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millions go on starving, and the question is, why?
    Elaine . The food isn't getting to them.
    Daniel . Obviously. But why? Don't the trains and the roads run that far? Aren't there any ports where they live?
    Elaine . I don't know.
    Daniel . You're stuck in your conventional mental framework, Elaine. You've got to pull back and see it from a distance. Reject the conventional wisdom, with its conventional implications. Think like a Martian anthropologist.
    Elaine spends a few minutes at it and then shakes her head.
    Daniel . I told you to reject the conventional wisdom, along with its conventional implications. What is the conventional wisdom?
    Elaine . That the food is there, it's just not getting to them.
    Daniel . The implication being...
    Elaine . The problem is distribution. The food is not being distributed to the starving.
    Daniel . Why? Because of short train lines, blocked roads, closed ports?
    Elaine . No.
    Daniel . Then why? Is it just some kind of bureaucratic inefficiency?
    Elaine . I don't know. Maybe.
    Daniel . I'm going to check my e-mail and leave you alone to think about it, okay?
    Elaine . Okay.

    Daniel [ half an hour later ]. So. Make any progress?
    Elaine . I think so.
    Daniel . Go ahead.
    Elaine . I pulled back, and what I saw was that the starving millions don't just lack food, they lack everything — food, clothing, shelter.
    Daniel . Don't live in oceanside villas and drive BMWs but just happen to be starving.
    Elaine . No. They're the poorest of the poor.
    Daniel . So the problem isn't that the food isn't reaching them. The problem is that they have no money to buy it. There are no starving rich people.
    Elaine . That's right.
    Daniel . And how does increasing food production help them?
    Elaine . It doesn't. No matter how much food we produce, they're still too poor to buy it.
    Daniel . It's well known, of course, that the slowest-growing segment of our population is found in the developed, rich nations.
    Elaine . Yes, I've certainly been told that.
    Daniel . So where is the growth taking place?
    Elaine . Among the poorer, undeveloped nations.
    Daniel . Where the starving millions live.
    Elaine . That's right.
    Daniel . So as we increase food production and our population grows, year after year, where does the greatest part of that growth occur?
    Elaine . Among the poorer, undeveloped nations.
    Daniel . And in the poorer, undeveloped nations, among what classes do you suppose population growth is slowest?
    Elaine . I'd assume it's slowest among the wealthier classes.
    Daniel . And where do you suppose it's the fastest?
    Elaine . I'd assume it would be the fastest among the poor.
    Daniel . Among whom are the starving millions.
    Elaine . Yes. But —
    Daniel . Yes?
    Elaine . It's going to be pointed out that we do send them food.
    Daniel . And so the starving millions aren't actually starving.
    Elaine thinks about this.
    Daniel . Are the starving millions starving or not?
    Elaine . I guess I have to say that they're starving.
    Daniel . If they weren't, why would we be increasing food production every year in order to feed them?
    Elaine [ after some thought ]. It makes no sense.
    Daniel . What doesn't?
    Elaine . Our rationale for constantly increasing food production.
    Daniel . We're not creating a world without hunger?
    Elaine . No.
    Daniel . Let's be realistic for a moment. Do you honestly believe that the companies spending tens or hundreds of millions a year to develop genetically modified foods are doing so altruistically, motivated by the thought of ending hunger?
    Elaine . It would seem unlikely. They're motivated by the thought of making more money.
    Daniel . The scientists who do the actual work may imagine that they're working to end world hunger, but I doubt that the top executives have any such notion.
    Elaine . I'm sure you're right.
    Daniel . And what about the farmers who plant higher-yield crops? Are they doing it to help feed the starving millions?
    Elaine . No, realistically, higher