bearice: loving your posts tonight. 1st: married women (who for a large part according to you work for hobby) shouldn't work because they take jobs away from men and single women. 2nd: tea and coffee, useless. Let me chip in: 3rd: all fossil fuel 'fueled' economic activity should stop, immediately. As it is unhealthy for humans and true external costs are not generally considered.
Wheat is a grass and Grass has conquered/ruled every land on Earth. Grass grows in deserts and Grass grows in extreme snow regions of the world. Alternatively you can grow grass instead on tea and coffee and feed the grass to cattle, sheeps, goats and other animals. I have lots of knowledge about wild world. I can survive in Siberia and I can survive in Sahara desert. I can survive 20,000 feet under the sea/ocean waters (joking). Farming is no comparison to my world knowledge.
It really is just not that simple. The problem is not the amount of food it is the transportation of it. improve infrastructure and more food will be eaten rather than wasted.
I cannot think of any practical or economically efficient crops that could be grown in tea producing areas that would provide the same revenue or employment and I would imagine most coffee plantations could not be readily turned over to any other crop other than some fruits.