Assignment 2 Whitepaper On Food Security

Inadequate Food Distribution:The reality is that there is more than enough food in the world to feedits people, but the primary cause of famine is not poor weatherconditions as much as it is getting the food to the people who need itmost. Quite often, disruptions in food distribution result frompolitical instability and poor infrastructure (such as poorlyfunctioning port facilities, lack of transportation options, andinadequate road networks). Paradoxically, although the world’spopulation is increasing, the amount of potential food available willincrease along with it, due mostly to advances in bio-agriculturalengineering and seed immunity to molds.

Writingin the late 18th century, Thomas Malthus warned that the globalpopulation would exceed the earth’s capacity to grow food, in that whilethe population would grow exponentially, food production would growonly arithmetically. Although this theory was proved invalid, itspropagation has unfortunately resulted in some governments rationalizingpolitical choices that avoid helping the poverty-ridden and starving.

Political-Agricultural Practices: Thewidespread use of microbiological, chemical, and other forms ofpesticides in food continues to be a serious issue throughout the globalfood chain. Widespread use of fertilizers also causes illness inmillions of people every year, not only from the food itself, but fromrun-off into streams and rivers, contaminating entire water supplies.The human, social, fiscal, and economic costs of such practices impedeimprovements not only in the raising of crops, but in theirdistribution. Added to this, the rising demand in developed countriesfor biofuels, refined mostly from corn and soybean, reduces the amountof arable land devoted to producing food.

Thefailure of many farmers in the developing world to rotate their cropsharms the replenishing of nutrients necessary to continue growing crops.In addition, neglecting to allow land to remain fallow exhausts thesoil, making it much more difficult to raise a decent amount of food peracre the following growing season.

Economic Issues:The fact is, government policies that focus on growing cash crops, forexample, are designed solely to export them to earn foreign exchange.This may be fine for the government in its effort to earn money, but theresult is that farmers end up growing for foreign markets and notdomestic ones, leading to shortages of necessary staples. Consequently,the poorest of the population are frozen out of the local marketsbecause they cannot afford the food that remains to be sold (3).

Civil Strife: Civilwar can interrupt the flow of food from gathering depots, such asports, to distribution centers where it can be handed out to people.During the 1990s, Somalia was particularly hard hit by their civil war,as clans fought for control of the main port at Mogadishu, whichaffected the flow of food to the rest of the population. In this case,as with many civil wars, whoever controls the supply of food controlsthe country. In failed and failing states like Zimbabwe, Congo, Haiti,South Sudan, Yemen, and Libya, food is very often another weapon used byone segment of the population against another.

Sources:

1.Peter Timmer. 2015. Food Security and Scarcity: Why Ending Hunger Is So Hard. Foreign Affairs magazine.

2.The United Nations Population Division. 2017. World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision. https://www.un.org/development/desa/publications/world-population-prospects-the-2017-revision.html

3.Will Martin. November 2010. Food Security and Poverty: A Precarious Balance. Let’s Talk Development blog by The World Bank. http://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/food-security-and-poverty-a-precarious-balance

II.Assessment

Theissue is not the lack of food in the world, but the access to food. Inmany developing countries, the food shortage is due to governmentalcontrol over food. These governments maintain control and preference bylimiting access of nutritious food to certain groups, therebyweaponizing food.

Inthis second assignment, research the impact of poverty on global foodsecurity and the potential technological solutions. Write a minimum of four pages (not including the cover letter) assessing the impact of food insecurity. Select onecountry from the United Nations list of developing countries to use asan example throughout your assessment. The completed version of thisassignment will include the following items:

• Cover page: Includeyour name, title of course, name of the developing country you havechosen from the UN list, current date, and the name of your instructor.
• Introduction: Introduce the topic of the whitepaper (half-page minimum).
• One-page (minimum) answers to each of the following questions (for a total of three pages):
• What is food insecurity, and what role does population growth play in it?
• What specific factors interrupt the flow of food from the source to the people in the developing country you selected?
• Whatforms of technology can be used to reduce hunger and improve foodsecurity? Explain how these technological solutions would work.

Note: Give examples in your responses to each of the above questions as it relates to the developing country you have chosen.

• Conclusion: A one-half page (minimum) conclusion.

Citeat least five credible sources excluding Wikipedia, dictionaries, andencyclopedias for your assessment. A brief list of suggested resourceshas been provided at the end of the course guide.