The supposition that famines and poverty are caused by growing populations is inaccurate, at best. History and economics repeatedly reveal that horrible famines are a result of oppressive and abusive government, politics and unavoidable natural disasters. To remedy the effects of famine, we must reach out with humanitarian aid and offer technology to those who lack it, as well as appeal to abusive governments. 3 Harvard economist Amartya Sen offers the entitlement approach to explain the cause of starvation and famine. In short, starvation results from failure to be entitled to command enough food.
Famines thrive even in the absence of any general decline in food availability.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Sahel regions around the Sahara experienced drought and famine. However, an FAO survey documented every Sahelian country produced enough food to feed the people even during the worst drought year. 45. 5 Ibid, 49. 6 Ibid, 154. 7 Ibid, 52.