View source for Famine

{{Short description|Widespread scarcity of food}}
{{About|scarcity of food}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}
[[File:No-nb bldsa 6a019.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Two men and a child, all dead from starvation during the [[Russian famine of 1921–1922]]]]
A '''famine''' is a widespread scarcity of [[food]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Fighting famine |url=https://www.wfp.org/fight-famine |website=wfp.org |publisher=World Food Programme |access-date=6 May 2021 |archive-date=21 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221064143/https://www.wfp.org/fight-famine |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Kelly |first=James |jstor=30008004 |title=Scarcity and Poor Relief in Eighteenth-Century Ireland: The Subsistence Crisis of 1782–4 |journal=Irish Historical Studies |volume=28 |issue=109 |date=May 1992 |pages=38–62 |doi=10.1017/S0021121400018575 |s2cid=163962983}}</ref> caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to: [[war]], [[natural disasters]], [[crop failure]], widespread [[poverty]], an [[Financial crisis|economic catastrophe]] or [[government policies]]. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional [[malnutrition]], [[starvation]], [[epidemic]], and increased [[death|mortality]]. Every inhabited continent in the world has experienced a period of famine throughout history. During the 19th and 20th centuries, [[Southeast Asia|Southeast]] and [[South Asia]], as well as [[Eastern Europe|Eastern]] and [[Central 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, [[Africa]] has been the most affected continent in the world by famine. As of 2025,  [[Haiti]] and [[Afghanistan]] are the two countries with the most catastrophic and widespread states of famine, followed by [[Sudan]].

==Definitions==
According to the United Nations [[World 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Famine prevention |url=https://www.wfp.org/famine-prevention |website=wfp.org |publisher=World Food Programme |access-date=15 February 2021 |archive-date=17 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210217034813/https://www.wfp.org/famine-prevention |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Integrated Food Security Phase Classification]] criteria define ''Phase 5 famine'' of acute food insecurity as occurring when all three of the following situations exist at the same time:<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 July 2011 |title=When a food security crisis becomes a famine |url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2011/07/382342-when-food-security-crisis-becomes-famine |access-date=28 May 2021 |website=UN News |language=en |archive-date=11 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511062021/https://news.un.org/en/story/2011/07/382342-when-food-security-crisis-becomes-famine |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="IPC_famine" />
* At least 20% of households in an area face extreme food shortages with a limited ability to cope;
* The prevalence of acute malnutrition in children exceeds 30%;
* The death rate exceeds two people per 10,000 per day.
The declaration of a famine carries no binding obligations on the UN or member states, but serves to focus global attention on the problem.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39025927 |title=South Sudan declares famine in Unity State |date=20 February 2017 |access-date=20 February 2017 |work=BBC News |archive-date=22 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180722044156/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39025927 |url-status=live}}</ref>

==History==
{{Further|List of famines}}
[[File:Great Tenmei Famine Map Artwork.png|thumb|[[Great Tenmei famine]] in Japan (1782–1788)]]
The cyclical occurrence of famine has been a mainstay of societies engaged in [[subsistence agriculture]] since the dawn of agriculture itself. The frequency and intensity of famine has fluctuated throughout history, depending on changes in food demand, such as [[population growth]], and supply-side shifts caused by changing [[climatic]] conditions.

===Decline of famine===
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the feudal system began to break down, and more prosperous farmers began to [[enclosure|enclose]] their own land and improve their yields to sell the surplus crops for a profit. These [[capitalist]] landowners paid their labourers with [[wage labour|money]], 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 guaranteed [[surplus value|surpluses]] of their crop every year if they could.

Subsistence peasants were also increasingly forced to commercialize their activities because of increasing [[tax]]es. Taxes that had to be paid to central governments in money, forced the peasants to produce crops intended for sale at market. This often meant producing [[industrial crop]]s alongside subsistence crops,  and forced peasants 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 of [[Holland]] to allow its population to withstand a general outbreak of famine in Western Europe at that time. By that time, the [[Netherlands]] had one of the most commercialized agricultural systems in Europe. They grew many industrial crops such as [[flax]], [[hemp]] and [[hops]]. 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.<ref>{{cite web |last=Bieleman |first=Jan |url=http://www.neha.nl/publications/eshn-4/08-bieleman.pdf |title=Dutch Agriculture in the Golden Age, 1570–1660 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100401022510/http://www.neha.nl/publications/eshn-4/08-bieleman.pdf |archive-date=1 April 2010}}</ref>

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 were [[enclosed]] for 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Curtler |first=W.H.R. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yomy8cKVOtkC |title=A Short History of English Agriculture |publisher=Etusevi Company |chapter=ch. 11 |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-4505-1503-0}}</ref> By the end of the 17th century, English agriculture was the most productive in Europe.<ref>{{cite book |last=Burns |first=William E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=59ITUOLbVkoC |title=The Scientific Revolution: An Encyclopedia |year=2001 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=7 |isbn=978-0-87436-875-8 |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-date=16 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916141524/https://books.google.com/books?id=59ITUOLbVkoC |url-status=live}}</ref> 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. In [[Eastern Europe]], famines occurred as late as the twentieth century.

===Attempts at famine alleviation===
[[File:Skibbereen by James Mahony, 1847.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Skibbereen]], Ireland during the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]], 1847 illustration by [[James Mahony]] for the ''[[Illustrated London News]]'']]

In pre-industrial Europe preventing famine and ensuring timely food supplies was one of the chief concerns of many governments, as famines could lead to [[revolt]] and other forms of social disruption. Most government they were severely limited in their options, though, due to limited levels of external trade, infrastructure, and bureaucracy generally too rudimentary to effect real relief.

By the mid-19th century and the onset of the [[Industrial Revolution]], it became possible for governments to alleviate the effects of famine through [[price controls]], large scale importation of food products from foreign markets, stockpiling, [[rationing]], regulation of production and [[charity (practice)|charity]]. The [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine of 1845]] in 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 to [[F. S. L. Lyons]].<ref>{{citation |title=Ireland since the famine |first=Francis Stewart Leland |last=Lyons |publisher=Fontana |year=1973 |page=30}}</ref> Confronted by widespread crop failure in the autumn of 1845, Prime Minister [[Sir Robert Peel]] purchased £100,000 worth of maize and [[cornmeal]] secretly from America. [[Barings Bank|Baring Brothers & Co]] initially 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.{{sfn|Kinealy|1995|p=38}} The maize corn was then re-sold for a penny a pound.<ref>{{citation |title=Disraeli |last=Blake |first=Robert |lccn=67011837 |series=University paperbacks |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QpRnAAAAMAAJ |year=1967 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |page=221 |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-date=16 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916141521/https://books.google.com/books?id=QpRnAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1846, Peel moved to repeal the [[Corn Laws]], [[tariff]]s on 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.{{sfn|Blake|1967|pp=221–241}} In March, Peel set up a programme of public works in Ireland.<ref>{{citation |title=The Great Hunger |first=Cecil |last=Woodham-Smith |year=1962 |pages=78–86}}</ref>

[[File:Famine in India Natives Waiting for Relief in Bangalore.jpg|thumb|left|upright|People waiting for famine relief in [[Bangalore]], India (from the ''[[Illustrated London News]]'', 1877)]]

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 a [[laissez-faire]] belief 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 in [[workhouse]]s through the [[Irish Poor Laws|Poor Law]], the latter through [[soup kitchen]]s.<ref>{{citation |title=Ireland: History of a Nation |first=David |last=Ross |year=2002 |publisher=New Lanark: Geddes & Grosset |isbn=978-1-84205-164-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/irelandhistoryof0000ross/page/224 224, 311] |url=https://archive.org/details/irelandhistoryof0000ross/page/224}}</ref>[[Image:Apocalypse vasnetsov.jpg|thumb|''[[Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (painting)|Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse]]'', an 1887 painting by Russian artist [[Viktor Vasnetsov]]. Depicted from left to right are Death, Famine, War, and Conquest.|294x294px]]

A systematic attempt at creating the necessary regulatory framework for dealing with famine was developed by the [[British Raj]] in 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.<ref name="L. Brennan"/><ref name="Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Historical responses to famine |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/201392/famine/277562/ |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online |access-date=8 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="Scales">{{cite journal |last1=Reza |first1=A. |last2=Tomczyk |first2=B. |last3=Aguayo |first3=V. M |last4=Zagre |first4=N. M |last5=Goumbi |first5=K. |last6=Blanton |first6=C. |last7=Talley |first7=L. |title=Retrospective determination of whether famine existed in Niger, 2005: two stage cluster survey |journal=BMJ |date=2 October 2008 |volume=337 |issue=oct02 1 |article-number=a1622 |doi=10.1136/bmj.a1622 |pmid=18832413 |pmc=2658864}}
* {{cite journal |title=Retrospective determination of whether famine existed in Niger |journal=Field Exchange 35 |date=3 January 2009 |page=9 |url=https://www.ennonline.net/fex/35/retrospective |access-date=20 April 2019 |archive-date=20 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190420123754/https://www.ennonline.net/fex/35/retrospective |url-status=live}}</ref> 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 under [[Lord Ripon]].

The [[Indian Famine Codes|Code]] introduced the first [[famine scale]]: three levels of [[food insecurity]] were defined: near-scarcity, scarcity, and famine. "Scarcity" was defined as three successive years of [[crop failure]], [[crop yield]]s of 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.<ref name="L. Brennan">{{Citation |last=Brennan |first=L |year=1984 |contribution=The development of the India Famine Codes: personalities, policies and politics |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FoNS2fM8N0kC |editor-last=Currey |editor-first=Bruce |editor2-last=Hugo |editor2-first=Graeme |title=Famine as a geographical phenomenon |edition=Illustrated |series=GeoJournal library |publisher=Springer |volume=1 |pages=91–110 |isbn=978-90-277-1762-7}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Citation |title=Hunger and Public Action |last1=Drèze |first1=Jean |last2=Sen |first2=Amartya Kumar |isbn=978-0-19-828365-2 |lccn=89025504 |series=Studies in Development Economics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OjCHQR-M0ocC |year=1991 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford; New York |author-link1=Jean Drèze |author-link2=Amartya Sen |page=98}}</ref>

===20th century===
During the 20th century, an estimated 70 to 120 million people died from [[List of famines|famines across the world]], of whom over half died in China, with an estimated 30 million dying during the [[Great Chinese Famine|famine of 1958–1961]],<ref name=IDSWorkingPaper>{{cite web |url=http://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/wp105.pdf |title=Famine in the Twentieth Century |publisher=IDS |date=16 February 1993 |access-date=21 November 2011 |archive-date=6 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120406112312/http://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/wp105.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> up to 10 million in the [[Chinese famine of 1928–1930]], and over two million in the [[Chinese famine of 1942–1943]], and millions more lost in famines in North and East China. The USSR lost 8 million claimed by the [[Soviet famine of 1930–1933]], over a million in both the [[Soviet famine of 1946–1947]] and [[Siege of Leningrad]], the 5 million in the [[Russian famine of 1921–1922]], and others famines. Java suffered 2.5 million deaths under Japanese occupation during World War Two.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Huff |first=Gregg |date=2019 |title=Causes and consequences of the Great Vietnam Famine, 1944–5 |journal=The Economic History Review |language=en |volume=72 |issue=1 |pages=286–316 |doi=10.1111/ehr.12741 |issn=1468-0289 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The other most notable famine of the century was the [[Bengal famine of 1943]], resulting both from the [[Japanese occupation of Burma]], resulting in an influx of refugees, and blocking Burmese grain imports and a failure of the [[Bengal Presidency#Provincial Autonomy|Bengali provincial Government]] to [[Indian Famine Codes|declare 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 an [[Churchill war ministry|Imperial War Cabinet]] initially leaving the issue to the Colonial administration to resolve, than to the original local crop failures, and blights.<ref name=Sen>{{cite book |last=Sen |first=Amartya |title=Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FVC9eqGkMr8C |year=1981a |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-828463-5 |ref=CITEREFA. Sen1981a |at=Chapter 6: [https://books.google.com/books?id=FVC9eqGkMr8C&pg=PA55 "The Great Bengal Famine"]}}</ref>

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[[Bengal famine of 1943|India (1943–44)]], [[Dutch famine of 1944–45|the Netherlands (1944–45)]], [[Nigerian Civil War|Nigeria (1967–70)]], and an engraving of a woman and her children during the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine in Ireland (1845–1849)]]
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A few of the great famines of the late 20th century were: the [[Biafra|Biafran famine]] in the 1960s, the [[Khmer Rouge]]-caused famine in Cambodia in the 1970s, the North Korean [[North Korean famine|famine of the 1990s]], and the Ethiopian [[1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia|famine of 1983–1985]]. Approximately 3 million died as a consequence of the [[Second 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 of [[Korem]]. This stimulated the first mass movements to end famine across the world.

[[BBC]] newsreader [[Michael Buerk]] gave moving commentary of the tragedy on 23 October 1984, which he described as a "biblical famine". This prompted the [[Band Aid (band)|Band Aid]] single, which was organized by [[Bob Geldof]] and featured more than 20 pop stars. The [[Live Aid]] concerts in [[London]] and [[Philadelphia]] raised 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.<ref name="History">{{Cite news |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/live-aid-concert |title=Live Aid concert |date=13 July 1985 |work=HISTORY.com |access-date=14 September 2018 |archive-date=5 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211105152731/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/live-aid-concert |url-status=live}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hickman |first=John |date=4 May 2019 |title=Major famines as geopolitical strategies |journal=Comparative Strategy |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=224–233 |doi=10.1080/01495933.2019.1606663 |s2cid=201340371 |issn=0149-5933}}</ref>

===21st century===
{{See also|COVID-19 pandemic-related famines|2022–2023 food crises}}

Until 2017, worldwide deaths from famine had been falling dramatically. The [[World Peace Foundation]] reported that from the 1870s to the 1970s, great famines killed an average of 928,000 people a year.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://sites.tufts.edu/wpf/famine/ |title=Famine Trends Dataset, Tables and Graphs – World Peace Foundation |website=sites.tufts.edu |date=14 April 2017 |language=en-US |access-date=15 October 2017 |archive-date=11 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220611135749/https://sites.tufts.edu/wpf/famine/ |url-status=live}}</ref> 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 the [[2011 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, in [[2017 South Sudan famine|South Sudan]], in [[Famine in Yemen|Yemen]], and in [[2017 Somalian drought|Somalia]].<ref name = "democracyFT"/>

On 20 April 2021, hundreds of aid organizations from around the world wrote an open letter to [[The Guardian]] newspaper, warning that millions of people in [[Yemen]], [[Afghanistan]], [[Ethiopia]], [[South Sudan]], [[Burkina Faso]], [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]], [[Honduras]], [[Venezuela]], [[Nigeria]], [[Haiti]], [[Central African Republic]], [[Uganda]], [[Zimbabwe]] and [[Sudan]] faced starvation. Organizations including the International Council of Voluntary Agencies and the [[World Food Programme]] said: "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.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/apr/20/millions-at-risk-of-famine-without-urgent-help-governments-warned |title='People are not starving, they're being starved': millions at risk of famine, NGOs warn |last=Johnson |first=Sarah |date=20 April 2021 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=28 April 2021 |archive-date=27 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427191453/https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/apr/20/millions-at-risk-of-famine-without-urgent-help-governments-warned |url-status=live}}</ref>

In November 2021, the [[World Food Programme]] reported 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.<ref>{{cite news |title=45 million people 'teetering on the edge of famine' globally – WFP |url=https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/494205-45-million-people-teetering-on-the-edge-of-famine-globally-wfp.html |access-date=25 November 2021 |work=[[Premium Times]] |date=8 November 2021 |archive-date=25 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211125111924/https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/494205-45-million-people-teetering-on-the-edge-of-famine-globally-wfp.html |url-status=live}}</ref> 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. [[Afghanistan]] was becoming the world's largest humanitarian crisis, with the country's needs surpassing those of the other worst-hit countries — [[Ethiopia]], [[South Sudan]], [[Syria]] and even [[Yemen]].<ref>{{cite news |title=45 million people at risk of famine require urgent intervention. |url=https://www.wfp.org/stories/42-million-people-are-knocking-famines-door-and-us66-billion-could-save-them-now-0 |access-date=25 November 2021 |publisher=World Food Programme |date=8 November 2021 |archive-date=8 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308184623/https://www.wfp.org/stories/42-million-people-are-knocking-famines-door-and-us66-billion-could-save-them-now-0 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In August 2024, [[2024 famine in Sudan|famine]] was declared in Sudan,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Famine confirmed in Sudan's North Darfur, confirming UN agencies worst fears |url=https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/famine-confirmed-sudans-north-darfur-confirming-un-agencies-worst-fears |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250103010921/https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/famine-confirmed-sudans-north-darfur-confirming-un-agencies-worst-fears |archive-date=3 January 2025 |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=www.unicef.org |language=en |url-status=live}}</ref> where several refugee camps, displaced by the ongoing [[Sudanese civil war (2023–present)|Sudanese civil war]], were found to be facing severe famine conditions. According to the [[Integrated Food Security Phase Classification|IPC]], over 24 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and a phase 5 famine was detected in multiple regions.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-12-24 |title=Sudan's worsening famine: Conflict puts millions at risk {{!}} UN News |url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/12/1158511 |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=news.un.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Sudan: Acute Food Insecurity Situation - Updated Projections and FRC conclusions for October 2024 to May 2025 {{!}} IPC - Integrated Food Security Phase Classification |url=https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/details-map/en/c/1159433/ |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=www.ipcinfo.org}}</ref> UN experts have accused the [[Sudanese Armed Forces]] (SAF) and the [[Rapid 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".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sudan faces one of the worst famines in decades, warn UN experts |url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/10/sudan-faces-one-worst-famines-decades-warn-un-experts |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=OHCHR |language=en}}</ref>

In August 2025, [[Gaza Strip famine|famine]] was declared in Gaza,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-08-22 |title=Famine in Gaza: 'A failure of humanity itself', says UN chief {{!}} UN News |url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/08/1165702 |access-date=2025-08-22 |website=news.un.org |language=en}}</ref>  More than half a million people in Gaza were trapped in famine, marked by widespread starvation, destitution and preventable deaths, according to a new Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis that was released,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-08-22 |title=Famine confirmed for first time in Gaza {{!}} World Food Programme |url=https://www.wfp.org/news/famine-confirmed-first-time-gaza |access-date=2025-08-22 |website=www.wfp.org |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news |title=GAZA STRIP: Famine confirmed in Gaza Governorate, projected to expand |url=https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/countries-in-focus-archive/issue-134/en/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250822091631/https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/countries-in-focus-archive/issue-134/en/ |archive-date=22 August 2025 |access-date=2025-08-22 |language=en |url-status=live }}</ref> Access to food in Gaza remains severely constrained.{{As of?|date=September 2025}} In July, the number of households reporting very severe hunger doubled across the territory compared to May and more than tripled in Gaza City. More than one in three people (39 percent) indicated they were going days at a time without eating, and adults regularly skip meals to feed their children.

Malnutrition among children in Gaza is accelerating at a catastrophic pace. In July alone, more than 12,000 children were identified as acutely malnourished – the highest monthly figure ever recorded and a six-fold increase since the start of the year. Nearly one in four of these children were suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), the deadliest form with both short and long-term impacts.<ref name=":0" />

According to the IPC Analysis in May, the number of children expected to be at severe risk of death from malnutrition by the end of June 2026 has tripled from 14,100 to 43,400. Similarly, for pregnant and breastfeeding women, the number of estimated cases has tripled from 17,000 in May to 55,000 women expected to be suffering from perilous levels of malnutrition by mid-2026. The impact is visible: one in five babies are born prematurely or underweight.<ref name=":0" />

The new assessment reports the most severe deterioration since the IPC began analyzing acute food insecurity and acute malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, and it marks the first time a famine has been officially confirmed in the Middle East region.<ref name=":0" />

Meanwhile, approximately 98 percent of cropland in the territory is damaged or inaccessible – decimating the agriculture sector and local food production – and nine of ten people have been serially displaced from homes. Cash is critically scarce, aid operations remain severely disrupted, with most UN trucks looted amid growing desperation. Food prices are extremely high and there is not enough fuel and water to cook and medicines and medical supplies.<ref name=":0" />

Gaza's health system has severely deteriorated, access to safe drinking water and sanitation services has been drastically reduced, while multi-drug resistant infections are surging and levels of morbidity – including diarrhea, fever, acute respiratory and skin infections – are alarmingly high among children.<ref name=":0" />

==Regional history==
[[File:Famines-by-continent-and-ME-01 1839.png|thumb|Famines by continent]]

===Africa===
{{category see also|Famines in Africa}}

====Early history====
In the mid-22nd century BC, a sudden and short-lived climatic change that caused reduced rainfall resulted in several decades of drought in [[Upper Egypt]]. The resulting famine and civil strife is believed to have been a major cause of the collapse of the [[Old Kingdom]]. An account from the [[First Intermediate Period]] states, "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 entire [[Sahel]], and in 1738 half the population of [[Timbuktu]] died of famine.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ag.arizona.edu/~lmilich/desclim.html |title=Len Milich: Anthropogenic Desertification vs 'Natural' Climate Trends |website=Ag.arizona.edu |date=10 August 1997 |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211081648/http://ag.arizona.edu/~lmilich/desclim.html |archive-date=11 February 2012}}</ref> In [[Egypt]], between 1687 and 1731, there were six famines.<ref>{{cite book |last=Quataert |first=Donald |title=The Ottoman Empire, 1700–1922 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-521-83910-5 |page=115}}</ref> The famine that afflicted Egypt in 1784 cost it roughly one-sixth of its population.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Manning |first1=Joseph G. |last2=Ludlow |first2=Francis |last3=Stine |first3=Alexander R. |last4=Boos |first4=William R. |last5=Sigl |first5=Michael |last6=Marlon |first6=Jennifer R. |title=Volcanic suppression of Nile summer flooding triggers revolt and constrains interstate conflict in ancient Egypt |journal=Nature Communications |date=17 October 2017 |volume=8 |issue=1 |page=900 |doi=10.1038/s41467-017-00957-y |pmid=29042538 |pmc=5645420 |bibcode=2017NatCo...8..900M}}
* {{cite press release |date=22 November 2006 |title=Icelandic Volcano Caused Historic Famine In Egypt, Study Shows |website=ScienceDaily |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061121232204.htm}}</ref> The [[Maghreb]] experienced famine and [[Black Death|plague]] in the late 18th century and early 19th century.<ref>Nancy Elizabeth Gallagher (2002). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=etf7xP841skC&pg=PA25 Medicine and Power in Tunisia, 1780–1900]''. p. 25. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-52939-5}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140712112255/http://books.google.com/books?id=etf7xP841skC&pg=PA25 |date=12 July 2014 }}</ref><ref>Daniel Panzac (2005). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=_dyeFP5Hyc4C&pg=PA309 Barbary Corsairs: the end of a legend, 1800–1820]''. p. 309. {{ISBN|90-04-12594-9}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916141522/https://books.google.com/books?id=_dyeFP5Hyc4C&pg=PA309 |date=16 September 2023 }}</ref> There was famine in [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]] in 1784, and in [[Tunis]] in 1785.<ref>Suraiya Faroqhi, Halil İnalcık, Donald Quataert (1997). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=c00jmTrjzAoC&pg=PA651 An economic and social history of the Ottoman Empire]''. Cambridge University Press. p. 651. {{ISBN|0-521-57455-2}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916141522/https://books.google.com/books?id=c00jmTrjzAoC&pg=PA651 |date=16 September 2023 }}</ref>

According to John Iliffe, "Portuguese records of [[Angola]] from 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."<ref>John Iliffe (2007). [https://books.google.com/books?id=bNGN2URP_rUC ''Africans: the history of a continent'']. Cambridge University Press. p. 68. {{ISBN|0-521-68297-5}}</ref>

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 the [[Battle of Mbwila]] in 1665. In these documents the Portuguese wrote of African raids on Portuguese merchants solely for food, giving clear signs of famine. Additionally, instances of [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]] by the African Jaga were also more prevalent during this time frame, indicating an extreme deprivation of a primary food source.<ref name="Miller 17–61">{{cite journal |last=Miller |first=Joseph C. |title=The Significance of Drought, Disease and Famine in the Agriculturally Marginal Zones of West-Central Africa |journal=Journal of African History |date=January 1982 |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=17–61 |doi=10.1017/S0021853700020235 |pmid=11632226 |s2cid=7601465}}</ref>

====Colonial period====
[[File:Punch congo rubber cartoon.jpg|thumb|upright|A 1906 ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' cartoon depicting [[King Leopold II]] as a snake entangling a Congolese man]]
A notable period of famine occurred around the turn of the 20th century in the [[Congo Free State]]. In forming this state, Leopold used mass labor camps to finance his empire.<ref name="Masci 2002">{{cite journal |last=Masci |first=David |title=Famine in Africa |journal=CQ Researcher |date=8 November 2002 |volume=12 |issue=39 |url=http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2002110800#top |access-date=27 November 2011 |archive-date=9 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220309155152/https://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2002110800#top |url-status=live}}</ref> This period resulted in the death of up to 10 million Congolese from brutality, disease and famine.<ref>{{cite news |last=Dummett |first=Mark |title=King Leopold's Legacy of DR Congo Violence |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3516965.stm |access-date=27 November 2011 |date=24 February 2004 |work=BBC News |archive-date=25 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220325011812/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3516965.stm |url-status=live}}</ref> Some colonial "pacification" efforts often caused severe famine, notably with the repression of the Maji Maji revolt in [[German East Africa|Tanganyika]] in 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Papaioannou |first1=Kostadis J. |title=Climate shocks and conflict: Evidence from colonial Nigeria |journal=Political Geography |date=January 2016 |volume=50 |pages=33–47 |doi=10.1016/j.polgeo.2015.07.001 |hdl=1874/318818 |hdl-access=free}}</ref>

A large-scale famine occurred in Ethiopia in 1888 and in succeeding years, as the [[1890s African rinderpest epizootic|rinderpest epizootic]], introduced into [[Eritrea]] by infected cattle, spread southwards reaching ultimately as far as [[South 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 with [[drought]] associated with an ''[[El Niño]]'' oscillation, human epidemics of [[smallpox]], and in several countries, intense war. The [[Famines in Ethiopia|Ethiopian Great famine]] that afflicted Ethiopia from 1888 to 1892 cost it roughly one-third of its population.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ccb.ucar.edu/ijas/ijasno2/georgis.html |title=El Niño and Drought Early Warning in Ethiopia |last=Wolde-Georgis |first=Tsegay |website=www.ccb.ucar.edu |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070911102037/http://www.ccb.ucar.edu/ijas/ijasno2/georgis.html |archive-date=11 September 2007}}</ref> In [[Sudan]] the year 1888 is remembered as the worst famine in history, on account of these factors and also the [[exaction]]s imposed by the [[Muhammad Ahmad|Mahdist state]].

The [[oral tradition]]s of the [[Himba people]] recall two droughts from 1910 to 1917. From 1910 to 1911 the Himba described the drought as "drought of the omutati seed", also called ''omangowi'', the fruit of an unidentified vine that people ate during the time period. From 1914 to 1916, droughts brought ''katur' ombanda'' or ''kari' ombanda'' 'the time of eating clothing'.<ref name="Miller 17–61"/>

====20th century====
[[File:Niger childhood malnutrition 16oct06.jpg|thumb|left|Malnourished children in [[Niger]], during the 2005 famine]]
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.<ref name = "democracyFT">{{Cite news |url=https://www.ft.com/content/13b15b80-0d82-11e7-a88c-50ba212dce4d |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/13b15b80-0d82-11e7-a88c-50ba212dce4d |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription |title=As democracy retreats, famine makes a comeback |work=[[Financial Times]] |first=David |last=Pilling |date=22 March 2017 |access-date=1 April 2017 |format={{registration required}}}}</ref> There were notable counter-examples, such as the famine in [[Rwanda]] during World War II and the [[Malawi]] famine 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.<ref name="Masci 2002"/>

From 1967 to 1969 large scale famine occurred in Biafra and Nigeria due to a [[Nigerian Civil War|government 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Iliffe |first=John |title=Africans: The History of a Continent |year=1995 |publisher=Cambridge}}</ref>

Famine recurred in the early 1970s, when Ethiopia and the west African [[Sahel]] suffered [[Sahel drought|drought 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 Emperor [[Haile 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.

[[File:Starved girl.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|A girl during the [[Nigerian Civil War]] of the late 1960s. Pictures of the famine caused by the Nigerian blockade garnered sympathy for the Biafrans worldwide.]]
Famines occurred in Sudan in the late-1970s and again in 1990 and 1998. The 1980 famine in [[Karamoja]], [[Uganda]] was, in terms of mortality rates, one of the worst in history. 21% of the population died, including 60% of the infants.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.unu.edu/unupress/food/8F091e/8F091E05.htm |title=Food and bulletin volume 9, number 1, march 1987 |website=www.unu.edu |access-date=28 November 2018 |archive-date=26 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101226004126/http://unu.edu/unupress/food/8F091e/8F091E05.htm }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |last=B. E. |first=Spiers |title=Famine in Africa |url=http://md1.csa.com/partners/viewrecord.php?requester=gs&collection=ENV&recid=9110094&q=Famine+in+Africa&uid=791203203&setcookie=yes |access-date=27 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120823070354/http://md1.csa.com/partners/viewrecord.php?requester=gs&collection=ENV&recid=9110094&q=Famine+in+Africa&uid=791203203&setcookie=yes |archive-date=23 August 2012}}</ref>

In October 1984, television reports describing the Ethiopian famine as "biblical", prompted the [[Live Aid]] concerts 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 to [[Ethiopian civil war|civil war]], the [[Derg|government]]'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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ethiopia in Crisis: Famine and Its Aftermath 1984–1988 |url=http://countrystudies.us/ethiopia/35.htm |publisher=U.S. Library of Congress |access-date=29 November 2011 |archive-date=12 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111012005810/http://countrystudies.us/ethiopia/35.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1992 Somalia became a war zone with no effective government, police, or basic services after the collapse of the dictatorship led by [[Siad Barre]] and the split of power between warlords. This coincided with a massive drought, causing over 300,000 Somalis to perish.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Masci |first=David |title=Famine in Africa |journal=CQ Researcher |date=8 November 2002 |volume=12 |issue=39 |url=http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2002110800#top |access-date=29 November 2011 |archive-date=9 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220309155152/https://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2002110800#top |url-status=live}}</ref>

====Recent years====
[[File:Maradi aidecentre Niger9aug2005 2.jpg|thumb|left|Laure Souley holds her three-year-old daughter and an infant son at a MSF aide center during the 2005 famine, Maradi Niger]]
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 from [[cash crop]]s to import food. [[Agriculture]] in Africa is susceptible to [[climatic]] fluctuations, especially [[drought]]s which can reduce the amount of food produced locally. Other agricultural problems include [[Soil fertility|soil infertility]], [[land degradation]] and [[erosion]], swarms of [[desert locust]]s, which can destroy whole crops, and livestock diseases. [[Desertification]] is increasingly problematic: the [[Sahara]] reportedly spreads up to {{convert|30|mi|km|0|order=flip}} per year.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0801/p01s02-woaf.html |title=Hunger is spreading in Africa |journal=Christian Science Monitor |date=1 August 2005 |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-date=23 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123114118/http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0801/p01s02-woaf.html |url-status=live}}</ref> 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 President [[Gaafar Nimeiry]], to create a crisis that killed perhaps 250,000 people—and helped bring about a popular uprising that overthrew Nimeiry.

Numerous factors make the [[food security]] situation in Africa tenuous, including political instability, armed conflict and [[civil war]], [[political corruption|corruption]] and mismanagement in handling food supplies, and trade policies that harm African agriculture. An example of a famine created by human rights abuses is the [[1998 Sudan famine]]. [[AIDS]] is 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.<ref>See, for example, [[Andrey Korotayev]] and [[Daria Khaltourina]] ''[https://www.academia.edu/27503953/Introduction_to_Social_Macrodynamics_Secular_Cycles_and_Millennial_Trends_in_Africa Secular Cycles and Millennial Trends in Africa]''. Moscow: 2006. {{ISBN|5-484-00560-4}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200216214439/https://www.academia.edu/27503953/Introduction_to_Social_Macrodynamics_Secular_Cycles_and_Millennial_Trends_in_Africa |date=16 February 2020 }}</ref> In Africa, if current trends of [[population growth]] and [[soil degradation]] continue, the continent might be able to feed just 25% of its population by 2025, according to [[United Nations University]] (UNU)'s Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.<ref name="news.mongabay.com">{{cite web |title=Africa may be able to feed only 25% of its population by 2025 |url=http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1214-unu.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111127175559/http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1214-unu.html |archive-date=27 November 2011 |work=Mongabay}}</ref>
[[File:Sahel Map-Africa rough.png|thumb|right|Famine-affected areas in the western [[Sahel]] belt during the [[2012 Sahel drought|2012 drought]].]]

Famines in the early 21st century in Africa include the [[2005–06 Niger food crisis]], the [[2010 Sahel famine]] and the [[2011 East Africa drought]], where two consecutive missed rainy seasons precipitated one of the worst [[2011 East Africa drought|droughts in East Africa]] in 60 years.<ref>{{cite news |title=One year on, thousands flee Somalia every month, but successes too |newspaper=Unhcr |url=http://www.unhcr.org/4fce08ac6.html |access-date=5 June 2012 |archive-date=5 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120605224414/http://www.unhcr.org/4fce08ac6.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Twdisyihoa">{{cite web |title=The worst drought in 60 years in Horn Africa |url=http://www.africa-eu-partnership.org/node/2158 |publisher=Africa and Europe in Partnership |access-date=2 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111102172007/http://www.africa-eu-partnership.org/node/2158 |archive-date=2 November 2011}}</ref> An estimated 50,000 to 150,000 people are reported to have died during the period.<ref>[https://world.time.com/2012/01/18/fatal-failure-did-aid-agencies-let-up-to-100000-somalis-die-in-2011/ "Fatal Failure: Did Aid Agencies Let Up To 100,000 Somalis Die in 2011?"] . ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''. 18 January 2012.</ref><ref name="Mafhscbafro">{{cite news |last=Warah |first=Rasna |title=Manufacturing a famine: How Somalia crisis became a fund-raising opportunity |url=https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/How+Somalia+crisis++became+a+fund+raising+opportunity+/-/2558/1246690/-/oe8n10/-/index.html |access-date=16 March 2013 |newspaper=The East African |date=2 October 2011 |archive-date=24 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024171549/http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/How+Somalia+crisis++became+a+fund+raising+opportunity+/-/2558/1246690/-/oe8n10/-/index.html |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2012, the [[2012 Sahel drought|Sahel drought]] put more than 10 million people in the western Sahel at risk of famine (according to a [[Methodist Relief & Development Fund (MRDF)]] aid expert), due to a month-long heat wave.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/12566 |title=Methodists make appeal for famine threatened West Africa |publisher=Ekklesia |date=6 July 2010 |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-date=7 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307152019/http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/12566 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="http://www.poverties.org Famine in Africa">{{cite web |title=Famine in Africa, A Failure of the World System? |url=http://www.poverties.org/famine-in-africa.html |website=Poverties |publisher=poverties.org |access-date=26 April 2016 |archive-date=25 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160525174621/http://www.poverties.org/famine-in-africa.html }}</ref>

Today, famine is most widespread in [[Sub-Saharan Africa]], but with exhaustion of food resources, overdrafting of [[groundwater]], wars, internal struggles, and economic failure, famine continues to be a worldwide problem with hundreds of millions of people suffering.<ref>{{cite journal |author=The Christian Science Monitor |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0724/p01s01-wogi.html |title=Rising food prices curb aid to global poor |date=24 July 2007 |journal=The Christian Science Monitor |access-date=14 September 2007 |archive-date=23 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191023091853/https://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0724/p01s01-wogi.html |url-status=live}}</ref> These famines cause widespread malnutrition and impoverishment. The [[1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia|famine in Ethiopia]] in 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.

====Current initiatives====
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 the [[Great Green Wall (Africa)|Great 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 the [[Overseas 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.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/details.asp?id=2572&title=community-area-based-development-approach-cabda-programme-alternative-way-address-current-african-food-crisis |title=Community Area-Based Development Approach (CABDA) Programme. An alternative way to address the current African food crisis? |journal=Overseas Development Institute (ODI) |date=November 2008 |publisher=Overseas Development Institute |archive-date=25 December 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091225120249/http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/details.asp?id=2572&title=community-area-based-development-approach-cabda-programme-alternative-way-address-current-african-food-crisis}}</ref>

====The role of African Unity organization====
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 has not achieved success in the economic field or in development. 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".<ref>Al-Kout, Bashir. (1987) "African Unity in the 20 century" :Cairo</ref>

===Far East===
====China====
{{see also|List of famines in China|Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–1879|Chinese famine of 1928–1930|Chinese famine of 1942–1943}}
[[File:Engraving-FamineRelief-China.gif|thumb|right|[[China|Chinese]] officials engaged in famine relief, 19th-century engraving]]
Chinese scholars had kept count of 1,828 instances of famine from 108&nbsp;BCE to 1911 in one province or another—an average of more than one famine per year.<ref>Walter H. Mallory, ''China: Land of famine'' (1926) p.1</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mitosyfraudes.org/Polit/Famines.html |title=FAEC&nbsp;— FEARFUL FAMINES OF THE PAST |website=Mitosyfraudes.org |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-date=15 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110415072104/http://www.mitosyfraudes.org/Polit/Famines.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Carol H. Shiue, "The political economy of famine relief in China, 1740–1820." ''Journal of Interdisciplinary History'' 36.1 (2005): 33–55. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236806289_The_Political_Economy_of_Famine_Relief_in_China_1740-1820/link/55e55c3308ae6abe6e9047eb/download online]</ref>

China's [[Qing dynasty]] bureaucracy devoted extensive attention to minimizing famines with a network of [[granaries]]. Its famines generally occurred immediately after [[El 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.<ref>Pierre-Etienne Will, ''Bureaucracy and Famine''</ref> 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 as ''ming-sheng''). However the [[Taiping Rebellion]] of 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.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Richard Hooker |date=14 July 1999 |title=Ch'ing China: The Taiping Rebellion |url=http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CHING/TAIPING.HTM |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110414025909/http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CHING/TAIPING.HTM |archive-date=14 April 2011}}</ref>

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 the [[Tongzhi Restoration]] was successfully relieved but the [[Great North China Famine]] of 1877–78, caused by drought across northern China, was a catastrophe. The province of [[Shanxi]] was 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.<ref>[http://www.fao.org/docrep/U8480E/U8480E05.htm Dimensions of need&nbsp;– People and populations at risk] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010151615/http://www.fao.org/docrep/U8480E/U8480E05.htm |date=10 October 2017 }}. ''Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations'' (FAO).</ref>

=====Great Leap Forward 1958–1961=====
The largest famine of the 20th century was [[Great Chinese Famine|the 1958–1961 famine]] associated with the [[Great Leap Forward]] in 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 encouraged [[overconsumption]] of available food.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chang |first1=Gene Hsin |last2=Wen |first2=Guanzhong James |title=Communal Dining and the Chinese Famine of 1958–1961 |journal=Economic Development and Cultural Change |date=October 1997 |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=1–34 |doi=10.1086/452319 |s2cid=154835645}}</ref> Such was the centralized control of information and the intense pressure on party cadres to report only good news—such as [[production quota]]s met 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 million<ref name=grada9>{{Cite web |last=Gráda |first=Cormac Ó |date=January 2011 |title=Great Leap into Famine |website=ResearchGate |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239810580 |page=9}}</ref> to at least 42 million<ref name=dikotterxii>Dikötter, Frank. ''Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958–62''. Walker & Company, 2010. p. xii. {{ISBN|0-8027-7768-6}}.</ref> people, with a further 30 million cancelled or delayed births.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Smil |first1=V. |title=China's great famine: 40 years later |journal=British Medical Journal |date=18 December 1999 |volume=319 |issue=7225 |pages=1619–1621 |doi=10.1136/bmj.319.7225.1619 |pmid=10600969 |pmc=1127087}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Woo |first1=Meredith Jung-En |author-link1=Meredith Jung-En Woo |title=Neoliberalism and Institutional Reform in East Asia: A Comparative Study |date=2007 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-59034-2}}{{page needed|date=April 2019}}</ref>

====Japan====
[[Japan]] experienced more than 130 famines between 1603 and 1868.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Ps-IesBlzkC&pg=PA312 |title=Local Agrarian Societies in Colonial India: Japanese Perspectives |first1=Kaoru |last1=Sugihara |first2=Peter G. |last2=Robb |first3=Haruka |last3=Yanagisawa |date=27 July 1996 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-7007-0471-2 |via=Google Books |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-date=16 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916142023/https://books.google.com/books?id=2Ps-IesBlzkC&pg=PA312 |url-status=live}}</ref>

====Cambodia====
[[File:Choeungek2.JPG|thumb|Skulls of [[Khmer Rouge]] murder victims at [[Choeung Ek]]]]
In 1975, the [[Khmer Rouge]] took control of Cambodia. The new government was led by [[Pol 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.<ref>Shawcross, William, ''The Quality of Mercy: Cambodia, Holocaust and Modern Conscience'', Touchstone, 1985, pp. 115–116.</ref><ref name="kaplan">Kaplan, Robert D., ''The Ends of the Earth'', Vintage, 1996, p. 406.</ref> 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.

====North Korean famine in the 1990s====
[[North Korean famine|Famine struck North Korea in the mid-1990s]], set off by unprecedented floods. This [[autarkic]] [[Urban area|urban]], industrial state depended on massive inputs of subsidised goods, including fossil fuels, primarily from the Soviet Union and the [[People'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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Spoorenberg |first1=Thomas |last2=Schwekendiek |first2=Daniel |title=Demographic Changes in North Korea: 1993–2008 |journal=Population and Development Review |volume=38 |issue=1 |date=March 2012 |pages=133–58 |doi=10.1111/j.1728-4457.2012.00475.x |hdl=10.1111/j.1728-4457.2012.00475.x |hdl-access=free}}</ref> North Korea has not yet regained food self-sufficiency and relies on external [[food aid]] from [[China]], [[Japan]], [[South Korea]], [[Russia]] and the [[United 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Moon |first1=William J. |title=The Origins of the Great North Korean Famine: Its Dynamics and Normative Implications |journal=North Korean Review |date=2009 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=105–122 |jstor=43910265 |ssrn=1580198 |doi=10.3172/NKR.5.1.105 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

According to the [[United Nations|UN's]] [[Food and Agriculture Organization]] (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.{{Update inline|date=May 2024}}<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.ft.com/content/08528568-6dc5-11e7-bfeb-33fe0c5b7eaa |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/08528568-6dc5-11e7-bfeb-33fe0c5b7eaa |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-status=live |title=North Korea faces worst drought since 2001 |work=Financial Times |url-access=subscription}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-koreans-undernourished-in-worst-drought-in-16-years-20170721-gxfqz8.html |title=North Koreans undernourished, in worst drought in 16 years |last=Seabrook |first=Ben |date=21 July 2017 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |access-date=21 July 2017 |language=en-US |archive-date=22 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170722114036/http://www.smh.com.au/world/north-koreans-undernourished-in-worst-drought-in-16-years-20170721-gxfqz8.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

====Vietnam====
The [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] occupation during [[World War II]] caused the [[Vietnamese famine of 1944–1945]], which caused around 700,000 to 2,000,000 deaths.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=HUFF |first=GREGG |title=Causes and consequences of the Great Vietnam Famine, 1944–5 |journal=The Economic History Review |language=en |doi=10.1111/ehr.12741 |issn=1468-0289 |year=2018 |volume=72 |pages=286–316 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

===India===
{{Main|Famine in India}}
{{See also|Timeline of major famines in India during British rule}}
Owing to its almost entire dependence upon the [[monsoon]] rains, India is vulnerable to crop failures, which upon occasion deepen into famine.<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Famine |display=Famine § Famines in India |volume=10 |page=176}}</ref> There were 14 famines in [[History of India|India]] between the 11th and 17th centuries (Bhatia, 1985). For example, during the 1022–1033 Great famines in India entire provinces were depopulated. Famine in [[Deccan]] killed 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 the [[British rule]], that famine came to signify general shortage of foodgrains in the country. There were approximately 25 major famines spread through states such as [[Tamil Nadu]] in the south, and [[Bihar]] and [[Bengal]] in the east during the latter half of the 19th century.

[[File:India-famine-family-crop-420.jpg|thumb|Victims of the Great Famine of 1876–78 in India during British rule, pictured in 1877.]]
[[Romesh Chunder Dutt]] argued as early as 1900, and present-day scholars such as [[Amartya Sen]] agree, 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]] (see [[European influence in Afghanistan#Second Anglo-Afghan War|The 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 as [[William Digby (writer)|William Digby]], agitated for policy reforms and famine relief, but [[Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton|Lord Lytton]], the governing British viceroy in India, opposed such changes in the belief that they would stimulate shirking by Indian workers. The first, the [[Bengal 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 the [[Great Famine of 1876–1878]], in which 6.1 million to 10.3 million people died<ref name=mikedavis7>Davis, Mike. ''[[Late Victorian Holocausts]]''. 1. Verso, 2000. {{ISBN|1-85984-739-0}} p. 7</ref> and the [[Indian famine of 1899–1900]], in which 1.25 to 10 million people died.<ref name=mikedavis173>Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts. 1. Verso, 2000. {{ISBN|1-85984-739-0}} p. 173</ref> The famines were ended by the 20th century with the exception of the [[Bengal famine of 1943]] killing an estimated 2.1 million Bengalis during [[World War II]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dyson |first1=Tim |last2=Maharatna |first2=Arup |date=September 1991 |title=Excess mortality during the Great Bengal Famine: A Re-evaluation |journal=The Indian Economic and Social History Review |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=281–97 |doi=10.1177/001946469102800303 |s2cid=143627077}}</ref>

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 in [[British India]], including [[British Burma|Burma]], 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.

{{blockquote|Population growth worsened the plight of the peasantry. As a result of peace and improved sanitation and health, the Indian population rose from perhaps 100 million in 1700 to 300 million by 1920. While encouraging agricultural productivity, the British also provided economic incentives to have more children to help in the fields. Although a similar population increase occurred in Europe at the same time, the growing numbers could be absorbed by industrialization or emigration to the Americas and Australia. India enjoyed neither an industrial revolution nor an increase in food growing. Moreover, Indian landlords had a stake in the cash crop system and discouraged innovation. As a result, population numbers far outstripped the amount of available food and land, creating dire poverty and widespread hunger.|Craig A. Lockard, ''Societies, Networks, and Transitions''<ref>Craig A. Lockard (2010). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=IVvnrsaIgA8C Societies, Networks, and Transitions]'', Volume 3. Cengage Learning. p. 610. {{ISBN|1-4390-8534-X}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164813/https://books.google.com/books?id=IVvnrsaIgA8C |date=26 March 2023 }}</ref>}}

The Maharashtra drought saw zero deaths from starvation and is known for the successful employment of famine prevention policies, unlike during British rule.<ref>{{cite book |title=Climate and Food Security: Papers Presented at the International Symposium on Climate Variability and Food Security in Developing Countries |date=1987 |publisher=International Rice Research Institute |isbn=978-971-10-4210-3 |page=379 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O2bPFK22-GYC&q=maharashtra |access-date=31 October 2014 |ref=American Association for the Advancement of Science, Indian National Science Academy, International Rice Research Institute, Indian Council of Agricultural Research |archive-date=16 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916142024/https://books.google.com/books?id=O2bPFK22-GYC&q=maharashtra |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Middle East===
[[File:Mother and child during the Great Famine of Mount Lebanon 1.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|A starving woman and child during the [[Assyrian genocide]]. Ottoman Empire, 1915]]
The [[Persian famine of 1870–1872]] is believed to have caused the death of 1.5 million persons (20–25% of the population) in [[Persia]] (present-day Iran).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yeroushalmi |first=David |title=The Jews of Iran in the nineteenth century: aspects of history, community |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XYlGS3s3zTQC&pg=PA327 |publisher=Brill |year=2009 |page=327 |isbn=978-90-04-15288-5 |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-date=16 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916142025/https://books.google.com/books?id=XYlGS3s3zTQC&pg=PA327 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:A 4-year-old Palestinian girl, lost her life due to malnutrition and lack of treatment due to the war on Gaza.jpg|thumb|Dead four year old Palestinian girl, 14 August 2024]]
In the early 20th century an Ottoman blockade of food being exported to [[Lebanon]] caused a famine which killed up to 450,000 Lebanese (about one-third of the population). The famine killed more people than the [[Lebanese 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 local [[Druze]].<ref>Christoffel Anthonie Olivier Nieuwenhuijze (1977). ''Commoners, Climbers and Notables: A Sampler of Studies on Social Ranking in the Middle East''. Brill Archive ISBN. p. 213. {{ISBN|90-04-05065-5}}</ref>

In 2025 Gaza has faced famine as a result of [[Israeli airstrikes]] during the [[Gaza war]] and an [[Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip (2023–present)|Israeli blockade]], including of basic essentials and [[Humanitarian aid during the Gaza war|humanitarian aid]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=U.S. aid official says famine has begun in northern Gaza |first=Jacob |last=Knutson |website=[[Axios (website)|Axios]] |date=11 April 2024 |url=https://www.axios.com/2024/04/11/us-official-famine-northern-gaza |access-date=24 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412031951/https://www.axios.com/2024/04/11/us-official-famine-northern-gaza |archive-date=12 April 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The Guardian view on famine in Gaza: a human-made catastrophe |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/19/the-guardian-view-on-famine-in-gaza-a-human-made-catastrophe |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=19 March 2024 |access-date=22 March 2024 |archive-date=10 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240510144509/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/19/the-guardian-view-on-famine-in-gaza-a-human-made-catastrophe |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="un20240318">{{Cite news |title=Imminent famine in northern Gaza is 'entirely man-made disaster': Guterres |date=18 March 2024 |work=[[UN News]] |url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1147656 |access-date=3 April 2024 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240324193007/https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1147656 |archive-date=24 March 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref> Airstrikes have destroyed food infrastructure, such as bakeries, mills, and food stores, and there is a widespread scarcity of essential supplies due to the blockade of [[humanitarian aid|aid]]. According to a group of UN experts, as of July 2024 Israel's "targeted starvation campaign" had spread throughout the entire Gaza Strip, causing the death of [[Effect of the Gaza war on children in the Gaza Strip|children]].<ref name="cnn20240709">{{Cite news |last1=Kourdi |first1=Eyad |last2=Said-Moorhouse |first2=Lauren |date=9 July 2024 |title=Famine has spread throughout Gaza, say UN experts |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/09/middleeast/gaza-famine-un-report-intl-latam/index.html |access-date=10 July 2024 |work=[[CNN]] |language=en}}</ref><ref name="cbsnews20240709">{{Cite news |date=9 July 2024 |title=U.N. experts say Gaza children dying in Israeli 'targeted starvation campaign' |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-n-experts-say-gaza-children-dying-in-israeli-targeted-starvation-campaign/ |agency=CBS/AFP |access-date=10 July 2024 |work=[[CBS News]] |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="aljazeera20240709">{{Cite news |title=UN experts say Israel carrying out 'targeted starvation campaign' in Gaza |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/9/un-experts-say-israel-carrying-out-targeted-starvation-campaign-in-gaza |access-date=10 July 2024 |work=[[Al Jazeera English|Al Jazeera]] |language=en}}</ref><ref name="ohchr20240709">{{Cite web |date=9 July 2024 |title=UN experts declare famine has spread throughout Gaza strip |url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/07/un-experts-declare-famine-has-spread-throughout-gaza-strip |website=[[Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights]]}}</ref> [[Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations|Israel's mission to the UN]] criticized the statement, calling it "misinformation".<ref name="timesofisrael20240709">{{Cite news |date=9 July 2024 |title=Israel rejects accusations by UN rights experts that it weaponized starvation in Gaza |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-rejects-accusations-by-un-rights-experts-that-it-weaponized-starvation-in-gaza/ |work=[[The Times of Israel]]}}</ref> The same month, detected cases of childhood malnutrition in northern Gaza increased by 300 percent compared to May 2024.<ref>{{cite web |title=Humanitarian Situation Update #200 Gaza Strip |url=https://www.ochaopt.org/content/humanitarian-situation-update-200-gaza-strip |website=OCHA |date=5 August 2024 |publisher=[[United Nations]] |access-date=17 August 2024}}</ref> The UN-backed IPC confirmed famine is taking place in Gaza on 22 August 2025.<ref name="Nichols">{{Cite news |last=Nichols |first=Michelle |date=2025-08-22 |title=Famine has struck Gaza, says global hunger monitor |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/famine-has-struck-gaza-says-global-hunger-monitor-2025-08-22/ |access-date=2025-08-22 |work=Reuters |language=en}}</ref>

[[Volker Türk]], the UN high commissioner for human rights, stated that [[Israel]]'s restrictions on the entry of aid may constitute [[starvation as a weapon of war]], which would be a [[War crimes in the Gaza war|war crime]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Tétrault-Farber |first=Gabrielle |date=19 March 2024 |title=Israel's restrictions to Gaza aid may be war crime, says UN rights office |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israels-restrictions-gaza-aid-may-amount-war-crime-says-un-rights-office-2024-03-19/ |work=[[Reuters]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Beaumont |first1=Peter |title='Man-made famine' charge against Israel is backed by mounting body of evidence |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/20/man-made-famine-charge-israel-mounting-evidence-un-gaza |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=20 March 2024 |access-date=21 March 2024 |archive-date=10 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240510144510/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/20/man-made-famine-charge-israel-mounting-evidence-un-gaza |url-status=live}}</ref> An [[Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory|Independent International Commission of Inquiry]] also found Israel was using starvation as a method of war.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Solomon |first1=Erika |title=The U.N. Report on Israeli and Palestinian War Crimes: What We Know |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/13/world/middleeast/gaza-war-crimes-israel-hamas.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=13 June 2024 |access-date=21 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240626221559/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/13/world/middleeast/gaza-war-crimes-israel-hamas.html |archive-date=26 June 2024}}</ref> In April and May, USAID and the US State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration determined that Israel was blocking food aid from entering Gaza. These findings were rejected by Secretary of State Blinken and the Biden Administration.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Murphy |first=Brett |date=24 September 2024 |title=Israel Deliberately Blocked Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, Two Government Bodies Concluded. Antony Blinken Rejected Them. |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/gaza-palestine-israel-blocked-humanitarian-aid-blinken |access-date=25 September 2024 |website=ProPublica |language=en}}</ref> The Israeli government has denied it is using starvation as a weapon of war and said that arguments that its actions regarding the famine violate the [[Genocide Convention]] are "wholly unfounded".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Corder |first1=Mike |title=Israel asks UN court to reject South Africa's request for interim orders to prevent starvation in Gaza |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/israel-asks-un-court-to-reject-south-africas-request-for-interim-orders-to-prevent-starvation-in-gaza |work=[[PBS Newshour]] |date=18 March 2024 |access-date=21 March 2024 |archive-date=21 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240321042213/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/israel-asks-un-court-to-reject-south-africas-request-for-interim-orders-to-prevent-starvation-in-gaza |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories|COGAT]], the Israeli agency responsible for allowing aid into Gaza, has stated Israel was not putting limits into the amount of aid entering Gaza.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Halabi |first1=Einav |title=COGAT:'There is no limit to the amount of aid that can enter Gaza' |url=https://www.ynetnews.com/article/s19orcp3t |newspaper=[[Ynetnews]] |date=24 February 2024 |access-date=21 March 2024 |archive-date=21 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240321184422/https://www.ynetnews.com/article/s19orcp3t |url-status=live}}</ref> COGAT's claim has been challenged by multiple entities, including the [[European Union]], [[United Nations]], [[Oxfam]], and [[United Kingdom]].<ref>{{bulletedlist|{{harvnb|Larson|2024}}|{{harvnb|Brown|2024}}|{{cite magazine |title=Oxfam Says Israel 'Deliberately' Blocking Aid To Gaza |url=https://www.barrons.com/news/oxfam-says-israel-deliberately-blocking-aid-to-gaza-0898ac06 |magazine=[[Barron's]] |publisher=[[Agence France-Presse]] |access-date=21 March 2024 |archive-date=21 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240321210945/https://www.barrons.com/news/oxfam-says-israel-deliberately-blocking-aid-to-gaza-0898ac06 |url-status=live}}|{{harvnb|Wintour|2024}}|{{cite news |title=UN aid chief says Israel needs to lift all impediments to Gaza aid |url=https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-793276 |work=[[The Jerusalem Post]] |date=22 March 2024 |agency=[[Reuters]] |access-date=24 March 2024 |archive-date=24 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240324121351/https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-793276 |url-status=live}}}}</ref> Since March 2025, Israel has made the blockade publicly official,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-05-01 |title=UN official urges Israel to lift 'cruel' aid blockade on Gaza |url=https://www.euronews.com/2025/05/01/un-official-urges-israel-to-allow-aid-into-gaza-calls-blockade-collective-punishment |access-date=2025-05-03 |website=euronews |language=en}}</ref> with Defense Minister declaring that "No humanitarian aid will enter Gaza".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-04-16 |title='No humanitarian aid will enter Gaza,' Israel defence minister says |url=https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250416-israel-says-no-humanitarian-aid-will-enter-gaza |access-date=2025-05-03 |website=France 24 |language=en}}</ref> Israel has claimed that "Hamas stockpiled supplies and kept them from increasingly desperate civilians,"<ref name="DeYoung Hudson 2024 g056">{{cite news |last1=DeYoung |first1=Karen |last2=Hudson |first2=John |title=Despite U.S. pressure on Israel, casualty count in Gaza remains high |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=15 January 2024 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/01/14/israel-gaza-low-intensity/ |access-date=19 January 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=UN chief blames Israeli 'obstacles, chokepoints' for looming famine in Gaza Strip |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/un-chief-blames-israeli-obstacles-chokepoints-for-looming-famine-in-gaza-strip/ |work=[[The Times of Israel]] |access-date=25 March 2024 |archive-date=25 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240325040157/https://www.timesofisrael.com/un-chief-blames-israeli-obstacles-chokepoints-for-looming-famine-in-gaza-strip/ |url-status=live}}</ref> but, as of February 2024, the US has not received evidence supporting this claim.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Magid |first1=Jacob |title=US envoy says Israel has yet to provide 'specific evidence' that Hamas is stealing humanitarian aid |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/us-envoy-says-israel-has-yet-to-provide-specific-evidence-that-hamas-is-stealing-humanitarian-aid/ |work=[[The Times of Israel]] |access-date=25 March 2024 |archive-date=25 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240325040157/https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/us-envoy-says-israel-has-yet-to-provide-specific-evidence-that-hamas-is-stealing-humanitarian-aid/ |url-status=live}}</ref> There have been reports of armed gangs stealing aid.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Batrawy |first1=Aya |title=In Gaza Organized Gangs Make a Bad Situation Even Worse |website=[[NPR]] |date=21 November 2024 |url=https://www.npr.org/2024/11/21/1214380339/in-gaza-organized-gangs-make-a-bad-situation-even-worse}}</ref>

===Europe===
====Middle Ages====
{{Further|Medieval demography|Crisis of the Late Middle Ages|The General Crisis}}
The [[Great 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.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R688at3KskQC&pg=PA49 |title=The Story of Ireland |author=Brian Igoe |date=2009 |page=49 |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-date=16 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916142031/https://books.google.com/books?id=R688at3KskQC&pg=PA49 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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, in [[Norfolk]], [[England]], the price of grain soared from 5 shillings/quarter to 20 shillings/quarter.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o8ea33eCFQgC&q=great+wave+great+famine+inflation&pg=PA23 |author=David Hackett Fischer |author-link=David Hackett Fischer |title=The Great Wave |page=38 |isbn=978-0-19-512121-6 |year=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=17 October 2020 |archive-date=16 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916142030/https://books.google.com/books?id=o8ea33eCFQgC&q=great+wave+great+famine+inflation&pg=PA23 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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 in [[medieval Britain]],<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3609390/Poor-studies-will-always-be-with-us.html |title=Poor studies will always be with us |website=Telegraph.co.uk |date=8 August 2004 |access-date=1 February 2016 |last1=Bartholomew |first1=James |archive-date=1 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301084104/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3609390/Poor-studies-will-always-be-with-us.html |url-status=live}}</ref> and 75 or more in medieval France.<ref>{{cite web |last=Basu |first=Kaushik |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/201392/famine |title=famine |website=Britannica.com |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-date=7 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150507160730/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/201392/famine |url-status=live}}</ref> More than 10% of England's population, or at least 500,000 people, may have died during the famine of 1315–1316.<ref name="famine">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/savagewarsofpeac0000macf |url-access=registration |title=The savage wars of peace: England, Japan and the Malthusian trap |publisher=Wiley |author=Alan Macfarlane |date=1997 |page=[https://archive.org/details/savagewarsofpeac0000macf/page/66 66] |isbn=978-0-631-18117-0}}</ref>

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 their [[draught animal]]s, 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.

====16th century====
[[File:Goya-Guerra (59).jpg|thumb|An engraving from [[Francisco Goya|Goya]]'s ''[[Disasters of War]]'', showing starving women, doubtless inspired by the terrible famine that struck [[Madrid]] in 1811–1812.]]
During the 15th century to the 18th century, famines in Europe became more frequent due to the [[Little Ice Age]]. The colder climate resulted in harvest failures and shortfalls that led to a rise in [[conspiracy theories]] concerning the causes behind these famines, such as the [[Pacte de Famine]] in France.<ref>Kaplan, Steven. ''The Famine Plot Persuasion in Eighteenth-Century France''. Pennsylvania: Diane Publishing Co, 1982. {{ISBN|0-87169-723-8}}</ref>

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]]'s [[grain trade]] with the [[Baltic region|Baltic]] guaranteed a food supply.

====17th century====
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 in [[Finland]] in 1696, killed one-third of the population.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.euro.who.int/document/peh-ehp/nehapfin.pdf |title=FINNISH ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ACTION PLAN |website=www.euro.who.int |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091009053403/http://www.euro.who.int/document/peh-ehp/nehapfin.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2009}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ó Gráda |first1=Cormac |last2=Chevet |first2=Jean-Michel |year=2002 |title=Famine And Market In ''Ancient Régime'' France |journal=The Journal of Economic History |pmid=17494233 |volume=62 |issue=3 |pages=706–33 |doi=10.1017/S0022050702001055 |hdl=10197/368 |s2cid=8036361 |url=https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/bitstream/10197/368/3/ogradac_article_pub_039.pdf |hdl-access=free |access-date=23 September 2019 |archive-date=23 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190923121948/https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/bitstream/10197/368/3/ogradac_article_pub_039.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Starvation image from Fäderneslandet 1867.jpg|thumb|upright=0.95|Illustration of starvation in northern Sweden, [[Swedish famine of 1867–1869]]]]
As late as the 1690s, Scotland experienced famine which reduced the population of parts of Scotland by at least 15%.<ref>{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Michael |title=Population change in North-western Europe, 1750–1850 |publisher=Macmillan Education |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-333-34386-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/populationchange0000ande/page/9 9] |url=https://archive.org/details/populationchange0000ande/page/9}}</ref>

The [[Great Famine of 1695–1697]] may have killed a third of the Finnish population.<ref>[http://countrystudies.us/finland/9.htm "Finland and the Swedish Empire"]. ''Federal Research Division, [[Library of Congress]]''. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009181052/http://countrystudies.us/finland/9.htm |date=9 October 2017 }}</ref> and roughly 10% of [[Norway]]'s population.<ref>Karen J. Cullen (2010). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=RiLjHZdt-sMC&pg=PA20 Famine in Scotland: The 'Ill Years' of the 1690s]''. Edinburgh University Press. p. 20. {{ISBN|0-7486-3887-3}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916142030/https://books.google.com/books?id=RiLjHZdt-sMC&pg=PA20 |date=16 September 2023 }}</ref> Death rates rose in Scandinavia between 1740 and 1800 as the result of a series of crop failures.<ref>Alan Macfarlane (1997). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=eGsCGAdH4YQC&pg=PA63 The savage wars of peace: England, Japan and the Malthusian trap]''. p. 63. {{ISBN|0-631-18117-2}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128101941/https://books.google.com/books?id=eGsCGAdH4YQC&pg=PA63 |date=28 January 2022 }}</ref> For instance, the [[Finnish famine of 1866–1868]] killed 15% of the population.

====18th century====
The period of 1740–1743 saw frigid winters and summer droughts, which led to famine across [[Europe]] and a major spike in mortality.<ref>Davis, ''Late Victorian Holocausts'', p. 281.</ref> The winter 1740–41 was unusually cold, possibly because of volcanic activity.<ref>Cormac Ó Gráda (2009). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=LoN2XkjJio4C&pg=PA18 Famine: a short history]''. Princeton University Press. p. 18. {{ISBN|0-691-12237-7}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164808/https://books.google.com/books?id=LoN2XkjJio4C&pg=PA18 |date=26 March 2023 }}</ref>

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."<ref>Susan Scott, Christopher John Duncan (2002). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=BME8WHMQpNIC Demography and nutrition: evidence from historical and contemporary populations]''. John Wiley and Sons. p. 45. {{ISBN|0-632-05983-4}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164808/https://books.google.com/books?id=BME8WHMQpNIC |date=26 March 2023 }}</ref>

The [[Famines in Czech lands|Great Famine]], which lasted from 1770 until 1771, killed about one tenth of [[Czech lands]]' population, or 250,000 inhabitants, and radicalised countrysides leading to peasant uprisings.<ref>E. E. Rich, C. H. Wilson, M. M. Postan (1977). ''The Cambridge economic history of Europe: The economic organization of early modern Europe''. p. 614. {{ISBN|0-521-08710-4}}</ref>

There were sixteen good harvests and 111 famine years in northern Italy from 1451 to 1767.<ref>Alan Macfarlane (1997). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=eGsCGAdH4YQC&pg=PA64 The savage wars of peace: England, Japan and the Malthusian trap]''. p. 64. {{ISBN|0-631-18117-2}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916142602/https://books.google.com/books?id=eGsCGAdH4YQC&pg=PA64 |date=16 September 2023 }}</ref> According to Stephen L. Dyson and Robert J. Rowland, "The Jesuits of [[Cagliari]] [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'&nbsp;... 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".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dyson |first1=Stephen L. |last2=Rowland |first2=Robert J. |title=Archaeology and history in Sardinia from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages: shepherds, sailors & conquerors |publisher=UPenn Museum of Archaeology, 2007 |location=Philadelphia |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-934536-02-5 |page=136}}</ref>

According to [[Reid Bryson|Bryson]] (1974), there were thirty-seven famine years in Iceland between 1500 and 1804.<ref>Henry Oliver Lancaster (1990). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=T4DLK7zLxYMC&pg=PA399 Expectations of life: a study in the demography, statistics, and history of world mortality]''. [[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]]. p. 399. {{ISBN|0-387-97105-X}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512203839/http://books.google.com/books?id=T4DLK7zLxYMC&pg=PA399 |date=12 May 2015 }}</ref> In 1783 the volcano [[Laki]] in south-central [[Iceland]] erupted. 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]{{full citation needed|date=August 2020}}

====19th century====
[[File:Irish potato famine Bridget O'Donnel.jpg|thumb|Depiction of victims of the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]] in Ireland, 1845–1849]]
Other areas of Europe have known famines much more recently. France saw famines as recently as the 19th century. The [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]] in 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rubinstein |first=W. D. |title=Genocide: a history |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nMMAk4VwLLwC&pg=PA85 |publisher=Pearson Education |year=2004 |page=85 |isbn=978-0-582-50601-5 |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-date=16 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916142527/https://books.google.com/books?id=nMMAk4VwLLwC&pg=PA85 |url-status=live}}</ref>

====20th century====
Famine still occurred in [[Eastern Europe]] during the 20th century. Droughts and famines in [[Imperial Russia]] are 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 the [[Russian famine of 1891–1892|famine of 1891–1892]].<ref>[[Alan Macfarlane]]. "[http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/savage/A-FAM.PDF The Dimension of Famine]" (PDF). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517095451/http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/savage/A-FAM.PDF |date=17 May 2011 }}</ref> The [[Russian famine of 1921–22]] killed an estimated 5 million.
[[File:No-nb bldsa 6a030.jpg|thumb|Victims of the [[Russian famine of 1921–1922]] during the [[Russian Civil War]]]]

[[Famines in Russia and USSR|Famines continued]] in the [[Soviet]] era, the most notorious being the ''[[Holodomor]]'' in various parts of the country, especially the [[Volga Region|Volga]], and the Ukrainian and northern [[Kazakhs|Kazakh]] SSR's during the winter of 1932–1933. The [[Soviet famine of 1932–1933]] is nowadays reckoned to have cost an estimated 6 million lives.<ref>Stéphane Courtois, Mark Kramer. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=H1jsgYCoRioC&pg=PA206 Livre noir du Communisme: crimes, terreur, répression] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916142527/https://books.google.com/books?id=H1jsgYCoRioC&pg=PA206 |date=16 September 2023 }}''. Harvard University Press, 1999. p. 206. {{ISBN|0-674-07608-7}}</ref> The [[Soviet Famine of 1947|last major famine]] in the USSR happened in 1947 due to the severe [[drought]] and the mismanagement of grain reserves by the Soviet government.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ellman |first1=Michael |s2cid=45613622 |title=The 1947 Soviet famine and the entitlement approach to famines |journal=Cambridge Journal of Economics |date=1 September 2000 |volume=24 |issue=5 |pages=603–30 |doi=10.1093/cje/24.5.603}}</ref>

The [[Hunger 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.<ref>The Russian Academy of Science Rossiiskaia Akademiia nauk. ''Liudskie poteri SSSR v period vtoroi mirovoi voiny: sbornik statei''. Saint Petersburg 1995 {{ISBN|5-86789-023-6}}</ref>

The 872 days of the [[Siege 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.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24841 |work=[[The St. Petersburg Times (Russia)|The St. Petersburg Times]] |title=Last Battle of Siege of Leningrad Re-Enacted |first=Irina |last=Titova |date=29 January 2008 |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140818002907/http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24841 |archive-date=18 August 2014 }}</ref>

Famine also struck in [[Western Europe]] during the [[Second World War]]. In the Netherlands, the {{Lang|nl|[[Hongerwinter]]}} of 1944 killed approximately 30,000 people. Some other areas of Europe also experienced famine at the same time.

===Latin America===
[[File:Icon1 4 7.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Malnourished child during Brazil's 1877–78 ''Grande Seca'' (Great Drought).]]
The [[pre-Columbian]] Americans often dealt with severe food shortages and famines.<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=_PFSc4kCyxcC&pg=PA190 Technology, Disease, and Colonial Conquests, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries: Essays Reappraising the Guns and Germs Theories]''. George Raudzens (2003). Brill. p. 190. {{ISBN|0-391-04206-8}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164807/https://books.google.com/books?id=_PFSc4kCyxcC&pg=PA190 |date=26 March 2023 }}</ref> The persistent drought around 850 AD coincided with the collapse of [[Classic Maya collapse|Classic Maya]] civilization, and the famine of One Rabbit (AD 1454) was a major catastrophe in [[Pre-Columbian Mexico|Mexico]].<ref>Richardson Benedict Gill (2000). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=DRt5RnlBTq0C&pg=PA123 The great Maya droughts: water, life, and death]''. UNM Press. p. 123. {{ISBN|0-8263-2774-5}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164807/https://books.google.com/books?id=DRt5RnlBTq0C&pg=PA123 |date=26 March 2023 }}</ref>

[[Brazil]]'s 1877–78 ''[[Grande Seca]]'' (Great Drought), the worst in Brazil's history,<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Anastácio Q. |last1=Sousa |first2=Richard |last2=Pearson |title=Drought, Smallpox, and Emergence of Leishmania braziliensis in Northeastern Brazil |journal=Emerging Infectious Diseases |year=2009 |volume=15 |issue=6 |pages=916–921 |publisher=Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) |doi=10.3201/eid1506.071331 |pmid=19523291 |pmc=2727349}}</ref> caused approximately half a million deaths.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s8857.html |title=Sample Chapter for Ó Gráda, C.: Famine: A Short History |website=Press.princeton.edu |date=6 February 2009 |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160112061115/http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s8857.html |archive-date=12 January 2016}}</ref> The one from 1915 was devastating too.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/W8514E/W8514E29.htm |title=Inland fishery enhancements |website=www.fao.org |access-date=28 November 2018 |archive-date=6 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140306225557/http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/005/W8514E/W8514E29.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Oceania===
[[Easter Island]] was 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.<ref>Bo Rothstein (2005). ''Social traps and the problem of trust''. Cambridge University Press. p. 20. {{ISBN|0-521-84829-6}}</ref>

There are other documented episodes of famine in various islands of Polynesia, such as occurred in [[Kau, Hawaii]] in 1868.<ref>Patrick Vinton Kirch (1989). ''The Evolution of the Polynesian Chiefdoms''. Cambridge University Press. p.</ref>

According to Daniel Lord Smail, {{"'}}Famine [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]]' was until recently a regular feature of life in the islands of the [[Massim]] near [[New Guinea]] and of some other societies of Southeast Asia and the Pacific."<ref>Andrew Shryock, Daniel Lord Smail (2011). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=mombkmEiZg0C Deep History: The Architecture of Past and Present]''. University of California Press. p. 139. {{ISBN|0-520-27028-2}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164807/https://books.google.com/books?id=mombkmEiZg0C |date=26 March 2023 }}</ref>

When Russian explorer [[Otto von Kotzebue]] visited the [[Marshall Islands]] in Micronesia in 1817, he noted that Marshallese families practiced [[infanticide]] after the birth of a third child as a form of [[population planning]] due to frequent famines.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hezel |first=Francis X. |date=1983 |title=The First Taint of Civilization: A History of the Caroline and Marshall Islands in Pre-colonial Days, 1521–1885 |series=Pacific Islands Monograph Series |location=Honolulu |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |pages=92–94 |isbn=978-0-8248-1643-8}}</ref>

==Risk of future famine==
{{Update|inaccurate=yes|section|date=December 2010}}
[[YALE Climate Communications|YALE climate connections]] reports that, as of 2022, approximately 34% of the world's agricultural land is degraded.<ref>[https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2022/01/un-report-the-worlds-farms-stretched-to-a-breaking-point/#:~:text=Similarly%2C%20the%20quality%20of%2013%25%20of%20global%20soil%2C,compaction%20and%20erosion%2C%20deforestation%2C%20and%20decreasing%20water%20availability. yaleclimateconnections.org/2022/01/un-report-the-worlds-farms-stretched-to-a-breaking-point] January 19th, 2022

Dana Nuccitelli</ref> 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 a [[WHO]] study in 2024.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hunger numbers stubbornly high for three consecutive years as global crises deepen: UN report |url=https://www.who.int/news/item/24-07-2024-hunger-numbers-stubbornly-high-for-three-consecutive-years-as-global-crises-deepen--un-report#:~:text=If%20current%20trends%20continue,%20about%20582%20million%20people,Development%20(IFAD),%20the%20United%20Nations%20Children's%20Fund%20(UNICEF), |access-date=2024-11-27 |website=www.who.int |language=en}}</ref> As of late 2007, increased farming for use in [[biofuel]]s,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2104849.0.2008_the_year_of_global_food_crisis.php |title=2008 the Year of Global Food Crisis (From Sunday Herald) |website=www.sundayherald.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090822070637/http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2104849.0.2008_the_year_of_global_food_crisis.php |archive-date=22 August 2009}}</ref> along with world [[oil prices]] at nearly $100 a barrel,<ref>[https://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0118/p08s01-comv.html "The global grain bubble"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091130063759/http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0118/p08s01-comv.html |date=30 November 2009 }}, ''Christian Science Monitor''</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7284196.stm |title=The cost of food: Facts and figures |publisher=BBC News |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-date=20 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090120025945/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7284196.stm |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>''[[The New York Times]]'' (2007 September) [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/business/06tyson.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/W/Wheat At Tyson and Kraft, Grain Costs Limit Profit] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170627090457/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/business/06tyson.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/W/Wheat |date=27 June 2017 }}</ref> In 2007 [[2007–2008 world food price crisis|Food riots]] took place in many countries across the world.<ref>{{cite news |last=Watts |first=Jonathan |title=Riots and hunger feared as demand for grain sends food costs soaring |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/dec/04/china.business |newspaper=The Guardian |date=4 December 2007 |access-date=11 December 2016 |archive-date=1 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130901074034/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/dec/04/china.business |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3500975.ece |title=Environment |newspaper=[[The Times]] |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-date=14 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110814134028/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3500975.ece }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Borger |first=Julian |title=Feed the world? We are fighting a losing battle, UN admits |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/feb/26/food.unitednations |newspaper=The Guardian |date=26 February 2008 |access-date=11 December 2016 |archive-date=25 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161225150554/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/feb/26/food.unitednations |url-status=live}}</ref> An epidemic of stem rust, which is destructive to [[wheat]] and is caused by race [[Ug99]], has in 2007 spread across Africa and into Asia.<ref>{{cite news |title=Millions face famine as crop disease rages |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2007/apr/22/food.foodanddrink |newspaper=The Guardian |date=22 April 2007 |access-date=11 December 2016 |archive-date=10 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190510201759/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2007/apr/22/food.foodanddrink |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name = NewSci>{{cite journal |url=https://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19425983.700-billions-at-risk-from-wheat-superblight.html |journal=New Scientist |title=Billions at risk from wheat super-blight |date=3 April 2007 |access-date=19 April 2007 |issue=2598 |pages=6–7 |archive-date=15 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115175051/https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19425983-700-billions-at-risk-from-wheat-super-blight/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

Beginning in the 20th century, nitrogen [[fertilizer]]s, new [[pesticide]]s, [[desert farming]], and other agricultural technologies began to be used to increase food production, in part to combat famine. Between 1950 and 1984, as the [[Green Revolution]] influenced 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 to [[soil contamination]], [[Soil salinity|salt accumulation due to irrigation]], [[erosion]]).
[[File:ShrinkingLakeChad-1973-1997-EO.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Lake Chad]] in a 2001 satellite image, with the actual lake in blue. The lake has shrunk by 95% since the 1960s.<ref>"[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/04/0426_lakechadshrinks.html Shrinking African Lake Offers Lesson on Finite Resources] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120629023727/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/04/0426_lakechadshrinks.html |date=29 June 2012 }}". National Geographic News.</ref>]]
In 1994, David Pimentel, professor of ecology and [[agriculture]] at [[Cornell University]], and Mario Giampietro, senior researcher at the National Research Institute on Food and Nutrition (INRAN), estimated the maximum [[U.S. population]] for a [[sustainability|sustainable economy]] at 200 million.<ref>David Pimentel, Mario Giampietro 1994. Food, Land, Population and the U.S. Economy. Carrying Capacity Network, 1994. Book, online at http://www.dieoff.com/page55.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190831134815/http://www.dieoff.com/page55.htm |date=31 August 2019 }} with highlights at http://www.dieoff.com/page40.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150416073610/http://www.dieoff.com/page40.htm |date=16 April 2015 }}</ref>

According to geologist [[Dale Allen Pfeiffer]], coming decades could see rising [[food]] prices without relief and massive [[starvation]] on a global level.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://europe.theoildrum.com/node/2225 |title=The Oil Drum: Europe&nbsp;— Agriculture Meets Peak Oil: Soil Association Conference |website=Europe.theoildurm.com |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-date=29 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151229201243/http://europe.theoildrum.com/node/2225 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Water deficits]], which are already spurring heavy [[grain]] imports in numerous smaller countries, may soon do the same in larger countries, such as China or India.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HG21Df01.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060819214402/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HG21Df01.html |url-status=unfit |archive-date=19 August 2006 |title=India grows a grain crisis |website=[[Asia Times]] |access-date=1 February 2016}}</ref> 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 to [[water scarcity]] and cutbacks in grain harvest. Even while overexploiting its [[aquifers]], 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 experiencing [[water shortages]].

After China and India, there is a second tier of smaller countries with large water deficits&nbsp;– 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/zarticles/080902_water_shortages.htm |title=greatlakesdirectory.org |website=greatlakesdirectory.org |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090713064841/http%3A//www%2Egreatlakesdirectory%2Eorg/zarticles/080902_water_shortages%2Ehtm |archive-date=13 July 2009}}</ref> According to a UN climate report, the [[Himalayas|Himalayan]] glaciers that are the principal dry-season water sources of Asia's biggest rivers&nbsp;– [[Ganges]], [[Indus]], [[Brahmaputra]], [[Yangtze]], [[Mekong]], [[Salween]] and [[Yellow River|Yellow]]&nbsp;– could disappear by 2350 as temperatures rise and human demand rises.{{refn|Initial reports erroneously gave the year 2035 rather than the correct 2350.|group=note}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/42387/story.htm |title=Vanishing Himalayan Glaciers Threaten a Billion |website=Planetark.com |date=26 May 2014 |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-date=29 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429073719/http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/42387/story.htm |url-status=usurped}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8387737.stm |title=Himalayan glaciers melting deadline 'a mistake' |date=5 December 2009 |publisher=BBC |access-date=12 December 2009 |first=Pallava |last=Bagla |archive-date=12 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110512024513/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8387737.stm |url-status=live}}</ref> Approximately 2.4 billion people live in the [[drainage basin]] of the Himalayan rivers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.peopleandplanet.net/pdoc.php?id=3024 |title=Peopleandplanet.net |website=www.peopleandplanet.net |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070819200515/http://www.peopleandplanet.net/pdoc.php?id=3024 |archive-date=19 August 2007}}</ref> India, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar could experience floods followed by severe droughts in coming decades.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90781/90879/6222327.html |title=Glaciers melting at alarming speed |website=English.peopledaily.com.cn |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-date=23 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130923011323/http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90781/90879/6222327.html |url-status=live}}</ref> In India alone, the Ganges provides water for drinking and farming for more than 500 million people.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/jul/24indus.htm |title=Ganges, Indus may not survive: climatologists |website=Rediff.com |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-date=11 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011181913/http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/jul/24indus.htm |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3998967.stm |title=Himalaya glaciers melt unnoticed |website=BBC News |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-date=25 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225131425/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3998967.stm |url-status=live}}</ref>

Evan Fraser, a geographer at the [[University of Guelph]] in [[Ontario]], Canada, explores the ways in which [[climate change]] may affect future famines.<ref>Fraser, E. 2007a. Travelling in antique lands: Studying past famines to understand present vulnerabilities to climate change. Climate Change 83:495–514.</ref> 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 the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine of Ireland]],<ref>Fraser, E. 2003. Social vulnerability and ecological fragility: building bridges between social and natural sciences using the Irish Potato Famine as a case study. Conservation Ecology 7:9 (online).</ref> 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's [[food security]] from [[environmental change]]. The first line of defense is the [[Agroecosystem|agro-ecosystem]] on which food is produced: diverse ecosystems with well managed soils high in [[organic matter]] tend 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Papaioannou |first=Kostadis |title=Weather shocks and agricultural commercialization in colonial tropical Africa: did cash crops alleviate social distress? |journal=World Development |volume=94 |issue=3 |date=June 2017 |pages=346–365 |doi=10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.01.019 |url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/74029/1/Papaioannou_Weather%20shocks%20and%20agricultural_2017.pdf |access-date=9 December 2019 |archive-date=30 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190430060846/http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/74029/1/Papaioannou_Weather%20shocks%20and%20agricultural_2017.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> 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 an [[ecosystem]] is 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 (academic)|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.<ref name="Fraser2006">{{cite journal |last1=Fraser |first1=Evan D.G. |title=Food system vulnerability: Using past famines to help understand how food systems may adapt to climate change |journal=Ecological Complexity |date=December 2006 |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=328–335 |doi=10.1016/j.ecocom.2007.02.006 |bibcode=2006EcoCm...3..328F}}</ref> Hence, understanding how climate change may cause famines in the future requires combining both an assessment of local socio-economic and environmental factors along with [[climate models]] that predict where bad weather may occur in the future.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Simelton |first1=Elisabeth |last2=Fraser |first2=Evan D.G. |last3=Termansen |first3=Mette |last4=Forster |first4=Piers M. |last5=Dougill |first5=Andrew J. |title=Typologies of crop-drought vulnerability: an empirical analysis of the socio-economic factors that influence the sensitivity and resilience to drought of three major food crops in China (1961–2001) |journal=Environmental Science & Policy |date=June 2009 |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=438–452 |doi=10.1016/j.envsci.2008.11.005 |bibcode=2009ESPol..12..438S}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Simelton |first1=Elisabeth |last2=Fraser |first2=Evan D. G. |last3=Termansen |first3=Mette |last4=Benton |first4=Tim G. |last5=Gosling |first5=Simon N. |last6=South |first6=Andrew |last7=Arnell |first7=Nigel W. |last8=Challinor |first8=Andrew J. |last9=Dougill |first9=Andrew J. |last10=Forster |first10=Piers M. |title=The socioeconomics of food crop production and climate change vulnerability: a global scale quantitative analysis of how grain crops are sensitive to drought |journal=Food Security |date=6 March 2012 |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=163–179 |doi=10.1007/s12571-012-0173-4 |s2cid=17190790}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fraser |first1=Evan D.G. |last2=Simelton |first2=Elisabeth |last3=Termansen |first3=Mette |last4=Gosling |first4=Simon N. |last5=South |first5=Andrew |title='Vulnerability hotspots': Integrating socio-economic and hydrological models to identify where cereal production may decline in the future due to climate change induced drought |journal=Agricultural and Forest Meteorology |date=March 2013 |volume=170 |pages=195–205 |doi=10.1016/j.agrformet.2012.04.008 |bibcode=2013AgFM..170..195F |url=https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3185298 }}</ref>

The [[COVID-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 the [[United Nations]] called a crisis "of biblical proportions",<ref>{{Cite news |last=Harvey |first=Fiona |author-link=Fiona Harvey |date=21 April 2020 |title=Coronavirus pandemic 'will cause famine of biblical proportions' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/apr/21/coronavirus-pandemic-will-cause-famine-of-biblical-proportions |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200712070926/https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/apr/21/coronavirus-pandemic-will-cause-famine-of-biblical-proportions |archive-date=12 July 2020 |access-date=14 July 2020 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> or "hunger pandemic".<ref>{{Cite web |title=UN food agency chief: World on brink of 'a hunger pandemic' |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/food-agency-chief-world-brink-hunger-pandemic-70269400 |website=ABC News |language=en |access-date=14 July 2020 |archive-date=24 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211224022544/https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/food-agency-chief-world-brink-hunger-pandemic-70269400 |url-status=live}}</ref> This pandemic, in conjunction with the [[2019-20 locust infestation]]s and several [[ongoing armed conflicts]], is predicted to form the worst series of famines since the [[Great Chinese Famine]], affecting between 10 and 20 percent of the global population in some way.<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 May 2020 |title=COVID 19 Today and China's Great Famine |url=https://www.theglobalist.com/united-states-donald-trump-coronavirus-covid19-china-mao-zedong-great-famine/ |website=The Globalist |language=en-US |access-date=14 July 2020 |archive-date=20 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200620025324/https://www.theglobalist.com/united-states-donald-trump-coronavirus-covid19-china-mao-zedong-great-famine/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Harvey |first=Fiona |author-link=Fiona Harvey |date=21 April 2020 |title=Coronavirus crisis could double number of people suffering acute hunger – UN |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/21/global-hunger-could-be-next-big-impact-of-coronavirus-pandemic |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200616221317/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/21/global-hunger-could-be-next-big-impact-of-coronavirus-pandemic |archive-date=16 June 2020 |access-date=14 July 2020 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Western nations suspended humanitarian aid to [[Afghanistan]] following the [[Taliban]]'s takeover of the country in August 2021.<ref>{{cite news |title=Afghanistan: Can the Taliban avert a food crisis without foreign aid? |url=https://www.dw.com/en/afghanistan-can-the-taliban-avert-a-food-crisis-without-foreign-aid/a-59790464 |work=Deutsche Welle |date=11 November 2021 |access-date=13 November 2021 |archive-date=26 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221226203615/http://www.dw.com/en/afghanistan-can-the-taliban-avert-a-food-crisis-without-foreign-aid/a-59790464 |url-status=live}}</ref> The United States has [[Afghan frozen assets|frozen about $9 billion]] in assets belonging to the [[Da Afghanistan Bank|Afghan central bank]]s,<ref>{{cite news |title=Taliban blames U.S. as 1 million Afghan kids face death by starvation |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/afghanistan-taliban-blames-us-as-1-million-kids-face-starvation/ |work=CBS News |date=20 October 2021 |access-date=13 November 2021 |archive-date=12 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220512115310/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/afghanistan-taliban-blames-us-as-1-million-kids-face-starvation/ |url-status=live}}</ref> blocking the Taliban from accessing billions of dollars held in U.S. bank accounts.<ref>{{cite news |title=Is the United States Driving Afghanistan Toward Famine? |url=https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/template/oakv2?campaign_id=30&emc=edit_int_20211029&instance_id=44044&nl=the-interpreter&productCode=INT&regi_id=57806557&segment_id=72971&te=1&uri=nyt%3A%2F%2Fnewsletter%2Fde4d3c8a-f805-5843-bf23-d2fd9a6bcf70&user_id=9aa4b6ac6a6bfa9626d966e353fed48b |work=The New York Times |date=29 October 2021 |access-date=13 November 2021 |archive-date=13 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221213141440/https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/template/oakv2?campaign_id=30&emc=edit_int_20211029&instance_id=44044&nl=the-interpreter&productCode=INT&regi_id=57806557&segment_id=72971&te=1&uri=nyt%3A%2F%2Fnewsletter%2Fde4d3c8a-f805-5843-bf23-d2fd9a6bcf70&user_id=9aa4b6ac6a6bfa9626d966e353fed48b |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Afghanistan's hunger crisis is a problem the U.S. can fix |url=https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/afghanistan-s-hunger-crisis-problem-u-s-can-fix-n1283618 |work=MSNBC |date=10 November 2021 |access-date=13 November 2021 |archive-date=13 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221213141454/https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/afghanistan-s-hunger-crisis-problem-u-s-can-fix-n1283618 |url-status=live}}</ref> In October 2021, more than half of Afghanistan's 39 million people faced an acute [[Food security|food shortage]].<ref>{{cite news |title='Countdown to catastrophe': half of Afghans face hunger this winter – UN |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/oct/25/countdown-to-catastrophe-half-of-afghans-face-hunger-this-winter-un |work=The Guardian |date=25 October 2021 |access-date=13 November 2021 |archive-date=9 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220609005548/https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/oct/25/countdown-to-catastrophe-half-of-afghans-face-hunger-this-winter-un |url-status=live}}</ref> On 11 November 2021, the ''[[Human Rights Watch]]'' reported that Afghanistan is facing widespread famine due to collapsed economy and broken banking system. The [[UN World Food Programme]] has also issued multiple warnings of worsening food insecurity.<ref>{{cite news |title=Afghanistan Facing Famine: UN, World Bank, US Should Adjust Sanctions, Economic Policies |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/11/11/afghanistan-facing-famine |work=Human Rights Watch |date=11 November 2021 |access-date=13 November 2021 |archive-date=12 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220512115310/https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/11/11/afghanistan-facing-famine |url-status=live}}</ref>

==Causes==
{{see also|Theories of famines}}
[[File:Дистрофия алиментарная.jpg|thumb|A victim of starvation in [[Siege of Leningrad|besieged Leningrad]] suffering from [[dystrophia]] in 1941.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?id=7014&action=tdihArticleCategory |title=This Day in History 1941: Siege of Leningrad begins |website=www.history.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100211065613/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?id=7014&action=tdihArticleCategory |archive-date=11 February 2010}}</ref>]]
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:
* Blix&nbsp;– Widespread food shortage leading to significant rise in regional death rates.{{sfn|Blix|Svensk näringsforskning|1971|p=}}
* Brown and Eckholm&nbsp;– Sudden, sharp reduction in food supply resulting in widespread hunger.{{sfn|Brown|Eckholm|1974|p=}}
* Scrimshaw&nbsp;– Sudden collapse in level of food consumption of large numbers of people.{{sfn|Scrimshaw|1987|p=}}
* Ravallion&nbsp;– Unusually high mortality with unusually severe threat to food intake of some segments of a population.{{sfn|Ravallion|1996|p=2}}
* Cuny&nbsp;– A set of conditions that occurs when large numbers of people in a region cannot obtain sufficient food, resulting in widespread, acute malnutrition.{{sfn|Cuny|Hill|1999|p=}}

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.{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica|2010|p=}} 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.{{sfn|Chaudhari|1984|p=135}} 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.{{sfn|Chaudhari|1984|p=135}} 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.{{sfn|Chaudhari|1984|p=135}} 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.{{sfn|Chaudhari|1984|p=135}}

According to the Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), global [[climate change]] is additionally challenging the Earth's ability to produce food, potentially leading to famine.<ref name="Psrccaf">{{cite web |title=Climate Change and Famine |date=15 March 2013 |url=http://www.psr.org/resources/climate-change-and-famine.html |publisher=Physicians for Social Responsibility |access-date=23 March 2013 |archive-date=13 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130413205424/http://www.psr.org/resources/climate-change-and-famine.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

Some elements make a particular region more vulnerable to famine. These include poverty, [[population growth]],<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14291581 |title='Top 10 culprits' for Horn of Africa hunger |work=BBC News |date=26 July 2011 |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-date=21 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160121040452/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14291581 |url-status=live}}</ref> an inappropriate social infrastructure, a suppressive political regime, and a weak or under-prepared government.{{sfn|Ravallion|1996|p=1}}

According to [[Oxfam International]], commenting on a [[Famine Early Warning Systems Network]] (FEWS NET) report, "Famines are not natural phenomena, they are catastrophic political failures."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/reactions/fewsnet-report-260000-people-died-somalia-famine |title=FEWSNET report: 260,000 people died in the Somalia famine &#124; Oxfam International |date=18 May 2014 |access-date=16 May 2017 |archive-date=12 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112003159/https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/fewsnet-report-260000-people-died-somalia-famine |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Climate and population pressure===
[[File:Starved child.jpg|thumb|upright|A child suffering extreme starvation in India, 1972]]
Thomas Malthus's ''Essay on the Principle of Population'' has made popular the theory of the [[Malthusian catastrophe]]—that many famines are caused by imbalance of food production compared to the large populations of countries<ref name="de Waal 2018">{{cite journal |last1=de Waal |first1=Alex |title=The end of famine? Prospects for the elimination of mass starvation by political action |journal=Political Geography |date=January 2018 |volume=62 |pages=184–195 |doi=10.1016/j.polgeo.2017.09.004}}</ref> whose [[Human overpopulation|population exceeds the regional carrying capacity]].<ref>{{cite web |title=What Causes a Famine to Break Out? |url=https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/famine1.htm |website=science.howstuffworks.com |access-date=21 February 2019 |date=5 July 2011 |archive-date=22 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222042219/https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/famine1.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> However, anthropologist [[Alex de Waal]], executive director of the World Peace Foundation,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://fletcher.tufts.edu/people/alex-de-waal |title=Alex de Waal {{!}} The Fletcher School |website=fletcher.tufts.edu |access-date=24 February 2019 |archive-date=23 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190223193240/https://fletcher.tufts.edu/people/alex-de-waal }}</ref> refutes the Malthus theory, looking instead to political factors as major causes of recent (over the last 150 years) famines.<ref name="de Waal 2018"/> Historically, famines have occurred from agricultural problems such as drought, crop failure, or [[infectious disease|pestilence]]. Changing weather patterns, the ineffectiveness of medieval governments in dealing with crises, wars, and [[List of epidemics|epidemic diseases]] such as the [[Black Death]] helped to cause hundreds of famines in Europe during the [[Middle Ages]], including 95 in Britain and 75 in France.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3609390/Poor-studies-will-always-be-with-us.html "Poor studies will always be with us"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180523235838/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3609390/Poor-studies-will-always-be-with-us.html |date=23 May 2018 }}, ''The Telegraph''</ref> In France, the [[Hundred Years' War]], crop failures and epidemics reduced the population by two-thirds.<ref>[http://www.historynet.com/magazines/military_history/3031536.html Don O'Reilly, "Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc and the Siege of Orléans] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061109043743/http://www.historynet.com/magazines/military_history/3031536.html |date=9 November 2006 }}", ''TheHistoryNet.com''</ref> Economist [[Amartya Sen]] has also argued that sustained famines historically have been caused by political instability and repressive political regimes rather than overpopulation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sen |first=Amartya |year=1982 |orig-date=1981 |title=Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation |place=[[Oxford]], [[England]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |edition=Reprint |isbn=978-0-19-828463-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/povertyfamineses0000sena |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Sen |first=Amartya |year=2001 |orig-date=1999 |title=Development As Freedom |place=Oxford, England |publisher=Oxford University Press |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0-19-289330-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/developmentasfre00sena}}</ref>

The failure of a harvest or change in conditions, such as [[drought]], can create a situation whereby large numbers of people continue to live where the [[carrying capacity]] of the land has temporarily dropped radically. Famine is often associated with [[subsistence]] agriculture. 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 the [[Mount Tambora]] volcano 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.

===State-sponsored famines===
{{see also|Starvation (crime)}}
In certain cases, such as the [[Great Leap Forward]] in China (which produced the [[Great Chinese Famine|largest famine in absolute numbers]]), [[Francoist Spain]]'s ''years of hunger'',<ref name="sage_franco">{{cite journal |last=Del Arco Blanco |first=Miguel |year=2020 |title=Famine in Spain During Franco's Dictatorship, 1939–52 |journal=[[Journal of Contemporary History]] |volume=56 |pages=3–27 |doi=10.1177/0022009419876004 |s2cid=213559342 |hdl=10481/65285 |hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref name="radboud_franco">{{cite web |last=Román Ruiz |first=Gloria |title=The Hunger Years: History and Memory of the Francoist Post-War Period: New Research |date=16 October 2020 |url=https://www.ru.nl/en/research/research-news/the-hunger-years-history-and-memory-of-the-francoist-post-war-period-new-research |website=Radboud University |publisher=[[Radboud University]] |access-date=10 June 2025}}</ref><ref name="roman_franco">{{cite web |last1=Román Ruiz |first1=Gloria |last2=del Arco Blanco |first2=Miguel Ángel |title=The silenced famine of the Spanish post-war period finds a voice in new exhibition |date=16 November 2022 |url=https://theconversation.com/the-silenced-famine-of-the-spanish-post-war-period-finds-a-voice-in-new-exhibition-193562 |website=The Conversation |access-date=10 June 2025}}</ref><ref name="santiago_franco">{{cite book |last=Santiago Díaz |first=Gregorio |title=Franquismo patógeno: hambruna, enfermedad y miseria en la posguerra española (1939–1953) |language=es |publisher=Editorial [[Universidad de Granada]] |year=2023 |isbn=978-84-338-7115-2 |location=[[Granada]], [[Spain]] |page=356}}</ref><ref name="delarco_franco">{{cite book |editor-last=del Arco Blanco |editor-first=Miguel Ángel |editor2-last=Anderson |editor2-first=Peter |title=Franco's Famine: Malnutrition, Disease and Starvation in Post-Civil War Spain |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-350-17465-8 |location=London |pages=280 |language=en}}</ref> [[North Korean famine|North Korea in the mid-1990s]], or [[Zimbabwe]] in the early-2000s, famine can occur because of government policy.

[[File:HolodomorKharkiv.jpg|thumb|The government's [[Collectivization in the Soviet Union|forced collectivization]] of agriculture was one of the main causes of the [[Soviet famine of 1932–1933]].]]
According to [[Simon Payaslian]], a tentative scholarly consensus classifies the Soviet famine (at least in Ukraine where 2.5 to 4 million perished<ref>{{cite journal |page=28 |title=Towards a Decentred History: The Study of the Holodomor and Ukrainian Historiography |first=Olga |last=Andriewsky |doi=10.21226/T2301N |volume=2 |issue=1 |journal=East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies |url=https://ewjus.com/index.php/ewjus/article/download/Andriewsky/24 |year=2015 |doi-access=free |access-date=8 January 2022 |archive-date=12 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211112100941/https://ewjus.com/index.php/ewjus/article/download/Andriewsky/24 |url-status=live}}</ref>) as a [[genocide]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Payaslian |first=Simon |title=International Relations |date=11 January 2021 |chapter-url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199743292/obo-9780199743292-0105.xml |chapter=20th Century Genocides |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/OBO/9780199743292-0105 |isbn=978-0-19-974329-2 |access-date=26 November 2021 |via=Oxford Bibliographies Online |archive-date=24 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200324130403/https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199743292/obo-9780199743292-0105.xml |url-status=live}}</ref> although some scholars say that it remains a significant issue in modern politics and dispute whether Soviet policies would fall under the [[legal definition of genocide]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Marples |first=David R. |date=30 November 2005 |url=http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/article.cfm?id=7176 |title=The great famine debate goes on... |work=Edmont Journal |publisher=University of Alberta |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080615015541/http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/article.cfm?id=7176 |archive-date=15 June 2008 |access-date=28 November 2021 |via=ExpressNews}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Kulchytsky |first=Stanislav |date=17 February 2007 |url=https://day.kyiv.ua/uk/article/podrobici/golodomor-1932-1933-rr-yak-genocid-progalini-u-dokazoviy-bazi-1 |title=Holodomor 1932–1933 rr. yak henotsyd: prohalyny u dokazovii bazi |script-title=uk:Голодомор 1932 — 1933 рр. як геноцид: прогалини у доказовій базі |trans-title=Holodomor 1932–1933 as genocide: gaps in the evidence |work=Den |language=uk |access-date=19 January 2021 |archive-date=2 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202145734/https://day.kyiv.ua/uk/article/podrobici/golodomor-1932-1933-rr-yak-genocid-progalini-u-dokazoviy-bazi-1 |url-status=live}}</ref> Several scholars have disputed that the famine was a [[Genocide by attrition|genocidal act]] by the Soviet government, including [[J. Arch Getty]],<ref name="Getty 2000">{{cite magazine |last=Getty |first=J. Arch |date=1 March 2000 |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/03/the-future-did-not-work/378081/ |title=The Future Did Not Work |magazine=The Atlantic |access-date=2 March 2021 |quote=Similarly, the overwhelming weight of opinion among scholars working in the new archives (including Courtois's co-editor Werth) is that the terrible famine of the 1930s was the result of Stalinist bungling and rigidity rather than some genocidal plan.}}</ref> [[Stephen G. Wheatcroft]],<ref name="Wheatcroft 2018">{{cite journal |last=Wheatcroft |first=Stephen G. |date=August 2018 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326562364 |title=The Turn Away from Economic Explanations for Soviet Famines |journal=Contemporary European History |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=465–469 |doi=10.1017/S0960777318000358 |doi-access=free |access-date=26 November 2021 |via=ResearchGate |hdl=10536/DRO/DU:30116832 |hdl-access=free}}</ref> [[R. W. Davies]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=Robert W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4s1lCwAAQBAJ&pg=PR14 |title=The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia Volume 5: The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture 1931–1933 |last2=Wheatcroft |first2=Stephen |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-230-27397-9 |page=xiv}}</ref> and Mark Tauger.<ref>{{cite web |last=Tauger |first=Mark |date=1 July 2018 |url=https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/169438 |title=Review of Anne Applebaum's 'Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine' |website=History News Network |publisher=George Washington University |access-date=22 October 2019 |archive-date=19 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200119043404/https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/169438 |url-status=live}}</ref> Getty says that the "overwhelming weight of opinion among scholars working in the new archives&nbsp;... is that the terrible famine of the 1930s was the result of Stalinist bungling and rigidity rather than some genocidal plan."<ref name="Getty 2000"/> Wheatcroft says that the Soviet government's policies during the famine were criminal acts of fraud and manslaughter, though not outright murder or genocide.<ref name="Wheatcroft 2020">{{cite journal |last=Wheatcroft |first=Stephen G. |date=August 2020 |title=The Complexity of the Kazakh Famine: Food Problems and Faulty Perceptions |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=593–597 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2020.1807143 |s2cid=225333205}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|"We may well ask whether having revolutionarily high expectations is a crime? Of course it is, if it leads to an increase in the level of deaths, as a result of insufficient care being taken to safeguard the lives of those put at risk when the high ambitions failed to be fulfilled, and especially when it was followed by a cover-up. The same goes for not adjusting policy to unfolding evidence of crisis. But these are crimes of manslaughter and fraud rather than of murder. How heinous are they in comparison, say, with shooting over 600,000 citizens wrongly identified as enemies in 1937–8, or in shooting 25,000 Poles identified as a security risk in 1940, when there was no doubt as to the outcome of the orders? The conventional view is that manslaughter is less heinous than cold blooded murder."<ref name="Wheatcroft 2020"/>}} 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."<ref name="Davies & Wheatcroft 2009">{{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=Robert W. |last2=Wheatcroft |first2=Stephen G. |year=2009 |title=The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture 1931–1933 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |page=xv |doi=10.1057/9780230273979 |isbn=978-0-230-23855-8}}</ref> Wheatcroft says that Soviet authorities refused to scale down grain procurements despite the low harvest,<ref name="Wheatcroft 2018"/> 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."<ref name="Davies & Wheatcroft 2004">{{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=Robert W. |last2=Wheatcroft |first2=Stephen G. |year=2004 |title=The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture 1931–1933 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |pages=436–441 |isbn=978-0-333-31107-3}}</ref>

[[Joseph Stalin]] biographer [[Stephen Kotkin]] supports 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.<ref name="Kotkin 2017">{{cite interview |last=Kotkin |first=Stephen |date=8 November 2017 |url=https://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/11/08/studying-stalin/ |title=Terrible Talent: Studying Stalin |magazine=The American Interest |interviewer=Richard Aldous |access-date=26 November 2021}}</ref> 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."<ref>Tauger, Mark (1991). "The 1932 Harvest and the Famine of 1933". Slavic Review. 50 (1): 70–89. doi:10.2307/2500600. JSTOR 2500600.</ref>

In 1958 in China, [[Mao Zedong]]'s Communist Government launched the [[Great Leap Forward]] campaign, aimed at rapidly industrializing the country.<ref name=NewYorkTimes>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/02/16/reviews/970216.16ebersta.html |title=The Great Leap Backward |newspaper=The New York Times |date=16 February 1997 |access-date=22 October 2011 |archive-date=13 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113233034/http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/02/16/reviews/970216.16ebersta.html |url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/maos-great-leap-forward-killed-45-million-in-four-years-2081630.html |title=Mao's Great Leap Forward 'killed 45 million in four years' |last=Akbar |first=Arifa |date=17 September 2010 |access-date=20 September 2010 |location=London |work=The Independent |archive-date=11 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200511102449/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/maos-great-leap-forward-killed-45-million-in-four-years-2081630.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

Historian and journalists, such as [[Seumas Milne]] and [[Jon Wiener]], have criticized the emphasis on [[communism]] when assigning blame for famines. In a 2002 article for ''[[The Guardian]]'', Milne mentions "the moral blindness displayed towards the record of [[colonialism]]", 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 avoidable [[Bengal famine of 1943]].<ref>Milne, Seumas (12 September 2002), "[https://www.theguardian.com/education/2002/sep/12/highereducation.historyandhistoryofart The battle for history]", The Guardian, London, retrieved 12 May 2010</ref> Weiner makes a similar assertion while comparing the [[Holodomor]] and the Bengal famine of 1943, stating that [[Winston Churchill]]'s role in the Bengal famine "seems similar to Stalin's role in the Ukrainian famine".<ref>Wiener, Jon (15 October 2012), How We Forgot the Cold War: A Historical Journey Across America, University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-27141-8 p. 38</ref> Historian [[Mike Davis (scholar)|Mike Davis]], author of ''[[Late Victorian Holocausts]]'', draws comparisons between the [[Great Chinese Famine]] and the [[Timeline of major famines in India during British rule|Indian 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.<ref>Day, Meagan (23 October 2018), "[https://jacobin.com/2018/10/mike-davis-late-victorian-holocausts-famine-mao-stalin Mike Davis on the Crimes of Socialism and Capitalism]", Jacobin, retrieved 25 October 2018</ref> According to [[Jason Hickel]] and Dylan Sullivan, the number excess deaths during the apex of British colonialism in India rise to around 100 million.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sullivan |first1=Dylan |last2=Hickel |first2=Jason |date=2023 |title=Capitalism and extreme poverty: A global analysis of real wages, human height, and mortality since the long 16th century |url= |journal=[[World Development]] |volume=161 |issue= |article-number=106026 |doi=10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.106026 |s2cid=252315733 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Sullivan |first1=Dylan |last2=Hickel |first2=Jason |date=2 December 2022 |title=How British colonialism killed 100 million Indians in 40 years |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/12/2/how-british-colonial-policy-killed-100-million-indians |work=[[Al Jazeera Arabic|Al Jazeera]] |location= |access-date=13 December 2022 |archive-date=15 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115112349/https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/12/2/how-british-colonial-policy-killed-100-million-indians |url-status=live}}</ref>

Malawi ended its famine by subsidizing farmers despite the strictures imposed by the [[World Bank]].<ref name=newyorktimes /> During the 1973 [[Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia#Wollo famine|Wollo Famine]] in [[Ethiopia]], food was shipped out of Wollo to the capital city of [[Addis Ababa]], where it could command higher prices. In the late-1970s and early-1980s, residents of the [[dictatorship]]s of Ethiopia and [[Sudan]] suffered massive famines, but the [[democracy]] of [[Botswana]] avoided them, despite also suffering a severe drop in national food production. In [[Somalia]], famine occurred because of a [[failed state]].

The [[famine in Yemen]] is a direct result of the [[Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen]] and the [[Blockade of Yemen|blockade]] imposed by Saudi Arabia and its allies, including the United States.<ref>{{cite news |author=Julian Borger |title=Saudi-led naval blockade leaves 20m Yemenis facing humanitarian disaster |date=4 June 2016 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/05/saudi-led-naval-blockade-worsens-yemen-humanitarian-disaster |author-link=Julian Borger |access-date=19 November 2017 |archive-date=5 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150605084858/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/05/saudi-led-naval-blockade-worsens-yemen-humanitarian-disaster |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>"[https://theintercept.com/2017/11/14/congress-yemen-war-unauthorized/ Congress Votes to Say It Hasn't Authorized War in Yemen, Yet War in Yemen Goes On]". ''[[The Intercept]]''. 14 November 2017. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180107231800/https://theintercept.com/2017/11/14/congress-yemen-war-unauthorized/ |date=7 January 2018 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |date=23 October 2018 |title=Half the population of Yemen at risk of famine: UN emergency relief chief |url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/10/1023962 |work=UN News |access-date=26 October 2018 |archive-date=26 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181026093500/https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/10/1023962 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Famines by political regime.png|thumb|Famines since 1850 by political regime. Large catastrophic famines have occurred predominantly in autocratic regimes.]]

Israel's [[2023 Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip|blockade of Gaza]] and the [[Gaza war|war]] between Israel and Hamas led to a [[famine in the Gaza Strip]] in 2024.<ref>{{cite news |title=More than 500,000 people in Gaza face 'catastrophic hunger': UNRWA |url=https://abcnews.go.com/International/500000-people-gaza-face-catastrophic-hunger-unrwa/story?id=106593939 |work=ABC News |date=23 January 2024}}</ref> On 16 January 2024, UN experts accused Israel of "destroying Gaza's food system and using food as a weapon against the Palestinian people".<ref>{{cite web |title=Over one hundred days into the war, Israel destroying Gaza's food system and weaponizing food, say UN human rights experts |url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/01/over-one-hundred-days-war-israel-destroying-gazas-food-system-and |website=OHCHR |publisher=United Nations |date=16 January 2024}}</ref> The UN-backed IPC confirmed famine is taking place in Gaza on 22 August 2025.<ref name="Nichols"/>

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 with [[autocratic]] and [[Colonialism|colonial]] systems.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://ourworldindata.org/famines/ |title=Famines |work=Our World in Data |access-date=8 December 2017 |language=en-US |archive-date=8 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171208231529/https://ourworldindata.org/famines/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Economic sanctions===

[[Economic sanctions]] are 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=admin |date=2019-09-03 |title=US Sanctions Are Designed to Kill |url=https://cepr.net/us-sanctions-are-designed-to-kill/ |access-date=2023-08-27 |website=Center for Economic and Policy Research |language=en-US |archive-date=27 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230827040358/https://cepr.net/us-sanctions-are-designed-to-kill/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Ineffective, Immoral, Politically Convenient: America's Overreliance on Economic Sanctions and What to Do about It |url=https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/ineffective-immoral-politically-convenient-americas-overreliance-economic-sanctions |access-date=2023-08-27 |website=www.cato.org |archive-date=13 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230813165333/https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/ineffective-immoral-politically-convenient-americas-overreliance-economic-sanctions |url-status=live}}</ref> Economic sanctions have been blamed for contributing to the [[North Korean famine]] in the 1990s.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Haggard |first1=Stephan |author-link=Stephan Haggard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6MoChuyC84gC |title=Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform |last2=Noland |first2=Marcus |date=2007 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-51152-0 |page=38 |language=en |quote=The failure of the International Atomic Energy Agency, South Korea, and the United States to resolve the crisis in a timely manner and the tightening of sanctions against the country constituted an important background condition for the famine. |access-date=28 August 2023 |archive-date=6 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406122922/https://books.google.com/books?id=6MoChuyC84gC |url-status=live}}</ref> The effects of [[sanctions against Iraq]] in the 1990s on mortality are disputed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dyson |first1=Tim |last2=Cetorelli |first2=Valeria |date=2017-07-01 |title=Changing views on child mortality and economic sanctions in Iraq: a history of lies, damned lies and statistics |journal=BMJ Global Health |language=en |volume=2 |issue=2 |article-number=e000311 |doi=10.1136/bmjgh-2017-000311 |pmid=29225933 |issn=2059-7908 |pmc=5717930}}</ref> Following the [[Taliban]]'s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, [[Human Rights Watch]] warned 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.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-11-11 |title=Afghanistan Facing Famine |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/11/11/afghanistan-facing-famine |access-date=2023-08-27 |website=Human Rights Watch |language=en |archive-date=12 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220512115310/https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/11/11/afghanistan-facing-famine |url-status=live}}</ref>

==Famine prevention==
{{More citations needed section|date=May 2021}}
[[File:Famine in Algeria 1869.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|A starving child during the 1869 famine in [[Algeria]].]]
Relief technologies, including [[immunization]], improved [[public health]] infrastructure, 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 from [[genocide]] campaigns, [[civil war]]s, [[agro-terrorism]], [[refugee]] flows and episodes of extreme violence and state collapse, creating famine conditions among the affected populations.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com/en/technology-helps-countries-win-the-battle-against-hunger/ |title=Technology helps countries win the battle against hunger |website=Richard van Hooijdonk Blog |date=10 February 2020 }}</ref>

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, the [[Famine 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 Nations [[Food and Agriculture Organization]] warned that 11 million people in Somalia, [[Kenya]], [[Djibouti]] and Ethiopia were in danger of starvation due to the combination of severe drought and military conflicts.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000206/index.html |title=Millions of people are on the brink of starvation in the Horn of Africa |website=Fao.org |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-date=24 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524023730/http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000206/index.html }}</ref> In 2006, the most serious humanitarian crisis in Africa was in [[Sudan]]'s region [[Darfur]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://origins.osu.edu/article/worlds-worst-humanitarian-crisis-understanding-darfur-conflict |title='The World's Worst Humanitarian Crisis': Understanding the Darfur Conflict |website=Origins |date=9 February 2009 }}</ref>

[[Frances Moore Lappé]], later co-founder of the [[Institute for Food and Development Policy]] (Food First) argued in ''[[Diet 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. Economist [[Amartya Sen]]{{refn|Sen is known for his assertion that famines do not occur in democracies in much the same way that [[Adam Smith]] is associated with the "[[invisible hand]]" and [[Joseph Schumpeter]] with "[[creative destruction]]".{{sfn|Massing|2003|p=1}}|group=note}} states 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 Waal]] has 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 of [[Thomas Malthus]] would 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 the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|1840s famines]] by waves of emigration.

===Overall food production===
[[File:Food production per capita.svg|thumb|right]]
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.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Charles |first1=Dan |url=https://www.npr.org/2020/08/04/897804434/food-is-growing-more-plentiful-so-why-do-people-keep-warning-of-shortages |title=Food Is Growing More Plentiful, So Why Do People Keep Warning Of Shortages? |website=[[NPR]] |date=4 August 2020 |access-date=2 September 2020 |archive-date=3 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200903234328/https://www.npr.org/2020/08/04/897804434/food-is-growing-more-plentiful-so-why-do-people-keep-warning-of-shortages |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Food security===
{{Main|Food security}}
Long term measures to improve food security, include investment in modern agriculture techniques, such as [[fertilizers]] and [[irrigation]],<ref name=obama>[https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/world/europe/09food.html "Obama enlists major powers to aid poor farmers with $15 billion"], ''The New York Times'', 9 July 2009, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108114039/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/world/europe/09food.html |date=8 November 2017 }}</ref> but can also include strategic national [[food storage]].

[[World Bank]] strictures 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.<ref name=newyorktimes>[https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/world/africa/02malawi.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 "Ending Famine, Simply by Ignoring the Experts"], ''The New York Times'', 2 December 2007, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108114042/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/world/africa/02malawi.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 |date=8 November 2017 }}</ref><ref name=atlantic>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97jan/borlaug/borlaug.htm |title=Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity |magazine=The Atlantic |date=5 January 2016 |access-date=1 February 2016}}</ref>

[[File:Norman Borlaug.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Norman Borlaug]], father of the [[Green Revolution]], is often credited with saving over a billion people worldwide from starvation.]]
The effort to bring modern agricultural techniques found in the [[Western world]], such as [[nitrogen]] [[fertilizers]] and [[pesticides]], to the [[Indian Sub-continent]], called the [[Green Revolution]], resulted in decreases in malnutrition similar to those seen earlier in Western nations. This was possible because of existing [[infrastructure]] and institutions that are in short supply in [[Africa]], such as a system of roads or public [[seed]] companies that made seeds available.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/world/africa/10rice.html |title=In Africa, Prosperity From Seeds Falls Short |date=10 October 2007 |work=The New York Times |access-date=7 February 2017 |archive-date=27 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170627094512/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/world/africa/10rice.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Supporting farmers in areas of food insecurity, through such measures as free or subsidized [[fertilizer]]s and [[seed]]s, increases food harvest and reduces food prices.<ref name=newyorktimes/><ref>{{cite journal |author=The Christian Science Monitor |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0618/p07s01-woaf.html |title=How a Kenyan village tripled its corn harvest |date=18 June 2008 |journal=The Christian Science Monitor |access-date=3 July 2008 |archive-date=19 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090519063427/http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0618/p07s01-woaf.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

The energy for the Green Revolution was provided by [[fossil fuels]] in the form of fertilizers (natural gas), pesticides (oil), and [[hydrocarbon]] fueled [[irrigation]].<ref>[http://www.energybulletin.net/281.html Eating Fossil Fuels]. [[EnergyBulletin]]. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070611071544/http://www.energybulletin.net/281.html |date=June 11, 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Soaring fertilizer prices put global food security at risk |url=https://www.axios.com/2022/05/06/fertilizer-prices-food-securtiy |work=Axios |date=6 May 2022 |access-date=15 May 2022 |archive-date=25 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220525175453/https://www.axios.com/2022/05/06/fertilizer-prices-food-securtiy |url-status=live}}</ref> The development of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer has significantly supported global [[population growth]]&nbsp;— it has been estimated that almost half the people on the Earth are currently fed as a result of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Erisman |first1=Jan Willem |last2=Sutton |first2=Mark A. |last3=Galloway |first3=James |last4=Klimont |first4=Zbigniew |last5=Winiwarter |first5=Wilfried |title=How a century of ammonia synthesis changed the world |journal=[[Nature Geoscience]] |pages=636–639 |date=October 2008 |volume=1 |doi=10.1038/ngeo325 |url=http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~wilkins/energy/Resources/Essays/ngeo325.pdf.xpdf |issue=10 |bibcode=2008NatGe...1..636E |s2cid=94880859 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100723223052/http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~wilkins/energy/Resources/Essays/ngeo325.pdf.xpdf |archive-date=23 July 2010 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Fears global energy crisis could lead to famine in vulnerable countries |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/20/global-energy-crisis-famine-production |work=The Guardian |date=20 October 2021 |access-date=15 May 2022 |archive-date=9 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220109213124/https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/20/global-energy-crisis-famine-production |url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[World Bank]] and 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 of [[privatization]] even as the United States and Europe extensively subsidized their own farmers.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4678592.stm |title=Zambia: Fertile but hungry |website=BBC News |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-date=19 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019142738/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4678592.stm |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Relief===
{{Main|Famine relief}}
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.<ref name=csmonitor>{{cite journal |author=The Christian Science Monitor |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0604/p01s02-woaf.html |title=UN aid debate: Give cash, not food? |date=4 June 2008 |journal=The Christian Science Monitor |access-date=14 August 2008 |archive-date=3 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090703113649/http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0604/p01s02-woaf.html |url-status=live}}</ref> The United Nations [[World Food Programme]], the biggest non-governmental distributor of food, announced that it will begin distributing cash and vouchers instead of food in some areas, which [[Josette Sheeran]], WFP's former executive director, described as a "[[revolution]]" in food aid.<ref name=csmonitor/><ref name=wfp>{{cite web |url=http://www.wfp.org/english/?ModuleID=137&Key=2899 |title=WFP: Cash roll-out to help hunger hot spots &#124; WFP - Latest news - News - Press Releases |website=www.wfp.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212124012/http://www.wfp.org/english/?ModuleID=137&Key=2899 |archive-date=12 February 2009}}</ref> The aid agency [[Concern Worldwide]] is 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.<ref name=csmonitor/>

However, for people in a [[drought]] living a long way from and with limited access to [[Marketplace|markets]], delivering food may be the most appropriate way to help.<ref name=csmonitor/> [[Fred Cuny]] stated 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."<ref>Andrew S. Natsios (Administrator U.S. Agency for International Development)</ref> US Law{{which|date=October 2017}}, which requires buying food at home rather than where the hungry live, is inefficient because approximately half of what is spent goes for transport.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/160075 |title=Begley: Let Them Eat Micronutrients |website=Newsweek.com |access-date=1 February 2016 |date=20 September 2008 |archive-date=17 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090717002543/http://www.newsweek.com/id/160075 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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."<ref>memorandum to former Representative Steve Solarz (United States, Democratic Party, New York)&nbsp;– July 1994</ref>

Deficient [[micronutrient]]s can be provided through [[food fortification|fortifying]] foods.<ref name=hiddenhunger>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/opinion/24kristof.html |url-access=subscription |first1=Nicholas |last1=Kristof |title=The Hidden Hunger |date=24 May 2009 |work=The New York Times |access-date=7 February 2017 |archive-date=27 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180127123907/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/opinion/24kristof.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Fortifying foods such as [[peanut butter]] sachets (see [[Plumpy'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.<ref name=BBC>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8114750.stm |date=24 June 2009 |first1=Tatum |last1=Anderson |title=Firms target nutrition for the poor |publisher=BBC News |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-date=8 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108114041/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8114750.stm |url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:VOA Heinlein - Somali refugees September 2011 - 09.jpg|thumb|right|A [[Somali people|Somali]] boy receiving treatment for malnutrition at a health facility in Hilaweyn during the [[2011 East Africa drought|drought of 2011]].]]
[[WHO]] and other sources recommend that malnourished children—and adults who also have [[diarrhea]]—drink rehydration solution, and continue to eat, in addition to antibiotics, and zinc supplements.<ref name=WHOtreatmentdiarrhoea2005>{{cite web |url=http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2005/9241593180.pdf |title=The Treatment of Diarrhoea, a Manual for Physicians and Other Senior Health Workers |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111019172153/http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2005/9241593180.pdf |archive-date=19 October 2011 |website=World Health Organization |date=2005 |page=10 (14 in PDF) |quote="The aim is to give as much nutrient rich food as the child will accept. Most children with watery diarrhoea regain their appetite after dehydration is corrected, whereas those with bloody diarrhoea often eat poorly until the illness resolves. These children should be encouraged to resume normal feeding as soon as possible."}} See also "8. Management of Diarrhoea with Severe Malnutrition", pp. 22–24 (26–28 in PDF).</ref><ref name=BangladeshGuidelinesSeverelyMalnourished>{{cite web |url=http://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/SAM_Guideline.pdf |title=National Guidelines for the Management of Severely Malnourished Children in Bangladesh |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111019171912/http://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/SAM_Guideline.pdf |archive-date=19 October 2011 |publisher=Institute of Public Health Nutrition, Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh |date=May 2008 |pages=21–25}}</ref><ref name=CDCcholeratraining>{{cite web |url=https://www.cdc.gov/haiticholera/pdf/chw_trainingmaterialsforcholera.pdf |title=Community Health Worker Training Materials for Cholera Prevention and Control |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111020070810/http://www.cdc.gov/haiticholera/pdf/chw_trainingmaterialsforcholera.pdf |archive-date=20 October 2011 |website=CDC |date=17 November 2010 |page=7 |quote=Continue to breastfeed your baby if the baby has watery diarrhea, even when traveling to get treatment. Adults and older children should continue to eat frequently.}}</ref> 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.<ref name=BangladeshGuidelinesSeverelyMalnourished/> 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.<ref name=time>{{cite magazine |last=Walt |first=Vivienne |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1914655,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090808043255/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1914655,00.html |archive-date=8 August 2009 |title=Diarrhea: The Great Zinc Breakthrough |magazine=Time |date=17 August 2009 |access-date=1 February 2016}}</ref> The World Health Organization underlines the importance of a person with diarrhea continuing to eat, with a 2005 publication for physicians stating: "Food should ''never'' be withheld and the child's usual foods should ''not'' be diluted. Breastfeeding should ''always'' be continued."<ref name=WHOtreatmentdiarrhoea2005/>

[[Ethiopia]] has 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.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Nicholas Benequista |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0506/p01s06-woaf.html?page=2 |title=Ethiopia: A model of African food aid is now in trouble |date=6 May 2008 |journal=The Christian Science Monitor |access-date=14 August 2008 |archive-date=5 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090705020347/http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0506/p01s06-woaf.html?page=2 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Green Revolution]] was 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%.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/6496585.stm |date=29 March 2007 |title=Special Reports&nbsp;– The limits of a Green Revolution? |publisher=BBC News |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-date=28 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728055441/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/6496585.stm |url-status=live}}</ref> Some{{who|date=August 2013}} criticize the process, stating that these new high-yielding crops require more chemical [[fertilizer]]s and [[pesticide]]s, which can harm the environment.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pimentel |first=David |date=September 1996 |title=Green revolution agriculture and chemical hazards |bibcode-access=free |journal=[[Science of the Total Environment]] |volume=188 |pages=S86–S98 |doi=10.1016/0048-9697(96)05280-1 |pmid=8966546 |bibcode=1996ScTEn.188S..86P |via=Elsevier Science Direct |doi-access=free}}</ref> 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 as [[groundwater]] [[overdrafting]] and overuse of [[pesticide]]s and other [[agricultural chemicals]].

===Levels of food insecurity===
{{Main|Famine scales}}
[[File:Oxfam East Africa - A mass grave for children in Dadaab.jpg|thumb|Freshly-dug graves for child victims of the [[2011 East Africa drought]], [[Dadaab]] refugee camp, [[Kenya]]]]
In modern times, local and political governments and [[non-governmental organization]]s that 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 the [[Indian Famine Codes]] devised 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 the [[Turkana people]] in 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 of [[agricultural]] land. When all means of self-support are exhausted, the affected population begins to migrate in search of food or fall victim to outright mass [[starvation]]. Famine may thus be viewed partially as a social phenomenon, involving [[Market (economics)|markets]], 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 the [[World Food Programme]] and the [[U.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.

==Society and culture==
Famine personified as an [[allegory]] is found in some cultures: Famine is one of the [[Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse]] in Christian tradition, a man riding a black horse holding a [[balance scale]]; the [[fear gorta]] of Irish folklore; or the [[Wendigo]] of [[Algonquian peoples|Algonquian]] tradition.

=== Effects on society ===
A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis has shown that prenatal famine exposure is associated with an increased risk of mental disorders (such as [[Major depressive disorder|depression]] and [[schizophrenia]]) and changes in [[DNA methylation]], that is further exacerbating the impact of famine on human health and nutrition.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Eichenauer |first1=Heike |last2=Ehlert |first2=Ulrike |date=2023-09-16 |title=The association between prenatal famine, DNA methylation and mental disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis |journal=Clinical Epigenetics |volume=15 |issue=1 |page=152 |doi=10.1186/s13148-023-01557-y |issn=1868-7083 |pmc=10505322 |pmid=37716973 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

==See also==

{{colbegin}}
* [[2007–2008 world food price crisis]]
* [[Peak oil#Agricultural effects and population limits|Agriculture and population limits]]
* [[Atmit]] (a porridge used to fight famine)
* [[Democide]]
* [[Famine Early Warning Systems Network]]
* [[Food prices]]
* [[Food security]]
* [[Global Hunger Index]]
* [[Integrated Food Security Phase Classification]]
* [[List of famines]]
* [[Local food]]
* [[Malthusianism]]
* [[Nuclear winter]]
* [[Human overpopulation|Overpopulation]]
* [[Global catastrophic risk]]
* [[Right of asylum#Right of asylum by country of refuge|Right of asylum: protected grounds]]
* [[Starvation]]
* [[Subsistence crisis]]
* ''[[The vulture and the little girl]]'': photo by [[Kevin Carter]] of a vulture lurking a famine-stricken [[Sudan]]ese toddler.
* [[World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates]] (monthly report)
* [[World Food Programme]]
* [[World Vision Famine events]]
{{colend}}

==Footnotes==
{{Reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=

<ref name="IPC_famine">{{cite web |title=IPC and Famine |website=[[Integrated Food Security Phase Classification]] |year=2013 |url=http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/resources/resources-details/en/c/1129202 |access-date=11 February 2021 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210211002558/http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/resources/resources-details/en/c/1129202 |archive-date=11 February 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

}}

==Sources and further reading==
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* Ashton, Basil, et al. "Famine in China, 1958–61." in ''The Population of Modern China'' (Springer, Boston, MA, 1992) pp.&nbsp;225–271.
* Asimov, Isaac, ''Asimov's New Guide to Science'', pp.&nbsp;152–53, Basic Books, Inc. : 1984.
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* Campbell, David. "The iconography of famine." in ''Picturing Atrocity: Photography in Crisis'' (2012): 79–92 [http://www.academia.edu/download/1987937/THE_ICONOGRAPHY_OF_FAMINE.doc online]{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}.
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* LeBlanc, Steven, ''Constant Battles: The Myth of the Peaceful, Noble Savage'', St. Martin's Press (2003) argues that recurring famines have been the major cause of warfare since [[paleolithic]] times. {{ISBN|0-312-31089-7}}
* {{cite news |last=Lassa |first=Jonatan |title=Famine, drought, malnutrition: Defining and fighting hunger |url=http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2006/07/03/famine-drought-malnutrition-defining-and-fighting-hunger.html |work=[[The Jakarta Post]] |date=3 July 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090216132415/http://thejakartapost.com/news/2006/07/03/famine-drought-malnutrition-defining-and-fighting-hunger.html |archive-date=16 February 2009}}
* Li, Lillian M. ''Fighting Famine in North China: State, Market, and Environmental Decline, 1690s–1990s'' (Stanford UP), 2007 {{ISBN|978-0-8047-5304-3}}.
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* {{cite news |title=Does Democracy Avert Famine? |first=Michael |last=Massing |year=2003 |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E5DD103CF932A35750C0A9659C8B63 |access-date=27 September 2010}}
* Mead, Margaret. "The Changing Significance of Food". ''American Scientist''. (March–April 1970). pp.&nbsp;176–89.
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==External links==
{{Wiktionary}}
{{commons category|Famines}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://hdl.handle.net/10822/552550 1980s Drought and Subsequent Food Crisis] from the [https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552494 Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20171019142757/http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-674337 Morning Star Fishermen] And The Race Against Hunger
* [http://www.wfp.org/ United Nations World Food Programme] Hunger relief against poverty and famine
* [http://www.ifpri.org/ International Food Policy Research Institute] Sustainable solutions for ending hunger
* Cohne, Josh (28 February 2012). [https://web.archive.org/web/20120302133333/http://technorati.com/business/finance/article/arable-land-shortage-and-the-case/ "Arable Land Shortage and the Case for Agriculture and Farmland Investing"]. [[Technorati]].
* [https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/africa/2006/africa_food_crisis/default.stm "In Depth: Africa's Food Crisis"]. [[BBC News]]. 21 September 2007.
* [[Celia W. Dugger|Dugger, Celia W.]] (31 March 2006). [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/world/africa/31soil.html?ex=1301461200&en=a95f9eb19c751f1f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss "Overfarming African Land Is Worsening Hunger Crisis"]. ''The New York Times''.
* [https://archive.today/20081222003226/http://foodsecurity.developmentgateway.org/Content-item-view.10976+M5ce7bbfcaeb.0.html "Food Security: A Review of Literature from Ethiopia to India" (Geopolicity)]
* Marcus, David (2003). [https://web.archive.org/web/20080817165709/http://www.asil.org/ajil/marcus.pdf "Famine Crimes in International Law"]. ''[[The American Journal of International Law]]''.
* [[Jeffrey Sachs|Sachs, Jeffrey]] (26 October 1998). [https://web.archive.org/web/20070216115449/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989405,00.html The Real Causes of Famine"]. ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''.

{{Food science}}
{{Nutritional pathology}}
{{Disasters}}
{{Population}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Incidents of cannibalism]]
[[Category:Development studies]]
[[Category:Famines| ]]
[[Category:Malnutrition]]
[[Category:Population]]