A common guideline for daily (kilo)calorie intake is 2500 for males, 2000 for females.
The worldwide sex ratio is estimated to be 101 -- 1 extra man for every 100 women.
Thus the average earthbound human ought to be consuming 1.01(2500+2000)/2 calories daily = 2272.5.
People in the 10 poorest countries eat, on average, fewer than 2000 calories a day. Meanwhile, the 10 best-fed countries consume, on average, over 3500 calories per day(!).
Such is the excess that is produced that many of us in some of the best-fed nations have commonly seen perfectly good food simply thrown away. What we have is a calorie surplus that can be redistributed toward the deficit.
Intercalorie Day is a holiday which can be commmorated by those in the best-fed nations (where the average citizen consumes greater than 2273 calories per day) limiting their consumption to no greater than that amount. (Celebrants may also choose to fast to remind themselves of the many that are hungry.)
Furthermore, each individual participating citizen of the best-fed nations will celebrate by charitably "giving" his or her excess calories to poorer nations. If one particular "average" American consumes 3675 calories a day, he/she "owes" 3675-2273 = 1402 calories to the world (AT LEAST -- arguably more is owed for the numerous countries where the average citizens consume fewer than that number).
This gift be achieved either through donating food, or by donating a reasonable dollar amount for the excess -- perhaps 100 calories = $1.
Intercalorie Day will NOT, by itself, solve world hunger, nor should it be imagined to be an exclusive substitute for charitably contributing for the good of the world. But, it is a way to increase awareness in better-fed nations, and do some good in the process.-- nihilo, Jun 27 2006 Intercalation http://en.wikipedia.../wiki/Intercalation [nihilo, Jun 27 2006] About calories http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie [nihilo, Jun 27 2006] World food consumption trends http://www.findarti..._n1_v15/ai_13608619a bit out of date... [nihilo, Jun 27 2006] Worldwide gender ratio http://chronicle.co...50/i34/34a01401.htm [nihilo, Jun 27 2006] Daily calorie supply per person http://www.iucn.org...LOBAL_19CALORIE.jpga bit out of date... [nihilo, Jun 27 2006] 40-hour famine http://www.famine.org.nz/about.aspxAn event of which your idea reminded me. [methinksnot, Jun 27 2006] But it can't just be "calories" or everyone would donate potato chips and soda.-- phundug, Jun 27 2006 Potato chips and soda could save someone's life.
But it's not the letter of the law, it's the spirit that gives it life.-- nihilo, Jun 27 2006 Actually, knowing us Americans, we would keep the chips & soda and donate unwanted vegetables, unwittingly creating an ultrahealthy foreign "supercountry".-- phundug, Jun 27 2006 "The relief flight has arrived!"
"Did they bring the seed corn, clean bandages and spare parts for the water pump?"
"Err, no... but there are doughnuts."-- pertinax, Jun 28 2006 The problem with starvation is not total availability of food. It is distribution. There is plenty of food available, but it is in the wrong places.
Getting it from the fat to the starving is the problem.
In the US we make plastics out of corn. In Brazil they make auto fuel out of sugar cane. This isn't just selfishness. It is difficulties of distribution and the variagies of the market.
This is exacerbated by the perversities of differential production. A single farmer in the US can feed hundreds. A single farmer in Eritria cannot feed his family. But delivering bushels of corn from Iowa to Anseba is impractical, especially on a long term basis.
Hunger is a very complex issue.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Jun 28 2006 No one is denying this. Sometimes when I'm hungry I want something sweet; othertimes, salty.
What the proposed holiday is an attempt to do is (1) increase awareness of world hunger and food inequities among the richest nations, (2) collectively mobilize the efforts of the citizens of said nations to donate needed food and/or resources to those that are lacking. A public holiday among the wealthiest nations would create avenues to overcome currently existing distribution problems.-- nihilo, Jun 28 2006 I'm pretty sure this has been already baked as the Islamic holiday of Ramadan.-- Gallus, Jun 28 2006 It is also baked once a month by Mormons.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Jun 28 2006 Oh, and "my neighbors Joe & Mary have baked this idea". Come on!
I'm talking about a universal national holiday for industrialized nations that institutionalizes charity-- like the various "Independence Day"s of various nations institutionalize patriotism, like Christmas institutionalizes commercialism, on a national level -- by making them mindful of, and accountable for, their gluttony.-- nihilo, Jun 28 2006 Our post office does this and we put food in the mailbox and the postman picks it up on a certain Saturday of the month and the food is donated to Food Banks in the area.....but it isn't a bad idea.-- xandram, Jun 28 2006 I work hard to eat as much as I do. I don't overconsume but I work to earn my food.
In countries where there is no food: I suggest you get up and move camp to where the food is.
This is what humans have been doing for ages... following the food.
Why stay in an area that is barren? That sounds like a personal problem to me.-- twinkletoes1218, Mar 20 2008 //Why stay in an area that is barren? That sounds like a personal problem to me.// Yo Twinkie, which potato field do you live in?
Can I just mention that I'd like you to leave? It's just a personal preference.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 20 2008 //MaxwellBuchanan// can i mention that i don't really care. it's just a personal preference.
FYI you can't always get what you want-- twinkletoes1218, Mar 25 2008 random, halfbakery