Global Hunger — The Gap

Jeffrey Levine
4 min readNov 15, 2021

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I received an email with a most insightful article “GLOBAL HUNGER DEMANDS REVOLUTIONARY SOLUTIONS” which was published on Bloomberg.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-11-06/how-elon-musk-s-6-billion-can-stop-world-hunger

At the same time that I received an email with the title — “GLOBAL CHALLENGES, SIMPLE SOLUTIONS”

So, my immediate thoughts were— In the article on Bloomberg written by Amanda Little, she so eloquently highlights the problems and challenges, and in the 2nd one proposed a solution to the challenges in your article.

This article clearly highlights the challenges :

· Problem not going away, but getting bigger — All told, the number of undernourished people worldwide rose from 650 million people in 2020 to 810 million people today

· Skepticism around emergency aid: If you give people fish, the adage goes, they will eat for a day. Yet it’s no longer true that if you teach people to fish, they will eat for a lifetime.

· Investment in more sophisticated supply-chain management, storage facilities, road and bridge-building for more efficient aid distribution, and, crucially, satellite monitoring and in-field communications technology to track levels of risk.

While the article and the ensuing social media fracases’ highlighted the idea that investments in food security must extend well beyond emergency aid.

There is a call to make a paradigm shift and invest toward sustainable agriculture.

So, practically how can this be done?

As highlighted it is not enough just to teach people to fish. The majority of people living in poverty are involved in farming. Smallholder farms. This requires unique solutions.

At this stage, I want to introduce you to Dr. Nimrod Israely who wrote the article — GLOBAL CHALLENGES, SIMPLE SOLUTIONS? whose dedication, expertise, and Green Valley Venture has made a ripple in the fight against global poverty and with the right backers can turn this ripple into a blue ocean for Africa and other countries.

http://messages.responder.co.il/6156583/468817239/157a0420df1a9420d5003dc8a85c35d3/?

In the interest of full disclosure, I have been volunteering my time and experience as CFO to assist Dr. Nimrod in his “Simple Solution”. Recently, he has encouraged me to read a book about GAP Selling. I keep telling him I am just a CFO, not a salesperson — He tries to convince me otherwise. Anyway, I am inspired by the new buzzword GAPS.

Well, here we have big, big GAPS

The one demands a revolutionary solution and the other one is called simple solutions.

Which one is it? It does not matter. Because we will be talking about the next 20 years because the Investment community, ultra-net worth keep pushing funds to the causes and not the symptoms. In addition, most of these funds are directed as Donations.

Dr. Nimrod and Green Valley are proposing a Business Model with positive returns for all stakeholders.

So, let’s have a look at the “GAPS”

· World Leaders — No idea how to fund and solve this problem — they demand a revolutionary solution.

· Dr. Nimrod and Green Valley — needs funding to effect Simple Solutions that can affect a big, substantial impact

· Investors, Business Leaders — For which the key trend is ESG or Impact. And there is no greater need in creating a sustainable business model to fight poverty around the world.

· Institutional Investor Market — Green / ESG Bonds do not have mechanisms or tools to invest directly in African sustainable agriculture.

While Mining has been an important resource in Africa, Farming is an even bigger resource. It has the ability to create income, jobs, better lifestyle, reducing poor living standards leading to the reduction of disease — Malaria. And instead of funds going to treat Malaria, they can be directed to initiatives directly to help the cause of this poverty trap.

However, farming is not easy and is prone to infestation which makes farming uneconomical. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-c-tlBw5i1w

Green Valley solves this problem and its solutions combine Tech, a great business model (Profit for all stakeholders), and Impact.

So, I am presenting an opportunity to make an everlasting impact in the fight against Global Poverty.

How can Green Valley help create prosperity? — 3 simple steps:

1) QUALITY — Stop yield loss (crop protection).

2) QUANTITY — Increase productivity per hectare.

3) MARKETING — Sell the produce in premium markets for a premium price

My objective here is not to go through the mechanics of the uniqueness of Green Valley but to highlight that it is possible to make a sea change to make a meaningful and impactful in the fight against Global Poverty.

I urge you to read Dr. Nimrods Blogs, learn about his approach and his current projects in Africa and around the world. https://www.linkedin.com/in/nimrodi or reach out to him by email @ nisraely@biofeed.co.il

Together, with your help, we can make a difference.

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Jeffrey Levine

Jeffrey Levine provides CFO, Director, ESG Advisory Services through www.persofi.com and is a promoter of ideas and trends where Innovation meets ESG