The word famine refers to a widespread shortage of food in a geographical area. A famine usually results in malnutrition and starvation in the affected population; this in turn leads to epidemics of communicable diseases that result in increasing mortality. Famines can occur anywhere, at any time. Historically, famines have occurred because of agricultural problems such as drought, floods, crop diseases, or insect infestation. Wars, acts of terrorism, governmental policy blunders, and economic decline have also caused man-induced famines.
Hundreds of famines occurred in Europe during the Middle Ages. More recently, one of the worst famines occurred in North China from 1876 to 1879, when the death toll was almost 13 million. A famine occurred in India about the same time with 5 million deaths.
During the twentieth century, it is estimated that 70 million people died from famines worldwide; as many as 36 million died in China alone during the famine of 1958 to 1961, which occurred as a result of the Maoist Great Leap Forward policies that led to a decrease in food production.
The Holodomor is the famine that took place in Soviet Ukraine during 1932–1933. It has been attributed to failed agricultural policies of the Soviet Union and caused the deaths of up to 10 million people. Other famines of the twentieth century occurred in Ethiopia (1983–1985), where the cause was a combination of war and drought, and in North Korea (1990s), where there were unprecedented floods, tidal waves, and drought.
Food distribution problems also result in prolonged famines. During the Nigerian civil war (1967–1970), the Nigerian government created a famine in the secessionist state of Biafra by blockade of supply routes. This government action resulted in the death by starvation of up to 1 million people.
Let’s examine one particular famine in more detail. The Irish potato famine of the 1840s was caused by a fungus disease that turned potatoes into black, inedible mush. The fungus, Phytophthora infestans, causes a disease known as “late blight.”
The population of Ireland was 4 million in 1800. By 1850 it had doubled to 8 million. Ireland was an agrarian society, and the Irish were among the poorest people in the western world. Only about a quarter of the population was literate. The average life expectancy for men was only forty years. It was common for girls to marry at sixteen and boys at seventeen years of age.
At the time of the blight, the Irish countryside was largely owned by the Protestant English and Anglo-Irish. They were the recipients of the lands confiscated from the native Irish Catholics in the mid-1600s by Oliver Cromwell. The new Protestant landlords used local agents to manage their estates while living lavishly in London or in Europe. Farmland was rented to Catholic farmers indirectly through middlemen, who divided the larger areas into smaller ones.
Around the late 1500s, potatoes were introduced to Ireland. Farmers quickly discovered the vegetable thrived in their country’s cool moist soil and required very little labor. The plants were prolific. An acre of fertilized potatoes could yield as many as twelve tons of the tubers, enough to feed a family of six for a year with leftovers to feed the farm animals. Potato became the main staple food for more than half the population.
From 1800 to 1845, Ireland had experienced regional and short-lived famines with only modest loss of life. The failure of the potato crop in September 1845 was disastrous. The crop failure became a national issue for the first time, affecting the entire country.
The blight curled the leaves on the potato plants and turned them black. Below ground, the disease attacked the potato itself, making it inedible. The spores of the fungus traveled rapidly in the wind, so that a single infected plant could spread the disease and infect thousands more plants in just a few days. The blight infection lasted for six years.
Economic policies also played a part in the potato famine. At the same time, other grains and foodstuffs, which were not affected by the fungus, were being grown in Ireland. Because of the high prices received for these crops from other countries, they were exported rather than used to feed the starving farmers and villagers.
One million people died of starvation. Many more died from epidemics of typhus, tuberculosis, cholera, scurvy, and dysentery. Those who could escaped to other countries, including the United States, Canada, and Australia. By 1851, Ireland lost more than 2 million inhabitants due to starvation, disease, and emigration.
Throughout human history, famines have been confined to regions or countries. But now come signs that famines may soon be global. Agricultural lands across the world are decreasing due to urbanization, climate change, drought, and deforestation. An even more serious fact is that the production of oil, crucial to modern agriculture and transportation of foodstuffs around the world, is peaking and is expected to decline while the world population continues to increase.
With the current state of the world economy, the depreciating value of the U.S. dollar, high unemployment, recession/depression in many parts of the world, and decreasing food production, it is likely that food prices will rise dramatically, resulting in a global economic famine. Food will become so expensive that many people will not be able to afford it.
Historically, famines are accompanied by dire poverty, social disintegration, declining public health conditions, epidemics of infectious diseases, and social disintegration including riots and civil disorder.
Taking into account both the unpredictable causes of natural famines and the predictable causes of man-made ones, it seems prudent to have a disaster preparedness program in place. Now is the time to begin accumulating adequate food and other supplies if you want to survive in this dangerous world.
