Soylent.me is selling a month supply of soylent for $270 (International). That requires a wage of $9 per day, which is well above the $1 per day poverty limit. On an annual basis, that comes down to $3,240 per day, more than the per capita GDP of some of the countries outside the US to which you are likely referring [1].

What about at scale? A 14 oz. tin of Ensure powder costs $9 at Walmart [2]. It provides 7 servings, which comes out to $1.29 per meal or $3.30 per day. Cheaper, but still not quite there - It would need to sell for < 1/3 retail price to feed those living in poverty[3].

I'm sure it's possible to supply Ensure/Soylent at a sufficient price, especially if you subsidize it heavily through government programs or charity. But this of course get's into the distribution and logistical problems that really plague attempts to solve food shortages through clever solutions. This also ignores the potential negative economic and political impacts of making entire countries reliant on a food product distributed to their people through an outside agency.

All this is to say, I do not think this is as clear cut a solution as you are pointing out.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomin... [2] http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ensure-R-Powder-Vanilla-14-oz-can/... [3] I know using Walmart's price isn't a perfect analysis, but I needed a quick reference to frame the conversation

> Are you trying to say you have not met any person, ever, who does not have the money or ability to find good, wholesome foods?

That isn't what they said.

> However, creating a less expensive, highly nutritious, complete food product that is shelf stable and easily transported would save 10's, maybe 100's, of millions of lives.

It already exists. The World Food Programme already has it. Soylent isn't doing anything new. Open Source Soylent isn't doing anything new.

Here's a list of the different feeds the WFP uses (http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/co...)

(https://www.wfp.org/nutrition/how-wfp-fights-malnutrition)

(https://www.wfp.org/nutrition/special-nutritional-products)

(http://www.irinnews.org/report/83124/malawi-cheaper-recipe-f...)

Notice that Soylent needs to be mixed with water. Clean water isn't easily available in many areas, so I'm not sure if Soylent are aware of that.

> There is an entire world outside of the US, with a number of countries having significant economic and food shortages.

Often due to policies of the US or other imperialist nations.

I'd love to respond, and have, but it seems these days HN doesn't want me to say too much, and for the second time in a week has automatically killed my comment.