The human genome mapping problem actually has no shortage of companies working on it. It's a big sector which has moved very fast, and its press is probably why it comes to mind.
As for feeding the world, this is something which valley internet-model startups just don't have much power over. It isn't even just a problem of production. You would need all kinds of control of poor post-colonial countries in order to do anything very significant about it. Even if you succeeded wildly, without development there will be a lot more people, they will all need other things like medical care which are now even more scarce, and in the end you will need even more food.
Once upon a time there WERE startups in charge of such things - for example, the Dutch East India Company... the development of civilization was one of the fundamental justifications for colonialism.
If you can make money on some kind of incubator for farmers near places with hunger problems and somehow make sure that the food gets to the poor who have no money to pay for it, then there are many government and NGO aid agencies which would like to talk to you. But it's not exactly a traditional startup thing so it is probably not going to appear on the HN radar.
Also, ideas like "feeding the world" don't fire the "make lots of money before the fund term ends" neurons for VCs. =/ Execution is long and painful on a real world problem like that.
As for feeding the world, this is something which valley internet-model startups just don't have much power over. It isn't even just a problem of production. You would need all kinds of control of poor post-colonial countries in order to do anything very significant about it. Even if you succeeded wildly, without development there will be a lot more people, they will all need other things like medical care which are now even more scarce, and in the end you will need even more food.
Once upon a time there WERE startups in charge of such things - for example, the Dutch East India Company... the development of civilization was one of the fundamental justifications for colonialism.
If you can make money on some kind of incubator for farmers near places with hunger problems and somehow make sure that the food gets to the poor who have no money to pay for it, then there are many government and NGO aid agencies which would like to talk to you. But it's not exactly a traditional startup thing so it is probably not going to appear on the HN radar.