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Sharvai Thomas
Memo 2
Rasheda Harrison
3 February 2016

The issue of food distribution and accessibility is not particularly unique to the United
States. All around the world, children and families have limited access to food and nutrients.
From the household to the school cafeterias, there are plenty of obstacles with providing the right
sources of food. The most effective way to address this issue is to Look with a telescope, not a
microscope, as described in the first chapter of Grahams book. When you look at things from a
wider point of view, you can see that many other people and some places may also be battling
the same challenges.
By looking at things in a larger perspective, I have found that places like India, Ethiopia,
Zambia, and Kenya also face challenges when it comes to providing the necessary nutrition to its
citizens. The severity of these issues in these countries is higher than that if the United States.
Not only is there the struggle of making food accessible, but there are countries that can barely
provide food at all. This creates a greater problem which can result in a stronger cry for help.
Before we can solve a problem, we have to look at what may be causing it. Lets take a
look at the continent of Africa. It can be assumed that this particular area has the highest
percentage of families who lack access to food. Now lets talk about why this problem may be in
existence. According to an article by Pedro Sanchez, some of the issues that Africa faces are the

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depletion of soil fertility, growing weeds killing crops, pests, and diseases. Over decades, smallscale farmers have removed large quantities of nutrients from their soils without using sufficient
quantities of manure or fertilizer to replenish the soil. It is almost impossible to grow crops to
be distributed to citizens when the soil isnt correctly taken care of.
Now that the problems have been identified, its time to work on ways to solve them.
Several ideas, theories, and plans have been created and put to action. The article Solutions for a
Cultivated Planet describes several plans and results to restore agriculture around the world. It
is written that While improving crop yields and reducing agricultures environmental impacts
will be instrumental in meeting future needs, it is also important to remember that more food can
be delivered by changing our agricultural and dietary preferences. Simply put, we can increase
food availability (in terms of calories, protein and critical nutrients) by shifting crop production
away from livestock feed, bioenergy crops and other non-food applications. This can be the
start of a foundation that will globally improve the accessibility and distribution of food all
around the world.

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Bibliography
Foley, Jonathan A. "Solutions for a Cultivated Planet." Nature.com. Nature
Publishing Group, 20 Oct. 2011. Web. 03 Feb. 2016.

Graham, Bob, and Chris Hand. "Chapter 1." America, the Owner's Manual: Making
Government Work for You. Washington, D.C.: CQ, 2010. N. pag. Print.
Sanchez, Pedro A. "Soil Fertility and Hunger in Africa." Science 295.5562 (2002): 201920. ProQuest. Web. 3 Feb. 2016.