Famine

I

Introduction

Famine (Latin fames,”hunger”), severe shortage of food, generally affecting a widespread area and large numbers of people. Natural causes include droughts, floods, earthquakes, insect plagues, and plant disease. Human causes include wars, civil disturbances, sieges, and deliberate crop destruction. Widespread, chronic hunger and malnutrition may result from severe poverty, inefficient food distribution, or population increases disproportionate to the food-producing or procuring capacity of people in a region.

The immediate consequences of famine are weight loss in adults and retarded growth in children. Malnutrition, especially protein-energy malnutrition, then increases throughout the affected population and mortality rates rise, usually beginning with the old and the young. These deaths are due not only to starvation, but also to diminished ability to fight infection. In the past, epidemics of typhus and plague caused famines that resulted in high mortality rates. In recent times, diarrhea, measles, and tuberculosis have taken a high toll in famine areas.

One of the most dramatic, large-scale sociological consequences of famine is population migration. For example, about 1.6 million people emigrated from Ireland—chiefly to the United States—to escape Ireland’s potato famine, which lasted from 1845 to 1847. Modern migrations have often been from rural areas to cities. The population of Nouakshott, the capital city of Mauritania, quadrupled in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely as a result of famine in the Sahel (sub-Saharan) region of Africa.

II

History

Acute shortages of foodstuffs have existed in isolated areas periodically since ancient times. Historical records, however, cover only a few thousand years, and estimates of the extent of famines have been approximate. This is true even of famines that occurred during the 20th century.

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Nevertheless, the catastrophic nature of major famines is unquestioned. Most researchers list about 400 such famines in recorded history. Populations in Asia have been decimated repeatedly by starvation as a result of drought. An estimated 10 million people died in a drought-induced famine in India from 1769 to 1770, and a similar number died in the 1877-1878 famine in northern China. Warfare has been another major cause of famines in these regions. In 1943 an estimated 3 to 5 million people died in China’s Henan Province as a result of starvation caused by World War II (1939-1945).

In the 20th century the Sahel region of Africa has been struck by famine several times. North and South America have been relatively free of large-scale famines. Europe has suffered only occasionally, although during World War II hundreds of thousands died from starvation.

III

Effects

The human body can adapt fairly well to a reduction in the intake of nutrients. Cutting the intake by half will reduce body weight by about one-fourth, but a person may subsist at this level for some time without experiencing adverse health effects. Any additional drop in intake, however, can be dangerous. Starvation is only one of the possible results; equally serious are diseases that successfully attack an undernourished body.

Long-term effects are also serious. Adults can generally recover successfully from a period of famine, but children may suffer permanent physical and mental damage from undernourishment at a vulnerable time of rapid growth.

IV

Relief Organizations

Relief organizations for the aid of famine victims are fairly recent inventions. The International Red Cross, founded in Switzerland in 1864, mobilizes relief efforts both within and between countries. Religious and other private agencies also provide relief, and aid is provided by many countries including the United States, Canada, and European nations.

After World War II the shortcomings of these individual programs’ abilities to alleviate starvation became obvious. The establishment of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in 1945 was followed by the creation of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to coordinate international famine relief efforts. Other United Nations agencies assist the FAO in its attempts to prevent disasters caused by inadequate food supplies.