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A COMMENTARY About six months ago, a symposium was convened consisting of around fifty Captains of Industry, Financial Leaders, Government Representatives and assorted Academics.  A question was put to them.   "Why are hundreds of thousands of people, worldwide, dying of starvation and what can be done about it?"  After a couple of weeks of posturing, debate, pontificating and media hype, a seventeen page report was issued.  Boiled down to the essentials, it said.  "It is the opinion of this symposium that no significant gains, or advantages, neither economically, nor politically, would accrue from attempts to ameliorate the situation.  The consensus is that it would be disadvantageous to disturb the natural status quo."  Which being translated to Basic English reads.  "There is no money or kudos in this for us, so let them die and do it quietly."  It is noteworthy that at the end of the symposium an eight course banquet was offered to the participants.  Of the sixty-four different dishes prepared for this banquet there was enough "leftovers" to give a reasonably sized African town indigestion for a week. It is a great pity that there wasn't an Historian amoung them, as he might have pointed out that over the centuries, pervasive hunger has sparked many a revolution, during which hundreds of exalted heads have rolled.  In addition, countless millions of brave men have died in vain in a misguided attempt to protect the wealth and power of the very people who were too short sighted and greedy to make the very investment that would have avoided the whole silly business. True, the United Nations makes loud noises and sends small groups of bureaucrats on "fact finding" missions.   From time to time, the "Have Nations" send a few truck loads of grain to the "Have not Nations", little more than a drop in a bucket that has a large hole in the bottom.  Nobody seems to address the fact that great tracts of land throughout the world are worn out as a result of time honoured, but grossly inefficient, farming practices, or buried beneath countless acres of concrete and asphalt.  Add to this the fact that the global population is growing at an unprecedented rate, it is postulated that by the year 2015 it will have doubled, yet arable land will have decreased by at least 30%.  It is no wonder that the first steps are being taken to find another planet for us to mess up. What to do about it?  That is the question.  Whether it be easier in the mind of man to let it slide, or by opposing end it?  (with apologies to the Bard).  With modern technology, education and considerable investment of both time and money, the 'natural status quo' can be reversed.   There is no way that this reversal can take place overnight, nor will the financial profit compare favourably with Microsoft, but in time, deserts and fields that would only grow rocks can and have been made to bloom and feed hundreds.  Without doubt, in the fullness of time, however large an investment is required, it will return a handsome profit. How it could be done will be discussed, at length, in a later edition.