Interview Question for Software Developer at Amazon.com:

Assuming I am the United States Federal Government, I would eliminate all farm subsidies to US farmers. I would re-appropriate that same money (some $6+ billion ) and buy food from local farmers in countries where people are hungry. Currently, farm subsidies encourage US farmers to dump US grown products in hungry countries. This new strategy would not only feed people, but also help grow local economies, helping alleviate the structural causes of hunger and poverty.

knowledge n money cn buy 2 anything u want....i wud've created jobs that could meet the needs of every section of the society....n wud've set up free schools for all underprivileged children as well as adults...

condoms

"knowledge n money cn buy 2 anything u want....i wud've created jobs that could meet the needs of every section of the society....n wud've set up free schools for all underprivileged children as well as adults..."

Fascinating. Personally, I'd try and find a way to trim the population down to about 2b.

Recruit the Michael Moores, Roseann Barrs, Alec Baldwins and others (who talk the talk and not much else) of the world to develop means of investing in micro-entrepreneurial spirits (like those who founded Google, Facebook, Glassdoor, etc) and provide them with seed money so they can start local businesses needed by and ultimately supported by locals.

The investors win, the business start up wins, the local win and not a penny of government (read "tax payer") money. Geez, how capitalistic. how simple how obvious!

@ RS. sounds like you've been reading Odum's "A Prosperous Way Down", haven't you?

Two methods: one, increase food production so there is enough food to go around; two, reduce the number of people who consume food so there is enough food to go around.

teach everyone to fish

Eat mor chickin, as the ad says!!!!!

How could you cure world hunger? Easy. Destroy the world. If everyone is dead, the problem is cured.

Realistically though, as long as there is scarcity in the world, there will always be hunger. If you were to divert enough resources and manpower to feeding every last person, you could theoretically solve the problem. However, such an imbalanced allocation of resources would end up causing huge problems for the world's economy and leave us all much worse off than we were before.

Stop trying to beat Nature. We are only delaying the inevitable of when overpopulation consumes all the the resources and commodities (like water) no longer exists for food production.

That question is so inappropriate I don't know where to start. I might actually walk out on that one.

Birth control plain and simple. Control birth rates by people using preventative measures and you reduce birth rates. Providing more food does not solve the problem because they just keep multiplying over and over. Thats why birth control is the only real solution.

I agree with NR and Mr Guy.

If someone in an interview looked me in the eye and said, "Cure world hunger," I'd say, "Great. I'd be happy to! Let me know what I have to work with, how large the team is and, by the way, what's the salary for this? I'm ready."

ME: I'm glad we're on the same page.

How you answer this is telling. If you give up and say it's not solvable, you're probably right but toast. I think a good answer says something about addressing global export policy, leveraging first world technology while maintaining ecological integrity, and always keeping local people and resources.

If I could answer that, would I be applying for this job?

Sorry to all who say "Grow more", based on my limited knowledge, there is already enough food produced on earth than 8+ billion people can consume it. Infact we are wasting just too much good because of surplus. Story might be different for individual countries though.

So we do not need to grow more, nor money is the answer. I think spreading Awareness is the right way to go about it.

Practice and preach to consume for one's necessities

practically you cann't cure hunger of everyone. Because we infact don't know what's a hunger meant for someone? We can suggest the best ways to fulfill it but cann't feed them with it. So, for example if in case of knowledge, i bet you might not have solid cure.

replace h with b and n with r.....)

"hunger" is the effect of a bigger cause, the rich obese people on this earth. Cuttle the food supply to the "Cause" and you would not only end up curing "Hunger" but curing lot of lifestyle illness.
1. Ration all food supply.
2. Remove the middlemen between the farmers and the consumers. They are eating the profit which in turn increasing the price.
3. Encourage people to grow vegetables in their open barren space.
4. Reduce corruption and punish people who try to game the process.

I liked Janet's answer. I think I would just say I had not realised it was one of the responsibilities of the post I was applying for.

let me fast for 3 days continuously and get back to you.

@Abhijit, I don't think communist-leaning rationing is what Amazon wants to hear. It's an open-minded and liberal but capital-driven company that believes in competition.

In fact they'd respond better to the opening of markets - and moreover information sharing that allows resources to be diverted to where they're needed. For example, cell phones have been used by fishermen in rural India to identify which markets are paying what prices, allowing them to bring their goods to the markets with higher demand, and allowing less fish to go to waste.

1. Become president
2. Cut 75% of Federal programs and about 20% of taxes. (studies have shown that cutting the taxes will actually somewhat increase revenue by increasing incentives for entrepreneurs)
3. Use tax revenue to increase nuclear storehouses and temporarily employ medical professionals and sufficiently trained medical students to begin an international project.
4. Train medical personnel to diagnose malnourishment and to teach others to do the same.
5. Begin in the US by training and enlisting volunteers to A. find the malnourished in the country, and/or doing the same abroad and B. commit to helping to feed the malnourished once found
6. Repeat process for every allied country, sending medical personnel to diagnose and train volunteers to assist in finding malnourished and treating/feeding them. Leave staff on call in each country to follow up later.
7. Once all of the accomodating countries have been reached, use the renewed support of our friendly nations and our strong nuclear threat to subdue, or depose if necessary, the dictators that tend to intercept funds meant to reduce hunger.
8. Repeat disbursement of medical staff into the final countries.
9. Begin process of selling nuclear weapons to the levels before project.
10. Use revenue to feed and treat the many malnourished we would find in the last countries. Any revenue left over goes to any additional malnourished we didn't get to in the previous countries.
11. Ta-da!

with food, of course.

Did you really just suggest 'selling' nukes? That might cure hunger by triggering a nuclear holocaust...

Insects - they have the highest calorie to body mass ratio of any food.

This is a logistics question for Amazon.

First consider the questioner - they changed an industry from a brick and morter, consumer comes to us model to an online purchase, we get it to the consumer model through superior warehousing/distribution supply chain.

Second, consider the facts in the situation: Yes, we are capable of producing enough food to sustain the world's population. The countries and regions facing hunger issues (basic supply and demand problem) are generally lacking in proper climate conditions, infrastructure, skilled labor, and/or technology to sustain food supplies to their people. Add to that government instability and poor economic conditions which create more barriers as well as food product expirations and spoilage.

The problem is now framed in an Amazon relevant context: How do you amass, store, ship and distribute given the barriers and inherent issues of product shelf life?