" salads -- have a higher nutritional value, which means you need fewer resources overall to keep people fed.
Seafood yields are down, in part due to pollution in the ocean and in part due to higher ocean temperatures. While working on wetlands restoration as a long-term solution to the higher ocean temps, we need to clean up the pollution in the oceans and also cut back on greenhouse gasses like methane which add much more heat in the short-term to the biosphere, so can help buy us time for the longer-term solution of wetlands restoration.
Carbon sinks take time to do their job of reducing carbon in the atmosphere, so we need some short-term gains as well to get there.
I have come to see this trope as recognition of a pattern that certain things go together: Famine causes war and war causes famine. Pestilence -- aka disease -- is associated with both. Death is typically the "fourth horseman," though some lists vary the exact details.
Broker Peace and Prevent Future Wars via Problem Solving
So I have been thinking about food security and first of all war actively undermines food security, so I would personally like to see Russia LEAVE Ukraine and for the world to actively work on getting solutions in place for food, water and other essentials in places like Syria, Gaza and Malawi, which are three very vulnerable places I am somewhat familiar with which seem likely to be places that have an outsized impact on the future of this world.I think we can either find real solutions -- peaceful solutions that help build a more civilized and secure world across the globe -- or we can let those local problems fester and spread their problems to the rest of the world. The war in Ukraine is already causing food shortages and higher food prices globally and that's just the tip of the iceberg of how much damage can grow out of serious local problems.
See also: AIDS began in Africa and spread outward from there. Continuing to fail to really address the issues in Africa is already biting us in the butt.
Cold Prep Ramen
A previous post here, "Survival Foods", posits that cold prep ramen could be popularized and used by both homeless services/local soup kitchens and disaster relief organizations. See also related posts on Street Life Solutions.I like this because ramen already exists, is already popular in a lot of places and the main "trick" here is ignoring the instructions that say "Add boiling water" and instead adding tap water or bottled water plus diced raw veggies to make a field-friendly healthy, nutritious meal. You don't need manufacturers to change anything.
You just need to put the word out that "just add water" works for the same reason ramen noodles are popular as a crunchy snack: They are already fully cooked and don't actually need additional cooking, so it does not need to be boiling water. AND you can dramatically and easily enhance the dish by adding raw diced veggies or even things like beef jerky.
This also can help people in challenging situations that are more normal, like poverty housing without adequate kitchen facilities, people who need to take a brown bag lunch to work and handicapped people who struggle to put together a healthy meal even when there is plenty of money and adequate kitchen facilities.
Potatoes and Seaweed
I'm not a big fan of veganism, but the book Diet for a Small Planet was written long before I ever heard of veganism and it is half political tome proposing vegetarianism as an antidote to famine and war. In a later book written by her sister where she wrote the intro, she said she regretted making it sound hard and spoke of how much difference it would make if "We ate one less hamburger a month" or something like that.So while I am not a big fan of veganism per se, I do fully agree that helping people get adequate nutrition via a mostly vegetarian diet is an excellent means to foster food security and reduce the odds of war.
The Humble Potato has long been known as the only food staple we have that you can nearly live on. If you add a food with some of the missing B vitamins, you are good to go. I recall "buttermilk" being suggested as sufficient to address that issue.
Initial research suggests seaweed may be able to provide those B vitamins without animal products. If dieticians, nutritionists, etc. researched it further to identify specific types of seaweed -- because that is an umbrella term covering a number of plants from the ocean used as food -- that have the right B vitamins for seaweed plus potatoes to be nutritionally complete and then developed recipes compatible with local cuisine traditions and tastes, this would be one means for countries to help feed their people while also working on more long-term solutions.
We could also develop more recipes for raw potatoes in specific. The world over, we tend to not eat raw potatoes, probably in part because cut raw potatoes turn brown. So you would need to add lemon juice or salt water or vinegar or something to keep the potatoes from rapidly turning brown, but this is very much a solvable issue and raw foods -- or foods minimally cooked, as is done in some nominally "raw potato" salads -- have a higher nutritional value, which means you need fewer resources overall to keep people fed.
Restore Our Oceans and Wetlands
Initial findings suggest that we can probably mitigate climate change by restoring our lost wetlands which were once huge carbon sinks. Since the 1700s, we have lost 85 percent of them globally.Seafood yields are down, in part due to pollution in the ocean and in part due to higher ocean temperatures. While working on wetlands restoration as a long-term solution to the higher ocean temps, we need to clean up the pollution in the oceans and also cut back on greenhouse gasses like methane which add much more heat in the short-term to the biosphere, so can help buy us time for the longer-term solution of wetlands restoration.
Carbon sinks take time to do their job of reducing carbon in the atmosphere, so we need some short-term gains as well to get there.