Introduction to Famines

Question 1

define ‘famine’

Answer 1

‘famine is a socio-economic process which causes the accelerated destitution of the most vulnerable. marginal and least powerful groups in a community, to a point where they can no longer, as a group, maintain a sustainable livelihood’

Question 2

act of god approach to famine

Answer 2

isolates famine from other social, political and economic issues and places it in category of natural disasters

Question 3

act of man view to famine

Answer 3

places famine on continuum with hunger, poverty and a social deprivation and argues that famine is consequence of human activity
- can be prevented by modified behaviour and economic and political interventions

Question 4

why does devereux argue that few if any recorded famines can be blamed on forces outside human influence?

Answer 4

1) few famines where rich have starves

2) no recent famine could not have been averted by taking food from somewhere else

3) correlation between famine and climate is weaker than that between poverty or war and famine
- similar climate in US and australia but no famine

Question 5

two famine theories

Answer 5

FAD
- food availability decline

FED
- food entitlement decline

Question 6

why does FAD theory not stand up to close scrutiny?

Answer 6

1) natural disasters disrupt production not distribution
- assumes closed economy

2) rich rarely die in famines
- so some groups have better access to food

3) drought leads to famine is too simplistic
- we know there are insurance mechanisms and coping strategies

Question 7

drought only leads to famine if…

Answer 7

• severe and protracted
• in tandem with other threat such as war
• coping strategies undermined or exhausted
• inappropriate or late interventions

Question 8

malthusian (1798) view

Answer 8

famine is question of excess of population over means of subsistence
- starvation is natural check on population growth

Question 9

why is famine not a malthusian leveller?

Answer 9

1) only few die
- young and middle aged survive and almost all famines followed by ‘baby boom’ which compensates for excess deaths
- therefore resources and population still not level

2) failed to predict agricultural and transport revolution
- raised food production and improved food distribution

3) challenged by ‘boserup effect’
- population concentration encourages investment in rural infrastructure which reduces vulnerability

Question 10

beliefs of non-malthusians

Answer 10

1) still argue ‘too many people, too little food’

2) concept of carrying capacity
- relates population to economic viability
- suggests where environment is fragile, famine will follow

3) high population growth perpetuates poverty at household level and famine at regional level by excessive land partition and high dependency ratios

4) death control
- modern medicines keeping people alive with falls in birth rates lagging