We wait for 500,000 Tutsi to be murdered and slaughtered, blown up in churches, and hand-grenaded, for mothers to have their breasts cut off, and their babies their heads cut off, before it is a big enough story for television to intervene. There should be a fundamental new kind of journalism. The job of television, I believe, is to tell the extraordinary stories of these people, against the backdrop of amazing geography and epic tragedy. The spellbinding abilities of the best journalists need to bring to American television screens the hopes and aspirations of these people to allow us to care early enough. Countries stricken by famine can't grow enough of their own food and are overpopulated to begin with.
Political instability breeds famine.
The Sudan has the capacity to feed much of the Middle East. Mozambique was once a breadbasket capable of feeding much of Sub-Saharan Africa. Even at the height of the civil war in Mozambique, a tiny, politically stabilized area around Alto Moloque was able to grow enough grain to provide much of the relief goods that the development agency World Vision required. Food donation programs just create vast welfare states. Food builds infrastructure.