In one of your pictures there’s a lot of cactus and at least one agave. If the people in your pictures are so hungry then they should eat the cactus. Mexicans eat the cactus. Not just the pads but the fruit as well. I’ve eaten both and they are quite tasty. As long as all the spines are carefully removed and don’t end up in your tongue. It’s really no fun to have small invisible spines in your tongue.

Also, cactus store water. Lots of water. That’s what cactus are famous for. So no need to get water from puddles when there are so many cactus.

What about the agave? Mexicans make tequila from agave. One time I drank too much tequila and threw up everywhere. So I really can’t drink it anymore. But the people in Madagascar could make tequila and sell it for food. Although, I’m pretty sure that the agave in the picture is the wrong kind of agave for tequila. How many agaves did the Mexicans have to test before they found the right one for tequila?

When I was stationed in Afghanistan by far the most popular crop was the opium poppy. And Afghanistan is a pretty dry place. One time a nice old lady gave me a ton of poppy seeds so I sowed them all over my front yard thinking that they were the California poppy. Nope. They were the opium poppy. My entire front yard was filled with blooming opium poppies. They were beautiful and drought tolerant… and I didn’t get thrown in jail.

Just how many drought tolerant crops are there? My favorite drought tolerant crops are orchids. Did you know that orchids are drought tolerant? There are 30,000 species of orchids. Are all the species of orchids equally drought tolerant? No. The orchid family isn’t dumb. The orchid family knows all about climate change. So it knows that it would be stupid to put all its eggs in one basket. The orchid family understands the importance of hedging its bets. This is why some orchid species are a lot more drought tolerant than other orchid species. In fact… some orchid species are happy to grow on cactus and other succulent plants.

One drought tolerant orchid species, Laelia speciosa, recently sold on eBay for nearly $400 bucks. How much food would $400 bucks buy in Madagascar? Lots… right? So how come there aren’t lots of drought tolerant orchids growing on the cactus in your picture? The people in Madagascar don’t know about drought tolerant orchids? They don’t know about intercropping? Your organization doesn’t know about drought tolerant orchids? Your organization doesn’t know about intercropping? Your organization didn’t know about drought? Is “drought” a new concept for your organization? Your organization doesn’t know about the importance of variety? Even the orchid family knows about the importance of variety.

Does your organization know about economics? There’s this thing called the free-rider problem. It’s why we pay taxes. It’s why most people don’t make donations to causes that they care about. But the problem with taxes is that taxpayers can’t choose where they go. Taxpayers can’t use their taxes to communicate their genuine concerns.

Do you see the rock and the hard place? Most people aren’t going to donate to causes that they care about because… the free-rider problem… and that’s what taxes are for. However, our system doesn’t allow taxpayers to use their taxes to communicate which causes they care about. The logical and detrimental consequence is that way too many important and worthwhile causes are going to be way too underfunded.

Imagine a world where taxpayers could shop in any country’s public sector. Then I could allocate my taxes to some Madagascar government program focused on helping the people hedge their bets against climate change by growing a wide variety of drought tolerant crops.

Is it hard for you to imagine a global market for public goods? If so, then please let me know. I’m here for you.