‘We can meet anywhere’: World Food Programme director calls out Elon Musk after billionaire’s ‘offer’

Mr Beasley said if billionaires committed two per cent of their wealth, the hunger crisis would be solved

WFP director David Beasley (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) director David Beasley and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have continued their ongoing Twitter spat over the world’s hunger crisis.

The two started sparring on the micro blogging site after Mr Beasely asked Mr Musk and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to pledge $6 billion of their wealth to solve the world’s hunger crisis.

On 31 October, Mr Musk responded in a Twitter thread and said that if the WFP can explain how $6 billion can solve the hunger crisis, he will sell Tesla stock immediately.

Mr Beasley responded on 1 November that while the sum may not be able to solve the world’s hunger problem, but “it will prevent geopolitical instability, mass migration and save 42 million people on the brink of starvation. An unprecedented crisis and a perfect storm due to Covid/conflict/climate crises.”

He added that, with the help of the world’s billionaires, there is hope to bring stability and change in the world.

On Monday, Mr Beasley proposed that instead of tweets, the duo can meet anywhere, earth or space, to discuss the plan.

Mr Musk’s wealth has ballooned by eight-fold during the pandemic. He overtook Mr Bezos to become the world’s richest person, having seen his wealth rise from $25 billion to nearly $200bn in less than a year.

He is best known for electric car company Tesla and private rocket firm Space X.

Mr Beasley was awarded the Nobel Prize in December 2020.