Assignment 2: Whitepaper on Food Security Due Week 7 and worth 110 points The members of the United Nations found great value in the whitepaper you provided on population growth. They are now asking you to expand the whitepaper to include global food security as it relates to population growth and poverty. Read the overview and provide an assessment based on the questions below. I.             Overview            We can define global food security as the effort to build food systems that can feed everyone, everywhere, and every day by improving its quality and promoting nutritional agriculture (1). That said, there are certain practices that can advance this project: 1. Identifying the underlying causes of hunger and malnutrition 2. Investing in country-specific recovery plans 3. Strengthening strategic coordination with institutions like the UN and the World Bank 4. Encouraging developed countries to make sustained financial commitments to its success We must bear in mind that more than 3 billion people—nearly one-half of the world’s population—subsist on as little as $2.50 a day, with nearly 1.5 billion living in extreme poverty on less than $1.25 a day. According to the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and other relief agencies, about 20,000 people (mostly children) starve to death in the world every day, for a total of about 7 million people a year. In addition, about 750 million (twice the population of the United States) do not have access to clean drinking water, meaning that some one million people die every year from diarrhea caused by water-borne diseases. The earth’s population has grown since it reached 7 billion in 2010. It is expected to reach 8 billion in 2025, 9 billion in 2040, and 11 billion by the end of the 21st century (2). If the demand for food is predicted to rise 50% by 2030 and 70% by 2050, the real problem is not necessarily growing enough food, but rather making that amount available to people. Moreover, food illnesses are prevalent, with nearly 600 million reported cases of foodborne diseases each year. These mainly affect children but can also negatively impact the livelihood of farmers, vendors, trade associations, and ultimately, can reduce the Gross Domestic Product (national income) of a country. These issues can impose tremendous human, economic, social, and fiscal costs on countries, so addressing them allows governments to devote more resources to making desperately needed infrastructure improvements that raise the quality of life for everyone. It is not enough to have adequate supplies of food available. Policies that focus exclusively on food production can exacerbate the problem, particularly if, to satisfy the need for quantity, the quality of the food is left wanting. Reasons for Food Insecurity Certainly, poverty and the contributing systemic internal conditions are the driving factors behind keeping adequate food resources from reaching people, but it is only one of several. Others are.

1. Assignment 2: Whitepaper on Food Security
Due Week 7 and worth 110 points
The members of the United Nations found great value in the
whitepaper you provided on population growth. They are now
asking you to expand the whitepaper to include global food
security as it relates to population growth and poverty. Read the
overview and provide an assessment based on the questions
below.
I. Overview
We can define global food security as the effort to build food
systems that can feed everyone, everywhere, and every day by
improving its quality and promoting nutritional agriculture (1).
That said, there are certain practices that can advance this
project:
1. Identifying the underlying causes of hunger and malnutrition
2. Investing in country-specific recovery plans
3. Strengthening strategic coordination with institutions like the
UN and the World Bank
4. Encouraging developed countries to make sustained financial
commitments to its success
We must bear in mind that more than 3 billion people—nearly
one-half of the world’s population—subsist on as little as $2.50
a day, with nearly 1.5 billion living in extreme poverty on less
than $1.25 a day. According to the World Health Organization,
the United Nations, and other relief agencies, about 20,000
people (mostly children) starve to death in the world every day,
for a total of about 7 million people a year. In addition, about
750 million (twice the population of the United States) do not
have access to clean drinking water, meaning that some one
million people die every year from diarrhea caused by water-
borne diseases.
The earth’s population has grown since it reached 7 billion in
2010. It is expected to reach 8 billion in 2025, 9 billion in 2040,
and 11 billion by the end of the 21st century (2). If the demand

2. for food is predicted to rise 50% by 2030 and 70% by 2050, the
real problem is not necessarily growing enough food, but rather
making that amount available to people. Moreover, food
illnesses are prevalent, with nearly 600 million reported cases
of foodborne diseases each year. These mainly affect children
but can also negatively impact the livelihood of farmers,
vendors, trade associations, and ultimately, can reduce the
Gross Domestic Product (national income) of a country. These
issues can impose tremendous human, economic, social, and
fiscal costs on countries, so addressing them allows
governments to devote more resources to making desperately
needed infrastructure improvements that raise the quality of life
for everyone.
It is not enough to have adequate supplies of food available.
Policies that focus exclusively on food production can
exacerbate the problem, particularly if, to satisfy the need for
quantity, the quality of the food is left wanting.
Reasons for Food Insecurity
Certainly, poverty and the contributing systemic internal
conditions are the driving factors behind keeping adequate food
resources from reaching people, but it is only one of several.
Others are discussed next.
Inadequate Food Distribution: The reality is that there is more
than enough food in the world to feed its people, but the
primary cause of famine is not poor weather conditions as much
as it is getting the food to the people who need it most. Quite
often, disruptions in food distribution result from political
instability and poor infrastructure (such as poorly functioning
port facilities, lack of transportation options, and inadequate
road networks). Paradoxically, although the world’s population
is increasing, the amount of potential food available will
increase along with it, due mostly to advances in bio-
agricultural engineering and seed immunity to molds.
Writing in the late 18th century, Thomas Malthus warned that
the global population would exceed the earth’s capacity to grow
food, in that while the population would grow exponentially,

3. food production would grow only arithmetically. Although this
theory was proved invalid, its propagation has unfortunately
resulted in some governments rationalizing political choices
that avoid helping the poverty-ridden and starving.
Political-Agricultural Practices: The widespread use of
microbiological, chemical, and other forms of pesticides in food
continues to be a serious issue throughout the global food chain.
Widespread use of fertilizers also causes illness in millions of
people every year, not only from the food itself, but from run-
off into streams and rivers, contaminating entire water supplies.
The human, social, fiscal, and economic costs of such practices
impede improvements not only in the raising of crops, but in
their distribution. Added to this, the rising demand in developed
countries for biofuels, refined mostly from corn and soybean,
reduces the amount of arable land devoted to producing food.
The failure of many farmers in the developing world to rotate
their crops harms the replenishing of nutrients necessary to
continue growing crops. In addition, neglecting to allow land to
remain fallow exhausts the soil, making it much more difficult
to raise a decent amount of food per acre the following growing
season.
Economic Issues: The fact is, government policies that focus on
growing cash crops, for example, are designed solely to export
them to earn foreign exchange. This may be fine for the
government in its effort to earn money, but the result is that
farmers end up growing for foreign markets and not domestic
ones, leading to shortages of necessary staples. Consequently,
the poorest of the population are frozen out of the local markets
because they cannot afford the food that remains to be sold (3).
Civil Strife: Civil war can interrupt the flow of food from
gathering depots, such as ports, 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, which affected the flow
of food to the rest of the population. In this case, as with many
civil wars, whoever controls the supply of food controls the

4. country. In failed and failing states like Zimbabwe, Congo,
Haiti, South Sudan, Yemen, and Libya, food is very often
another weapon used by one 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/wo
rld-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
The issue is not the lack of food in the world, but the access to
food. In many developing countries, the food shortage is due to
governmental control over food. These governments maintain
control and preference by limiting access of nutritious food to
certain groups, thereby weaponizing food.
In this second assignment, research the impact of poverty on
global food security and the potential technological solutions.
Write a minimum of four pages (not including the cover letter)
assessing the impact of food insecurity. Select one country from
the United Nations list of developing countries to use as an
example throughout your assessment. The completed version of
this assignment will include the following items:
· Cover page: Include your name, title of course, name of the
developing country you have chosen 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

5. play in it?
· What specific factors interrupt the flow of food from the
source to the people in the developing country you selected?
· What forms of technology can be used to reduce hunger and
improve food security? 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.
Cite at least five credible sources excluding Wikipedia,
dictionaries, and encyclopedias for your assessment. A brief list
of suggested resources has been provided at the end of the
course guide.
This course requires use of Strayer Writing Standards (SWS).
The format is different compared to other Strayer University
courses. Please take a moment to review the SWS
documentation for details. (Note: You’ll be prompted to enter
your Blackboard login credentials to view these standards.)
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this
assignment are:
· Propose a plan to address the issue of global food security in
underdeveloped countries that considers the impact of prior
solutions.
Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality,
logic/organization of the paper, and language and writing skills,
using the following rubric: