Famine

Afamineis a widespread scarcity offoodcaused by several possible factors, including, but not limited towar,natural disasters,crop failure, widespreadpoverty, aneconomic catastropheorgovernment policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regionalmalnutrition,starvation,epidemic, and increasedmortality. Every inhabited continent in the world has experienced a period of famine throughout history. During the 19th and 20th centuries,SoutheastandSouth Asia, as well asEasternandCentral Europe, suffered the greatest number of fatalities due to famine. Deaths caused by famine declined sharply beginning in the 1970s, with numbers falling further since 2000. Since 2010,Africahas been the most affected continent in the world by famine.
According to the United NationsWorld Food Programme, famine is declared when malnutrition is widespread, and when people have started dying from starvation through lack of access to sufficient, nutritious food.TheIntegrated Food Security Phase Classificationcriteria definePhase 5 famineof acute food insecurity as occurring when all three of the following situations exist at the same time:
The declaration of a famine carries no binding obligations on the UN or member states, but serves to focus global attention on the problem.
The scarcity of food refers to a situation where the availability of food is insufficient to meet the demands of a population, often resulting from factors like poor agricultural productivity, climate change, political instability, or economic crisis. This shortage can lead to widespread hunger, malnutrition, and social unrest, especially in vulnerable regions. Food scarcity not only affects individual health and well-being, but also contributes to greater inequality and economic decline as prices for essential items rise dramatically, further limiting access for the poor. Addressing food scarcity requires sustainable agricultural practices, improved food distribution systems, and coordinated global efforts to alleviate poverty and inequality.
The cyclical occurrence of famine has been a mainstay of societies engaged insubsistence agriculturesince the dawn of agriculture itself. The frequency and intensity of famine has fluctuated throughout history, depending on changes in food demand, such aspopulation growth, and supply-side shifts caused by changingclimaticconditions.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the feudal system began to break down, and more prosperous farmers began toenclosetheir own land and improve their yields to sell the surplus crops for a profit. Thesecapitalistlandowners paid their labourers withmoney, thereby increasing the commercialization of rural society. In the emerging competitive labour market, better techniques for the improvement of labour productivity were increasingly valued and rewarded. It was in the farmer's interest to produce as much as possible on their land, in order to sell it to areas that demanded their produce. They produced guaranteedsurplusesof their crop every year if they could.
Subsistence peasants were also increasingly forced to commercialize their activities because of increasingtaxes. Taxes that had to be paid to central governments in money, forced the peasants to produce crops to sell. Sometimes they producedindustrial crops, but they would find ways to increase their production in order to meet both their subsistence requirements as well as their tax obligations. Peasants also used the new money to purchase manufactured goods. The agricultural and social developments encouraging increased food production were gradually taking place throughout the 16th century, but took off in the early 17th century.
By the 1590s, these trends were sufficiently developed in the rich and commercialized province ofHollandto allow its population to withstand a general outbreak of famine in Western Europe at that time. By that time, theNetherlandshad one of the most commercialized agricultural systems in Europe. They grew many industrial crops such asflax,hempandhops. Agriculture became increasingly specialized and efficient. The efficiency of Dutch agriculture allowed for much more rapid urbanization in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries than anywhere else in Europe. As a result, productivity and wealth increased, allowing the Netherlands to maintain a steady food supply.
By 1650, English agriculture had also become commercialized on a much wider scale. The last peacetime famine in England was in 1623–24. There were still periods of hunger, as in the Netherlands, but no more famines ever occurred. Common areas for pasture wereenclosedfor private use and large scale, efficient farms were consolidated. Other technical developments included the draining of marshes, more efficient field use patterns, and the wider introduction of industrial crops. These agricultural developments led to wider prosperity in England and increasing urbanization.By the end of the 17th century, English agriculture was the most productive in Europe.In both England and the Netherlands, the population stabilized between 1650 and 1750, the same time period in which the sweeping changes to agriculture occurred. Famine still occurred in other parts of Europe, however. InEastern Europe, famines occurred as late as the twentieth century.
Because of the severity of famine, it was a chief concern for governments and other authorities. In pre-industrial Europe, preventing famine, and ensuring timely food supplies, was one of the chief concerns of many governments, although they were severely limited in their options due to limited levels of external trade, infrastructure, and bureaucracy generally too rudimentary to effect real relief. Most governments were concerned by famine because it could lead torevoltand other forms of social disruption.
By the mid-19th century and the onset of theIndustrial Revolution, it became possible for governments to alleviate the effects of famine throughprice controls, large scale importation of food products from foreign markets, stockpiling,rationing, regulation of production andcharity. TheGreat Famine of 1845in Ireland was one of the first famines to feature such intervention, although the government response was often lackluster. The initial response of the British government to the early phase of the famine was "prompt and relatively successful", according toF. S. L. Lyons.Confronted by widespread crop failure in the autumn of 1845, Prime MinisterSir Robert Peelpurchased £100,000 worth of maize andcornmealsecretly from America.Baring Brothers & Coinitially acted as purchasing agents for the Prime Minister. The government hoped that they would not "stifle private enterprise" and that their actions would not act as a disincentive to local relief efforts. Due to weather conditions, the first shipment did not arrive in Ireland until the beginning of February 1846.The maize corn was then re-sold for a penny a pound.
In 1846, Peel moved to repeal theCorn Laws,tariffson grain which kept the price of bread artificially high. The famine situation worsened during 1846 and the repeal of the Corn Laws in that year did little to help the starving Irish; the measure split the Conservative Party, leading to the fall of Peel's ministry.In March, Peel set up a programme of public works in Ireland.
Despite this promising start, the measures undertaken by Peel's successor,Lord John Russell, proved comparatively "inadequate" as the crisis deepened. Russell's ministry introduced public works projects, which by December 1846 employed some half million Irish and proved impossible to administer. The government was influenced by alaissez-fairebelief that the market would provide the food needed. It halted government food and relief works, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered inworkhousesthrough thePoor Law, the latter throughsoup kitchens.
A systematic attempt at creating the necessary regulatory framework for dealing with famine was developed by theBritish Rajin the 1880s. In order to comprehensively address the issue of famine, the British created an Indian Famine commission to recommend steps that the government would be required to take in the event of a famine.The Famine Commission issued a series of government guidelines and regulations on how to respond to famines and food shortages called the Famine Code. The famine code was also one of the first attempts to scientifically predict famine in order to mitigate its effects. These were finally passed into law in 1883 underLord Ripon.
TheCodeintroduced the firstfamine scale: three levels offood insecuritywere defined: near-scarcity, scarcity, and famine. "Scarcity" was defined as three successive years ofcrop failure,crop yieldsof one-third or one-half normal, and large populations in distress. "Famine" further included a rise in food prices above 140% of "normal", the movement of people in search of food, and widespread mortality.The Commission identified that the loss of wages from lack of employment of agricultural labourers and artisans were the cause of famines. The Famine Code applied a strategy of generating employment for these sections of the population and relied on open-ended public works to do so.
During the 20th century, an estimated 70 to 120 million people died fromfamines across the world, of whom over half died in China, with an estimated 30 million dying during thefamine of 1958–1961,up to 10 million in theChinese famine of 1928–1930, and over two million in theChinese famine of 1942–1943, and millions more lost in famines in North and East China. The USSR lost 8 million claimed by theSoviet famine of 1930–1933, over a million in both theSoviet famine of 1946–1947andSiege of Leningrad, the 5 million in theRussian famine of 1921–1922, and others famines. Java suffered 2.5 million deaths under Japanese occupation during World War Two.The other most notable famine of the century was theBengal famine of 1943, resulting both from theJapanese occupation of Burma, resulting in an influx of refugees, and blocking Burmese grain imports and a failure of theBengali provincial Governmenttodeclare a famine, and fund relief, the imposition of grain and transport embargoes by the neighbouring provincial administrations, to prevent their own stocks being transferred to Bengal, the failure to implement India wide rationing by the central Delhi authority, hoarding and profiteering by merchants, medieval land management practices, an Axis powers denial program that confiscated boats once used to transport grain, a Delhi administration that prioritised supplying, and offering medical treatment to the British Indian Army, War workers, and Civil servants, over the populace at large, incompetence and ignorance, and anImperial War Cabinetinitially leaving the issue to the Colonial administration to resolve, than to the original local crop failures, and blights.
A few of the great famines of the late 20th century were: theBiafran faminein the 1960s, theKhmer Rouge-caused famine in Cambodia in the 1970s, the North Koreanfamine of the 1990s, and the Ethiopianfamine of 1983–1985. Approximately 3 million died as a consequence of theSecond Congo War.
The Ethiopian famine was reported on television reports around the world, carrying footage of starving Ethiopians whose plight was centered around a feeding station near the town ofKorem. This stimulated the first mass movements to end famine across the world.
BBCnewsreaderMichael Buerkgave moving commentary of the tragedy on 23 October 1984, which he described as a "biblical famine". This prompted theBand Aidsingle, which was organized byBob Geldofand featured more than 20 pop stars. TheLive Aidconcerts inLondonandPhiladelphiaraised even more funds for the cause. Hundreds of thousands of people died within one year as a result of the famine, but the publicity Live Aid generated encouraged Western nations to make available enough surplus grain to end the immediate hunger crisis in Africa.
Some of the famines of the 20th century served the geopolitical purposes of governments, including traumatizing and replacing distrusted ethnic populations in strategically important regions, rendering regions vulnerable to invasion difficult to govern by an enemy power and shifting the burden of food shortage onto regions where the distress of the population posed a lesser risk of catastrophic regime de-legitimation.
Until 2017, worldwide deaths from famine had been falling dramatically. TheWorld Peace Foundationreported that from the 1870s to the 1970s, great famines killed an average of 928,000 people a year.Since 1980, annual deaths had dropped to an average of 75,000, less than 10% of what they had been until the 1970s. That reduction was achieved despite the approximately 150,000 lives lost in the2011 Somalia famine. Yet in 2017, the UN officially declared famine had returned to Africa, with about 20 million people at risk of death from starvation in the northern part of Nigeria, inSouth Sudan, inYemen, and inSomalia.
On 20 April 2021, hundreds of aid organizations from around the world wrote an open letter toThe Guardiannewspaper, warning that millions of people inYemen,Afghanistan,Ethiopia,South Sudan,Burkina Faso,Democratic Republic of the Congo,Honduras,Venezuela,Nigeria,Haiti,Central African Republic,Uganda,ZimbabweandSudanfaced starvation. Organizations including the International Council of Voluntary Agencies and theWorld Food Programmesaid: "Girls and boys, men and women, are being starved by conflict and violence; by inequality; by the impacts of climate change; by the loss of land, jobs of prospects; by a fight against Covid-19 that has left them even further behind". The groups warned that funding had dwindled, while money alone would not be enough by itself. Governments should step in to end conflicts and ensure humanitarian access, they said. "If no action is taken, lives will be lost. The responsibility to address this lies with states", they added.
In November 2021, theWorld Food Programmereported that 45 million people were "teetering on the very edge of famine" in 43 countries and that the slightest shock would push them over the precipice. This number had risen from 42 million earlier in 2021, and from 27 million in 2019.The slightest shock — be it extreme weather linked to climate change, conflict, or the deadly interplay of both hunger drivers — could push tens of millions of people into irreversible peril, a prospect the agency had been warning of for more than a year.Afghanistanwas becoming the world's largest humanitarian crisis, with the country's needs surpassing those of the other worst-hit countries —Ethiopia,South Sudan,Syriaand evenYemen.
In August 2024,faminewas declared in Sudan,where several refugee camps, displaced by the ongoingSudanese civil war, were found to be facing severe famine conditions. According to theIPC, over 24 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and a phase 5 famine was detected in multiple regions.UN experts have accused theSudanese Armed Forces(SAF) and theRapid Support Forces(RSF) of using ‘starvation tactics’ against the civilians in the country, and have said “Never in modern history have so many people faced starvation and famine as in Sudan today”.
In the mid-22nd century BC, a sudden and short-lived climatic change that caused reduced rainfall resulted in several decades of drought inUpper Egypt. The resulting famine and civil strife is believed to have been a major cause of the collapse of theOld Kingdom. An account from theFirst Intermediate Periodstates, "All of Upper Egypt was dying of hunger and people were eating their children." As for recorded examples about more recent centuries: in the 1680s, famine extended across the entireSahel, and in 1738 half the population ofTimbuktudied of famine.InEgypt, between 1687 and 1731, there were six famines.The famine that afflicted Egypt in 1784 cost it roughly one-sixth of its population.TheMaghrebexperienced famine andplaguein the late 18th century and early 19th century.There was famine inTripoliin 1784, and inTunisin 1785.
According to John Iliffe, "Portuguese records ofAngolafrom the 16th century show that a great famine occurred on average every seventy years; accompanied by epidemic disease, it might kill one-third or one-half of the population, destroying the demographic growth of a generation and forcing colonists back into the river valleys."
The first documentation of weather in West-Central Africa occurred around the mid-16th to 17th centuries in areas such as Luanda Kongo, however, not much data was recorded on the issues of weather and disease except for a few notable documents. The only records obtained are of violence between Portuguese and Africans during theBattle of Mbwilain 1665. In these documents the Portuguese wrote of African raids on Portuguese merchants solely for food, giving clear signs of famine. Additionally, instances ofcannibalismby the African Jaga were also more prevalent during this time frame, indicating an extreme deprivation of a primary food source.
A notable period of famine occurred around the turn of the 20th century in theCongo Free State. In forming this state, Leopold used mass labor camps to finance his empire.This period resulted in the death of up to 10 million Congolese from brutality, disease and famine.Some colonial "pacification" efforts often caused severe famine, notably with the repression of the Maji Maji revolt inTanganyikain 1906. The introduction of cash crops such as cotton, and forcible measures to impel farmers to grow these crops, sometimes impoverished the peasantry in many areas, such as northern Nigeria, contributing to greater vulnerability to famine when severe drought struck in 1913.
A large-scale famine occurred in Ethiopia in 1888 and in succeeding years, as therinderpest epizootic, introduced intoEritreaby infected cattle, spread southwards reaching ultimately as far asSouth Africa. In Ethiopia it was estimated that as much as 90 percent of the national herd died, rendering rich farmers and herders destitute overnight. This coincided withdroughtassociated with anEl Niñooscillation, human epidemics ofsmallpox, and in several countries, intense war. TheEthiopian Great faminethat afflicted Ethiopia from 1888 to 1892 cost it roughly one-third of its population.InSudanthe year 1888 is remembered as the worst famine in history, on account of these factors and also the exactions imposed by theMahdist state.
Theoral traditionsof theHimba peoplerecall two droughts from 1910 to 1917. From 1910 to 1911 the Himba described the drought as "drought of the omutati seed", also calledomangowi, the fruit of an unidentified vine that people ate during the time period. From 1914 to 1916, droughts broughtkatur' ombandaorkari' ombanda'the time of eating clothing'.
For the middle part of the 20th century, agriculturalists, economists and geographers did not consider Africa to be especially famine prone. From 1870 to 2010, 87% of deaths from famine occurred in Asia and Eastern Europe, with only 9.2% in Africa.There were notable counter-examples, such as the famine inRwandaduring World War II and theMalawifamine of 1949, but most famines were localized and brief food shortages. Although the drought was brief the main cause of death in Rwanda was due to Belgian prerogatives to acquisition grain from their colony (Rwanda). The increased grain acquisition was related to WW2. This and the drought caused 300,000 Rwandans to perish.
From 1967 to 1969 large scale famine occurred in Biafra and Nigeria due to agovernment blockade of the Breakaway territory. It is estimated that 1.5 million people died of starvation due to this famine. Additionally, drought and other government interference with the food supply caused 500 thousand Africans to perish in Central and West Africa.
Famine recurred in the early 1970s, when Ethiopia and the west AfricanSahelsuffereddrought and famine. The Ethiopian famine of that time was closely linked to the crisis of feudalism in that country, and in due course helped to bring about the downfall of the EmperorHaile Selassie. The Sahelian famine was associated with the slowly growing crisis of pastoralism in Africa, which has seen livestock herding decline as a viable way of life over the last two generations.
Famines occurred in Sudan in the late-1970s and again in 1990 and 1998. The 1980 famine inKaramoja, Uganda was, in terms of mortality rates, one of the worst in history. 21% of the population died, including 60% of the infants.In the 1980s, large scale multilayer drought occurred in the Sudan and Sahelian regions of Africa. This caused famine because even though the Sudanese Government believed there was a surplus of grain, there were local deficits across the region.
In October 1984, television reports describing the Ethiopian famine as "biblical", prompted theLive Aidconcerts in London and Philadelphia, which raised large sums to alleviate the suffering. A primary cause of the famine (one of the largest seen in the country) is that Ethiopia (and the surrounding Horn) was still recovering from the droughts which occurred in the mid-late 1970s. Compounding this problem was the intermittent fighting due tocivil war, thegovernment's lack of organization in providing relief, and hoarding of supplies to control the population. Ultimately, over 1 million Ethiopians died and over 22 million people suffered due to the prolonged drought, which lasted roughly 2 years.
In 1992 Somalia became a war zone with no effective government, police, or basic services after the collapse of the dictatorship led bySiad Barreand the split of power between warlords. This coincided with a massive drought, causing over 300,000 Somalis to perish.
Since the start of the 21st century, more effective early warning and humanitarian response actions have reduced the number of deaths by famine markedly. That said, many African countries are not self-sufficient in food production, relying on income fromcash cropsto import food.Agriculturein Africa is susceptible toclimaticfluctuations, especiallydroughtswhich can reduce the amount of food produced locally. Other agricultural problems includesoil infertility,land degradationanderosion, swarms ofdesert locusts, which can destroy whole crops, and livestock diseases.Desertificationis increasingly problematic: theSaharareportedly spreads up to 48 kilometres (30 mi) per year.The most serious famines have been caused by a combination of drought, misguided economic policies, and conflict. The 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia, for example, was the outcome of all these three factors, made worse by the Communist government's censorship of the emerging crisis. In Capitalist Sudan at the same date, drought and economic crisis combined with denials of any food shortage by the then-government of PresidentGaafar Nimeiry, to create a crisis that killed perhaps 250,000 people—and helped bring about a popular uprising that overthrew Nimeiry.
Numerous factors make thefood securitysituation in Africa tenuous, including political instability, armed conflict andcivil war,corruptionand mismanagement in handling food supplies, and trade policies that harm African agriculture. An example of a famine created by human rights abuses is the1998 Sudan famine.AIDSis also having long-term economic effects on agriculture by reducing the available workforce, and is creating new vulnerabilities to famine by overburdening poor households. On the other hand, in the modern history of Africa on quite a few occasions famines acted as a major source of acute political instability.In Africa, if current trends ofpopulation growthandsoil degradationcontinue, the continent might be able to feed just 25% of its population by 2025, according toUnited Nations University(UNU)'s Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.
Famines in the early 21st century in Africa include the2005–06 Niger food crisis, the2010 Sahel famineand the2011 East Africa drought, where two consecutive missed rainy seasons precipitated the one of the worstdroughts in East Africain 60 years.An estimated 50,000 to 150,000 people are reported to have died during the period.In 2012, theSahel droughtput more than 10 million people in the western Sahel at risk of famine (according to aMethodist Relief & Development Fund (MRDF)aid expert), due to a month-long heat wave.
Today, famine is most widespread inSub-Saharan Africa, but with exhaustion of food resources, overdrafting ofgroundwater, wars, internal struggles, and economic failure, famine continues to be a worldwide problem with hundreds of millions of people suffering.These famines cause widespread malnutrition and impoverishment. Thefamine in Ethiopiain the 1980s had an immense death toll, although Asian famines of the 20th century have also produced extensive death tolls. Modern African famines are characterized by widespread destitution and malnutrition, with heightened mortality confined to young children.
Against a backdrop of conventional interventions through the state or markets, alternative initiatives have been pioneered to address the problem of food security. One pan-African example is theGreat Green Wall. Another example is the "Community Area-Based Development Approach" to agricultural development ("CABDA"), an NGO programme with the objective of providing an alternative approach to increasing food security in Africa. CABDA proceeds through specific areas of intervention such as the introduction of drought-resistant crops and new methods of food production such as agro-forestry. Piloted in Ethiopia in the 1990s it has spread to Malawi, Uganda, Eritrea and Kenya. In an analysis of the programme by theOverseas Development Institute, CABDA's focus on individual and community capacity-building is highlighted. This enables farmers to influence and drive their own development through community-run institutions, bringing food security to their household and region.
The organization of African unity and its role in the African crisis has been interested in the political aspects of the continent, especially the liberation of the occupied parts of it and the elimination of racism. The organization has succeeded in this area but the economic field and development has not succeeded in these fields. African leaders have agreed to waive the role of their organization in the development to the United Nations through the Economic Commission for Africa "ECA".
Chinese scholars had kept count of 1,828 instances of famine from 108 BC to 1911 in one province or another—an average of more than one famine per year.A major famine from 1333 to 1337 killed 6 million. The four famines of 1810, 1811, 1846, and 1849 are said to have killed no fewer than 45 million people.
China'sQing dynastybureaucracy devoted extensive attention to minimizing famines with a network ofgranaries. Its famines generally occurred immediately afterEl Niño-Southern Oscillation-linked droughts and floods. These events are comparable, though somewhat smaller in scale, to the ecological trigger events of China's vast 19th-century famines.Qing China carried out its relief efforts, which included vast shipments of food, a requirement that the rich open their storehouses to the poor, and price regulation, as part of a state guarantee of subsistence to the peasantry (known asming-sheng). However theTaiping Rebellionof the 1850s disrupted the granary relief system such that 1850 to 1873 saw the population of China drop by over 30 million people from early deaths and missing births.
When a stressed monarchy shifted from state management and direct shipments of grain to monetary charity in the mid-19th century, the system broke down. Thus the 1867–68 famine under theTongzhi Restorationwas successfully relieved but theGreat North China Famineof 1877–78, caused by drought across northern China, was a catastrophe. The province ofShanxiwas substantially depopulated as grains ran out, and desperately starving people stripped forests, fields, and their very houses for food. Estimated mortality is 9.5 to 13 million people.
The largest famine of the 20th century wasthe 1958–1961 famineassociated with theGreat Leap Forwardin China. The immediate causes of this famine lay in Mao Zedong's ill-fated attempt to transform China from an agricultural nation to an industrial power in one huge leap. Communist Party cadres across China insisted that peasants abandon their farms for collective farms, and begin to produce steel in small foundries, often melting down their farm instruments in the process. Collectivisation undermined incentives for the investment of labor and resources in agriculture; unrealistic plans for decentralized metal production sapped needed labor; unfavorable weather conditions; and communal dining halls encouragedoverconsumptionof available food.Such was the centralized control of information and the intense pressure on party cadres to report only good news—such asproduction quotasmet or exceeded—that information about the escalating disaster was effectively suppressed. When the leadership did become aware of the scale of the famine, it did little to respond, and continued to ban any discussion of the cataclysm. This blanket suppression of news was so effective that very few Chinese citizens were aware of the scale of the famine, and the greatest peacetime demographic disaster of the 20th century only became widely known twenty years later, when the veil of censorship began to lift.
The exact number of famine deaths during 1958–1961 is difficult to determine, and estimates range from 18 millionto at least 42 millionpeople, with a further 30 million cancelled or delayed births.It was only when the famine had wrought its worst that Mao reversed agricultural collectivisation policies, which were effectively dismantled in 1978. China has not experienced a famine of the proportions of the Great Leap Forward since 1961.
Japan experienced more than 130 famines between 1603 and 1868.
In 1975, theKhmer Rougetook control of Cambodia. The new government was led byPol Pot, who desired to turn Cambodia into a communist, agrarian utopia. His regime emptied the cities, abolished currency and private property, and forced Cambodia's population into slavery on communal farms. In less than four years, the Khmer Rouge had executed nearly 1.4 million people, mostly those believed to be a threat to the new ideology.
Due to the failure of the Khmer Rouge's agrarian reform policies, Cambodia experienced widespread famine. As many as one million more died from starvation, disease, and exhaustion resulting from these policies.In 1979 Vietnam invaded Cambodia and removed the Khmer Rouge from power. By that time about one quarter of Cambodia's population had been killed.
Famine struck North Korea in the mid-1990s, set off by unprecedented floods. Thisautarkicurban, industrial state depended on massive inputs of subsidised goods, including fossil fuels, primarily from the Soviet Union and thePeople's Republic of China. When the Soviet collapse and China's marketization switched trade to a hard currency, full-price basis, North Korea's economy collapsed. The vulnerable agricultural sector experienced a massive failure in 1995–96, expanding to full-fledged famine by 1996–1999.
Estimates based on the North Korean census suggest that 240,000 to 420,000 people died as a result of the famine and that there were 600,000 to 850,000 unnatural deaths in North Korea from 1993 to 2008.North Korea has not yet regained food self-sufficiency and relies on externalfood aidfromChina,Japan,South Korea,Russiaand theUnited States. While Woo-Cumings have focused on the FAD side of the famine, Moon argues that FAD shifted the incentive structure of the authoritarian regime to react in a way that forced millions of disenfranchised people to starve to death.
According to the UN'sFood and Agriculture Organisation(FAO), North Korea is facing a serious cereal shortfall in 2017 after the country's crop harvest was diminished as a result of severe drought.The FAO estimated that early-season production fell by over 30 percent compared to agricultural output from the previous year, leading to the country's worst famine since 2001.
Japaneseoccupation duringWorld War IIcaused theVietnamese Famine of 1945, which caused around 700,000 to 2,000,000 deaths.
Owing to its almost entire dependence upon themonsoonrains, India is vulnerable to crop failures, which upon occasion deepen into famine.There were 14 famines inIndiabetween the 11th and 17th centuries (Bhatia, 1985). For example, during the 1022–1033 Great famines in India entire provinces were depopulated. Famine inDeccankilled at least two million people in 1702–1704. B.M. Bhatia believes that the earlier famines were localised, and it was only after 1860, during theBritish rule, that famine came to signify general shortage of foodgrains in the country. There were approximately 25 major famines spread through states such asTamil Naduin the south, andBiharandBengalin the east during the latter half of the 19th century.
Romesh Chunder Duttargued as early as 1900, and present-day scholars such asAmartya Senagree, that some historic famines were a product of both uneven rainfall and British economic and administrative policies, which since 1857 had led to the seizure and conversion of local farmland to foreign-owned plantations, restrictions on internal trade, heavy taxation of Indian citizens to support British expeditions in Afghanistan (seeThe Second Anglo-Afghan War), inflationary measures that increased the price of food, and substantial exports of staple crops from India to Britain. (Dutt, 1900 and 1902; Srivastava, 1968; Sen, 1982; Bhatia, 1985.)
Some British citizens, such asWilliam Digby, agitated for policy reforms and famine relief, butLord Lytton, the governing British viceroy in India, opposed such changes in the belief that they would stimulate shirking by Indian workers. The first, theBengal famine of 1770, is estimated to have taken around 10 million lives—one-third of Bengal's population at the time. Other notable famines include theGreat Famine of 1876–1878, in which 6.1 million to 10.3 million people diedand theIndian famine of 1899–1900, in which 1.25 to 10 million people died.The famines were ended by the 20th century with the exception of theBengal famine of 1943killing an estimated 2.1 million Bengalis duringWorld War II.
The observations of the Famine Commission of 1880 support the notion that food distribution is more to blame for famines than food scarcity. They observed that each province inBritish India, includingBurma, had a surplus of foodgrains, and the annual surplus was 5.16 million tons (Bhatia, 1970). At that time, annual export of rice and other grains from India was approximately one million tons.
The Maharashtra drought saw zero deaths from starvation and is known for the successful employment of famine prevention policies, unlike during British rule.
thePersian famine of 1870–1872is believed to have caused the death of 1.5 million persons (20–25% of the population) inPersia(present-day Iran).
In the early 20th century an Ottoman blockade of food being exported toLebanoncaused a famine which killed up to 450,000 Lebanese (about one-third of the population). The famine killed more people than theLebanese Civil War. The blockade was caused by uprisings in the Syrian region of the Empire, including one which occurred in the 1860s which led to the massacre of thousands of Lebanese and Syrian by Ottoman Turks and localDruze.
TheGreat Famine of 1315–1317(or to 1322) was the first major food crisis to strike Europe in the 14th century. Millions in northern Europe died over an extended number of years, marking a clear end to the earlier period of growth and prosperity during the 11th and 12th centuries.An unusually cold and wet spring of 1315 led to widespread crop failures, which lasted until at least the summer of 1317; some regions in Europe did not fully recover until 1322. Most nobles, cities, and states were slow to respond to the crisis and when they realized its severity, they had little success in securing food for their people. In 1315, inNorfolk, England, the price of grain soared from 5 shillings/quarter to 20 shillings/quarter.It was a period marked by extreme levels of criminal activity, disease and mass death, infanticide, and cannibalism. It had consequences for Church, State, European society and future calamities to follow in the 14th century. There were 95 famines inmedieval Britain,and 75 or more in medieval France.More than 10% of England's population, or at least 500,000 people, may have died during the famine of 1315–1316.
Famine was a very destabilizing and devastating occurrence. The prospect of starvation led people to take desperate measures. When scarcity of food became apparent to peasants, they would sacrifice long-term prosperity for short-term survival. They would kill theirdraught animals, leading to lowered production in subsequent years. They would eat their seed corn, sacrificing next year's crop in the hope that more seed could be found. Once those means had been exhausted, they would take to the road in search of food. They migrated to the cities where merchants from other areas would be more likely to sell their food, as cities had a stronger purchasing power than did rural areas. Cities also administered relief programs and bought grain for their populations so that they could keep order. With the confusion and desperation of the migrants, crime would often follow them. Many peasants resorted to banditry in order to acquire enough to eat.
One famine would often lead to difficulties in the following years because of lack of seed stock or disruption of routine, or perhaps because of less-available labour. Famines were often interpreted as signs of God's displeasure. They were seen as the removal, by God, of His gifts to the people of the Earth. Elaborate religious processions and rituals were made to prevent God's wrath in the form of famine.
During the 15th century to the 18th century, famines in Europe became more frequent due to theLittle Ice Age. The colder climate resulted in harvest failures and shortfalls that led to a rise inconspiracy theoriesconcerning the causes behind these famines, such as thePacte de Faminein France.
The 1590s saw the worst famines in centuries across all of Europe. Famine had been relatively rare during the 16th century. The economy and population had grown steadily as subsistence populations tend to when there is an extended period of relative peace (most of the time). Although peasants in areas of high population density, such as northern Italy, had learned to increase the yields of their lands through techniques such as promiscuous culture, they were still quite vulnerable to famines, forcing them to work their land even more intensively.
The great famine of the 1590s began a period of famine and decline in the 17th century. The price of grain, all over Europe was high, as was the population. Various types of people were vulnerable to the succession of bad harvests that occurred throughout the 1590s in different regions. The increasing number of wage labourers in the countryside were vulnerable because they had no food of their own, and their meager living was not enough to purchase the expensive grain of a bad-crop year. Town labourers were also at risk because their wages would be insufficient to cover the cost of grain, and, to make matters worse, they often received less money in bad-crop years since the disposable income of the wealthy was spent on grain. Often, unemployment would be the result of the increase in grain prices, leading to ever-increasing numbers of urban poor.
All areas of Europe were badly affected by the famine in these periods, especially rural areas. The Netherlands was able to escape most of the damaging effects of the famine, though the 1590s were still difficult years there.Amsterdam'sgrain tradewith theBalticguaranteed a food supply.
The years around 1620 saw another period of famine sweep across Europe. These famines were generally less severe than the famines of twenty-five years earlier, but they were nonetheless quite serious in many areas. Perhaps the worst famine since 1600, the great famine inFinlandin 1696, killed one-third of the population.
Devastating harvest failures afflicted the northern Italian economy from 1618 to 1621, and it did not recover fully for centuries. There were serious famines in the late-1640s and less severe ones in the 1670s throughout northern Italy.
Over two million people died in two famines in France between 1693 and 1710. Both famines were made worse by ongoing wars.
As late as the 1690s, Scotland experienced famine which reduced the population of parts of Scotland by at least 15%.
TheGreat Famine of 1695–1697may have killed a third of the Finnish population.and roughly 10% ofNorway's population.Death rates rose in Scandinavia between 1740 and 1800 as the result of a series of crop failures.For instance, theFinnish famine of 1866–1868killed 15% of the population.
The period of 1740–1743 saw frigid winters and summer droughts, which led to famine across Europe and a major spike in mortality.The winter 1740–41 was unusually cold, possibly because of volcanic activity.
According to Scott and Duncan (2002), "Eastern Europe experienced more than 150 recorded famines between AD 1500 and 1700 and there were 100 hunger years and 121 famine years in Russia between AD 971 and 1974."
TheGreat Famine, which lasted from 1770 until 1771, killed about one tenth ofCzech lands' population, or 250,000 inhabitants, and radicalised countrysides leading to peasant uprisings.
There were sixteen good harvests and 111 famine years in northern Italy from 1451 to 1767.According to Stephen L. Dyson and Robert J. Rowland, "The Jesuits ofCagliari[in Sardinia] recorded years during the late 1500s 'of such hunger and so sterile that the majority of the people could sustain life only with wild ferns and other weeds' ... During the terrible famine of 1680, some 80,000 persons, out of a total population of 250,000, are said to have died, and entire villages were devastated".
According toBryson(1974), there were thirty-seven famine years in Iceland between 1500 and 1804.In 1783 the volcanoLakiin south-centralIcelanderupted. The lava caused little direct damage, but ash and sulphur dioxide spewed out over most of the country, causing three-quarters of the island's livestock to perish. In the following famine, around ten thousand people died, one-fifth of the population of Iceland. [Asimov, 1984, 152–53]
Other areas of Europe have known famines much more recently. France saw famines as recently as the 19th century. TheGreat Faminein Ireland, 1846–1851, caused by the failure of the potato crop over a few years, resulted in 1,000,000 dead and another 2,000,000 refugees fleeing to Britain, Australia and the United States.
Famine still occurred inEastern Europeduring the 20th century. Droughts and famines inImperial Russiaare known to have happened every 10 to 13 years, with average droughts happening every 5 to 7 years. Russia experienced eleven major famines between 1845 and 1922, one of the worst being thefamine of 1891–1892.TheRussian famine of 1921–22killed an estimated 5 million.
Famines continuedin theSovietera, the most notorious being theHolodomorin various parts of the country, especially theVolga, and the Ukrainian and northernKazakhSSR's during the winter of 1932–1933. TheSoviet famine of 1932–1933is nowadays reckoned to have cost an estimated 6 million lives.Thelast major faminein the USSR happened in 1947 due to the severedroughtand the mismanagement of grain reserves by the Soviet government.
TheHunger Plan, i.e. the Nazi plan to starve large sections of the Soviet population, caused the deaths of many. The Russian Academy of Sciences in 1995 reported civilian victims in the USSR at German hands, including Jews, totaled 13.7 million dead, 20% of the 68 million persons in the occupied USSR. This included 4.1 million famine and disease deaths in occupied territory. There were an additional estimated 3 million famine deaths in areas of the USSR not under German occupation.
The 872 days of theSiege of Leningrad(1941–1944) caused unparalleled famine in the Leningrad region through disruption of utilities, water, energy and food supplies. This resulted in the deaths of about one million people.
Famine also struck inWestern Europeduring theSecond World War. In the Netherlands, theHongerwinterof 1944 killed approximately 30,000 people. Some other areas of Europe also experienced famine at the same time.
Thepre-ColumbianAmericans often dealt with severe food shortages and famines.The persistent drought around 850 AD coincided with the collapse ofClassic Mayacivilization, and the famine of One Rabbit (AD 1454) was a major catastrophe inMexico.
Brazil's 1877–78Grande Seca(Great Drought), the worst in Brazil's history,caused approximately half a million deaths.The one from 1915 was devastating too.
Easter Islandwas hit by a great famine between the 15th and 18th centuries. Hunger and subsequent cannibalism was caused by overpopulation and depletion of natural resources as a result of deforestation, partly because work on megalithic monuments required a lot of wood.
There are other documented episodes of famine in various islands of Polynesia, such as occurred inKau, Hawaiiin 1868.
According to Daniel Lord Smail,"'Faminecannibalism' was until recently a regular feature of life in the islands of theMassimnearNew Guineaand of some other societies of Southeast Asia and the Pacific."
When Russian explorerOtto von Kotzebuevisited theMarshall Islandsin Micronesia in 1817, he noted that Marshallese families practicedinfanticideafter the birth of a third child as a form ofpopulation planningdue to frequent famines.
YALE climate connectionsreports that, as of 2022, approximately 34% of the world's agricultural land is degraded.If current trends of soil degradation continue in Africa, the continent might be able to feed just 20% of its population by 2030, according to aWHOstudy in 2024.As of late 2007, increased farming for use inbiofuels,along with worldoil pricesat nearly $100 a barrel,has pushed up the price of grain used to feed poultry and dairy cows and other cattle, causing higher prices of wheat (up 58%), soybean (up 32%), and maize (up 11%) over the year.In 2007Food riotstook place in many countries across the world.An epidemic of stem rust, which is destructive towheatand is caused by raceUg99, has in 2007 spread across Africa and into Asia.
Beginning in the 20th century, nitrogenfertilizers, newpesticides,desert farming, and other agricultural technologies began to be used to increase food production, in part to combat famine. Between 1950 and 1984, as theGreen Revolutioninfluenced agriculture world grain production increased by 250%. Developed nations have shared these technologies with developing nations with a famine problem. However, as early as 1995, there were signs that these new developments may contribute to the decline of arable land (e.g. persistence of pesticides leading tosoil contamination,salt accumulation due to irrigation,erosion).
In 1994, David Pimentel, professor of ecology andagricultureatCornell University, and Mario Giampietro, senior researcher at the National Research Institute on Food and Nutrition (INRAN), estimated the maximumU.S. populationfor asustainable economyat 200 million.
According to geologistDale Allen Pfeiffer, coming decades could see risingfoodprices without relief and massivestarvationon a global level.Water deficits, which are already spurring heavygrainimports in numerous smaller countries, may soon do the same in larger countries, such as China or India.The water tables are falling in many countries (including Northern China, the US, and India) due to widespread overconsumption. Other countries affected include Pakistan, Iran, and Mexico. This will eventually lead towater scarcityand cutbacks in grain harvest. Even while overexploiting itsaquifers, China has developed a grain deficit, contributing to the upward pressure on grain prices. Most of the three billion people projected to be added worldwide by mid-century will be born in countries already experiencingwater shortages.
After China and India, there is a second tier of smaller countries with large water deficits – Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Mexico, and Pakistan. Four of these already import a large share of their grain. Only Pakistan remains marginally self-sufficient. But with a population expanding by 4 million a year, it will also soon turn to the world market for grain.According to a UN climate report, theHimalayanglaciers that are the principal dry-season water sources of Asia's biggest rivers –Ganges,Indus,Brahmaputra,Yangtze,Mekong,SalweenandYellow– could disappear by 2350 as temperatures rise and human demand rises.Approximately 2.4 billion people live in thedrainage basinof the Himalayan rivers.India, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar could experience floods followed by severe droughts in coming decades.In India alone, the Ganges provides water for drinking and farming for more than 500 million people.
Evan Fraser, a geographer at theUniversity of GuelphinOntario, Canada, explores the ways in whichclimate changemay affect future famines.To do this, he draws on a range of historic cases where relatively small environmental problems triggered famines as a way of creating theoretical links between climate and famine in the future. Drawing on situations as diverse as theGreat Famine of Ireland,a series of weather induced famines in Asia during the late 19th century, and famines in Ethiopia during the 1980s, he concludes there are three "lines of defense" that protect a community'sfood securityfromenvironmental change. The first line of defense is theagro-ecosystemon which food is produced: diverse ecosystems with well managed soils high inorganic mattertend to be more resilient. The second line of defense is the wealth and skills of individual households: If those households affected by bad weather such as drought have savings or skills they may be able to do all right despite the bad weather.The final line of defense is created by the formal institutions present in a society. Governments, churches, or NGOs must be willing and able to mount effective relief efforts. Pulling this together, Evan Fraser argues that if anecosystemis resilient enough, it may be able to withstand weather-related shocks. But if these shocks overwhelm the ecosystem's line of defense, it is necessary for the household to adapt using its skills and savings. If a problem is too big for the family or household, then people must rely on the third line of defense, which is whether or not the formal institutions present in a society are able to provide help. Evan Fraser concludes that in almost every situation where an environmental problem triggered a famine you see a failure in each of these three lines of defense.Hence, understanding how climate change may cause famines in the future requires combining both an assessment of local socio-economic and environmental factors along withclimate modelsthat predict where bad weather may occur in the future.
TheCOVID-19 pandemic, alongside lockdowns and travel restrictions, has prevented movement of aid and greatly impacted food production. As a result, several famines are forecast, which theUnited Nationscalled a crisis "of biblical proportions",or "hunger pandemic".This pandemic, in conjunction with the2019-20 locust infestationsand severalongoing armed conflicts, is predicted to form the worst series of famines since theGreat Chinese Famine, affecting between 10 and 20 percent of the global population in some way.
Western nations suspended humanitarian aid toAfghanistanfollowing theTaliban's takeover of the country in August 2021.The United States hasfrozen about $9 billionin assets belonging to theAfghan central banks,blocking the Taliban from accessing billions of dollars held in U.S. bank accounts.In October 2021, more than half of Afghanistan's 39 million people faced an acutefood shortage.On 11 November 2021, theHuman Rights Watchreported that Afghanistan is facing widespread famine due to collapsed economy and broken banking system. TheUN World Food Programmehas also issued multiple warnings of worsening food insecurity.
Definitions of famines are based on three different categories—these include food supply-based, food consumption-based and mortality-based definitions. Some definitions of famines are:
Food shortages in a population are caused either by a lack of food or by difficulties in food distribution; it may be worsened by natural climate fluctuations and by extreme political conditions related to oppressive government or warfare. The conventional explanation until 1981 for the cause of famines was the Food availability decline (FAD) hypothesis. The assumption was that the central cause of all famines was a decline in food availability.However, FAD could not explain why only a certain section of the population such as the agricultural laborer was affected by famines while others were insulated from famines.Based on the studies of some recent famines, the decisive role of FAD has been questioned and it has been suggested that the causal mechanism for precipitating starvation includes many variables other than just decline of food availability. According to this view, famines are a result of entitlements, the theory being proposed is called the "failure of exchange entitlements" or FEE.A person may own various commodities that can be exchanged in a market economy for the other commodities he or she needs. The exchange can happen via trading or production or through a combination of the two. These entitlements are called trade-based or production-based entitlements. Per this proposed view, famines are precipitated due to a breakdown in the ability of the person to exchange his entitlements.An example of famines due to FEE is the inability of an agricultural laborer to exchange his primary entitlement, i.e., labor for rice when his employment became erratic or was eliminated.
According to the Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), globalclimate changeis additionally challenging the Earth's ability to produce food, potentially leading to famine.
Some elements make a particular region more vulnerable to famine. These include poverty,population growth,an inappropriate social infrastructure, a suppressive political regime, and a weak or under-prepared government.
According toOxfam International, commenting on aFamine Early Warning Systems Network(FEWS NET) report, "Famines are not natural phenomena, they are catastrophic political failures."
Thomas Malthus'sEssay on the Principle of Populationhas made popular the theory of theMalthusian catastrophe—that many famines are caused by imbalance of food production compared to the large populations of countrieswhosepopulation exceeds the regional carrying capacity.However, anthropologistAlex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation,refutes the Malthus theory, looking instead to political factors as major causes of recent (over the last 150 years) famines.Historically, famines have occurred from agricultural problems such as drought, crop failure, orpestilence. Changing weather patterns, the ineffectiveness of medieval governments in dealing with crises, wars, andepidemic diseasessuch as theBlack Deathhelped to cause hundreds of famines in Europe during theMiddle Ages, including 95 in Britain and 75 in France.In France, theHundred Years' War, crop failures and epidemics reduced the population by two-thirds.EconomistAmartya Senhas also argued that sustained famines historically have been caused by political instability and repressive political regimes rather than overpopulation.
The failure of a harvest or change in conditions, such asdrought, can create a situation whereby large numbers of people continue to live where thecarrying capacityof the land has temporarily dropped radically. Famine is often associated withsubsistenceagriculture. The total absence of agriculture in an economically strong area does not cause famine; Arizona and other wealthy regions import the vast majority of their food, since such regions produce sufficient economic goods for trade.
Famines have also been caused by volcanism. The 1815 eruption of theMount Tamboravolcano in Indonesia caused crop failures and famines worldwide and caused the worst famine of the 19th century. The current consensus of the scientific community is that the aerosols and dust released into the upper atmosphere causes cooler temperatures by preventing the sun's energy from reaching the ground. The same mechanism is theorized to be caused by very large meteorite impacts to the extent of causing mass extinctions.
In certain cases, such as theGreat Leap Forwardin China (which produced thelargest famine in absolute numbers),North Korea in the mid-1990s, orZimbabwein the early-2000s, famine can occur because of government policy.
According toSimon Payaslian, a tentative scholarly consensus classifies the Soviet famine (at least in Ukraine where 2.5 to 4 million perished) as agenocide,although some scholars say that it remains a significant issue in modern politics and dispute whether Soviet policies would fall under thelegal definition of genocide.Several scholars have disputed that the famine was a genocidal act by the Soviet government, includingJ. Arch Getty,Stephen G. Wheatcroft,R. W. Davies,and Mark Tauger.Getty says that the "overwhelming weight of opinion among scholars working in the new archives ... is that the terrible famine of the 1930s was the result of Stalinist bungling and rigidity rather than some genocidal plan."Wheatcroft says that the Soviet government's policies during the famine were criminal acts of fraud and manslaughter, though not outright murder or genocide.In regard to the Soviet state's reaction to this crisis, Wheatcroft comments: "The good harvest of 1930 led to the decisions to export substantial amounts of grain in 1931 and 1932. The Soviet leaders also assumed that the wholesale socialisation of livestock farming would lead to the rapid growth of meat and dairy production. These policies failed, and the Soviet leaders attributed the failure not to their own lack of realism but to the machinations of enemies. Peasant resistance was blamed on the kulaks, and the increased use of force on a large scale almost completely replaced attempts at persuasion."Wheatcroft says that Soviet authorities refused to scale down grain procurements despite the low harvest,and that "[Wheatcroft and his colleague's] work has confirmed – if confirmation were needed – that the grain campaign in 1932/33 was unprecedentedly harsh and repressive."
Joseph StalinbiographerStephen Kotkinsupports a similar view, stating that while "there is no question of Stalin's responsibility for the famine" and many deaths could have been prevented if not for the "insufficient" and counterproductive Soviet measures, there is no evidence for Stalin's intention to kill the Ukrainians deliberately.While Mark Tauger considers the famine to be the result of natural factors stating that "the harsh 1932–1933 procurements only displaced the famine from urban areas" but the low harvest "made a famine inevitable". Ultimately concluding that it is difficult to accept the famine "as the result of the 1932 grain procurements and as a conscious act of genocide" he still concurs with Wheatcroft that "the regime was still responsible for the deprivation and suffering of the Soviet population in the early 1930s", and "if anything, these data show that the effects of [collectivization and forced industrialization] were worse than has been assumed."
In 1958 in China,Mao Zedong's Communist Government launched theGreat Leap Forwardcampaign, aimed at rapidly industrializing the country.The government forcibly took control of agriculture. Barely enough grain was left for the peasants, and starvation occurred in many rural areas. Exportation of grain continued despite the famine and the government attempted to conceal it. While the famine is attributed to unintended consequences, it is believed that the government refused to acknowledge the problem, thereby further contributing to the deaths. In many instances, peasants were persecuted. Between 20 and 45 million people perished in this famine, making it one of the deadliest famines to date.
Historian and journalists, such asSeumas MilneandJon Wiener, have criticized the emphasis oncommunismwhen assigning blame for famines. In a 2002 article forThe Guardian, Milne mentions "the moral blindness displayed towards the record ofcolonialism", and he writes: "If Lenin and Stalin are regarded as having killed those who died of hunger in the famines of the 1920s and 1930s, then Churchill is certainly responsible for the 4 million deaths in the avoidableBengal famine of 1943.Weiner makes a similar assertion while comparing theHolodomorand the Bengal famine of 1943, stating thatWinston Churchill's role in the Bengal famine "seems similar to Stalin's role in the Ukrainian famine".HistorianMike Davis, author ofLate Victorian Holocausts, draws comparisons between theGreat Chinese Famineand theIndian famines of the late 19th century, arguing that in both instances the governments which oversaw the response to the famines deliberately chose not to alleviate conditions and as such bear responsibility for the scale of deaths in said famines.According toJason Hickeland Dylan Sullivan, the number excess deaths during the apex of British colonialism in India rise to around 100 million.
Malawi ended its famine by subsidizing farmers despite the strictures imposed by theWorld Bank.During the 1973Wollo FamineinEthiopia, food was shipped out of Wollo to the capital city ofAddis Ababa, where it could command higher prices. In the late-1970s and early-1980s, residents of thedictatorshipsof Ethiopia andSudansuffered massive famines, but thedemocracyofBotswanaavoided them, despite also suffering a severe drop in national food production. InSomalia, famine occurred because of afailed state.
Thefamine in Yemenis a direct result of theSaudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemenand theblockadeimposed by Saudi Arabia and its allies, including the United States.According to the UN, 130 children under five years of age were dying from starvation and starvation related diseases every day by the end of 2017, with 50,000 dead for the year. As of October 2018, half the population is at risk of famine.
Israel'sblockade of Gazaand thewarbetween Israel and Hamas led to afamine in the Gaza Stripin 2024.On 16 January 2024, UN experts accused Israel of "destroying Gaza's food system and using food as a weapon against the Palestinian people".
According to Amartya Sen (1999), "there has never been a famine in a functioning multiparty democracy". Hasell and Roser have demonstrated that while there have been a few minor exceptions, famines rarely occur in democratic systems but are strongly correlated withautocraticandcolonialsystems.
Economic sanctionsare state or UN sanctioned measures to pressure a targeted country to submit to political demands. Because such measures often involve limiting imports and exports to "crash" or inflict pain on the targeted nation's economy. This can restrict the targeted nation's economic development and make it more difficult for their population to access food.Economic sanctions have been blamed for contributing to theNorth Korean faminein the 1990s.The effects ofsanctions against Iraqin the 1990s on mortality are disputed.Following theTaliban's takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021,Human Rights Watchwarned that Afghanistan was at risk of famine and urged the UN, World Bank, US and other countries to modify their sanctions to help prevent famine.
Relief technologies, includingimmunization, improvedpublic healthinfrastructure, general food rations and supplementary feeding for vulnerable children, has provided temporary mitigation to the mortality impact of famines, while leaving their economic consequences unchanged, and not solving the underlying issue of too large a regional population relative to food production capability. Humanitarian crises may also arise fromgenocidecampaigns,civil wars,agro-terrorism,refugeeflows and episodes of extreme violence and state collapse, creating famine conditions among the affected populations.
Despite repeated stated intentions by the world's leaders to end hunger and famine, famine remains a chronic threat in much of Africa, Eastern Europe, the Southeast, South Asia, and the Middle East. In July 2005, theFamine Early Warning Systems Network(FEWS NET) labelled Niger with emergency status, as well as Chad, Ethiopia,South Sudan, Somalia and Zimbabwe. In January 2006, the United NationsFood and Agriculture Organizationwarned that 11 million people in Somalia,Kenya,Djiboutiand Ethiopia were in danger of starvation due to the combination of severe drought and military conflicts.In 2006, the most serious humanitarian crisis in Africa was inSudan's regionDarfur.
Frances Moore Lappé, later co-founder of theInstitute for Food and Development Policy(Food First) argued inDiet for a Small Planet(1971) that vegetarian diets can provide food for larger populations, with the same resources, compared to omnivorous diets.
Noting that modern famines are sometimes aggravated by misguided economic policies, political design to impoverish or marginalize certain populations, or acts of war, political economists have investigated the political conditions under which famine is prevented. EconomistAmartya Senstates that the liberal institutions that exist in India, including competitive elections and a free press, have played a major role in preventing famine in that country since independence.Alex de Waalhas developed this theory to focus on the "political contract" between rulers and people that ensures famine prevention, noting the rarity of such political contracts in Africa, and the danger that international relief agencies will undermine such contracts through removing the locus of accountability for famines from national governments.
The demographic impacts of famine are sharp. Mortality is concentrated among children and the elderly. A consistent demographic fact is that in all recorded famines, male mortality exceeds female, even in those populations (such as northern India and Pakistan) where there is a male longevity advantage during normal times. Reasons for this may include greater female resilience under the pressure of malnutrition, and possibly female's naturally higher percentage of body fat. Famine is also accompanied by lower fertility. Famines therefore leave the reproductive core of a population—adult women—lesser affected compared to other population categories, and post-famine periods are often characterized a "rebound" with increased births.
Even though the theories ofThomas Malthuswould predict that famines reduce the size of the population commensurate with available food resources, in fact even the most severe famines have rarely dented population growth for more than a few years. The mortality in China in 1958–61, Bengal in 1943, and Ethiopia in 1983–85 was all made up by a growing population over just a few years. Of greater long-term demographic impact is emigration: Ireland was chiefly depopulated after the1840s faminesby waves of emigration.
Globally, the amount of food produced per person has kept rising, despite a growing world population. A local crop failure does not cause a famine unless there is also a lack of money to buy food from elsewhere. A war or political oppression can also disrupt distribution of otherwise adequate global supplies.
Long term measures to improve food security, include investment in modern agriculture techniques, such asfertilizersandirrigation,but can also include strategic nationalfood storage.
World Bankstrictures restrict government subsidies for farmers, and increasing use of fertilizers is opposed by some environmental groups because of its unintended consequences: adverse effects on water supplies and habitat.
The effort to bring modern agricultural techniques found in theWestern world, such asnitrogenfertilizersandpesticides, to theIndian Sub-continent, called theGreen Revolution, resulted in decreases in malnutrition similar to those seen earlier in Western nations. This was possible because of existinginfrastructureand institutions that are in short supply inAfrica, such as a system of roads or publicseedcompanies that made seeds available.Supporting farmers in areas of food insecurity, through such measures as free or subsidizedfertilizersandseeds, increases food harvest and reduces food prices.
The energy for the Green Revolution was provided byfossil fuelsin the form of fertilizers (natural gas), pesticides (oil), andhydrocarbonfueledirrigation.The development of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer has significantly supported globalpopulation growth— it has been estimated that almost half the people on the Earth are currently fed as a result of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use.
TheWorld Bankand some rich nations press nations that depend on them for aid to cut back or eliminate subsidized agricultural inputs such as fertilizer, in the name ofprivatizationeven as the United States and Europe extensively subsidized their own farmers.
There is a growing realization among aid groups that giving cash or cash vouchers instead of food is a cheaper, faster, and more efficient way to deliver help to the hungry, particularly in areas where food is available but unaffordable.The United NationsWorld Food Programme, the biggest non-governmental distributor of food, announced that it will begin distributing cash and vouchers instead of food in some areas, whichJosette Sheeran, WFP's former executive director, described as a "revolution" in food aid.The aid agencyConcern Worldwideis piloting a method through a mobile phone operator, Safaricom, which runs a money transfer program that allows cash to be sent from one part of the country to another.
However, for people in adroughtliving a long way from and with limited access tomarkets, delivering food may be the most appropriate way to help.Fred Cunystated that "the chances of saving lives at the outset of a relief operation are greatly reduced when food is imported. By the time it arrives in the country and gets to people, many will have died."US Law, which requires buying food at home rather than where the hungry live, is inefficient because approximately half of what is spent goes for transport.Fred Cuny further pointed out "studies of every recent famine have shown that food was available in-country—though not always in the immediate food deficit area" and "even though by local standards the prices are too high for the poor to purchase it, it would usually be cheaper for a donor to buy the hoarded food at the inflated price than to import it from abroad."
Deficientmicronutrientscan be provided throughfortifyingfoods.Fortifying foods such aspeanut buttersachets (seePlumpy'Nut) have revolutionized emergency feeding in humanitarian emergencies because they can be eaten directly from the packet, do not require refrigeration or mixing with scarce clean water, can be stored for years and, vitally, can be absorbed by extremely ill children.
WHO and other sources recommend that malnourished children—and adults who also havediarrhea—drink rehydration solution, and continue to eat, in addition to antibiotics, and zinc supplements.There is a special oral rehydration solution called ReSoMal which has less sodium and more potassium than standard solution. However, if the diarrhea is severe, the standard solution is preferable as the person needs the extra sodium.Obviously, this is a judgment call best made by a physician, and using either solution is better than doing nothing. Zinc supplements often can help reduce the duration and severity of diarrhea, and Vitamin A can also be helpful.The World Health Organization underlines the importance of a person with diarrhea continuing to eat, with a 2005 publication for physicians stating: "Food shouldneverbe withheld and the child's usual foods shouldnotbe diluted. Breastfeeding shouldalwaysbe continued."
Ethiopiahas been pioneering a program that has now become part of the World Bank's prescribed recipe for coping with a food crisis and had been seen by aid organizations as a model of how to best help hungry nations. Through the country's main food assistance program, the Productive Safety Net Program, Ethiopia has been giving rural residents who are chronically short of food, a chance to work for food or cash. Foreign aid organizations like the World Food Program were then able to buy food locally from surplus areas to distribute in areas with a shortage of food.
TheGreen Revolutionwas widely viewed as an answer to famine in the 1970s and 1980s. Between 1950 and 1984, hybrid strains of high-yielding crops transformed agriculture around the globe and world grain production increased by 250%.Somecriticize the process, stating that these new high-yielding crops require more chemicalfertilizersandpesticides, which can harm the environment.Although these high-yielding crops make it technically possible to feed more people, there are indications that regional food production has peaked in many world sectors, due to certain strategies associated with intensive agriculture such asgroundwateroverdraftingand overuse ofpesticidesand otheragricultural chemicals.
In modern times, local and political governments andnon-governmental organizationsthat deliver famine relief have limited resources with which to address the multiple situations of food insecurity that are occurring simultaneously. Various methods of categorizing the gradations of food security have thus been used in order to most efficiently allocate food relief. One of the earliest were theIndian Famine Codesdevised by the British in the 1880s. The Codes listed three stages of food insecurity: near-scarcity, scarcity and famine, and were highly influential in the creation of subsequent famine warning or measurement systems. The early warning system developed to monitor the region inhabited by theTurkana peoplein northern Kenya also has three levels, but links each stage to a pre-planned response to mitigate the crisis and prevent its deterioration
The experiences of famine relief organizations throughout the world over the 1980s and 1990s resulted in at least two major developments: the "livelihoods approach" and the increased use of nutrition indicators to determine the severity of a crisis. Individuals and groups in food stressful situations will attempt to cope by rationing consumption, finding alternative means to supplement income, etc., before taking desperate measures, such as selling off plots ofagriculturalland. When all means of self-support are exhausted, the affected population begins to migrate in search of food or fall victim to outright massstarvation. Famine may thus be viewed partially as a social phenomenon, involvingmarkets, the price of food, and social support structures. A second lesson drawn was the increased use of rapid nutrition assessments, in particular of children, to give a quantitative measure of the famine's severity.
Since 2003, many of the most important organizations in famine relief, such as theWorld Food Programmeand theU.S. Agency for International Development, have adopted a five-level scale measuring intensity and magnitude. The intensity scale uses both livelihoods' measures and measurements of mortality and child malnutrition to categorize a situation as food secure, food insecure, food crisis, famine, severe famine, and extreme famine. The number of deaths determines the magnitude designation, with under 1000 fatalities defining a "minor famine" and a "catastrophic famine" resulting in over 1,000,000 deaths.
Famine personified as anallegoryis found in some cultures: Famine is one of theFour Horsemen of the Apocalypsein Christian tradition, a man riding a black horse holding abalance scale; thefear gortaof Irish folklore; or theWendigoofAlgonquiantradition.
A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis has shown that prenatal famine exposure is associated with an increased risk of mental disorders (such asdepressionandschizophrenia) and changes inDNA methylation, that is further exacerbating the impact of famine on human health and nutrition.