A famine is a widespread shortage of food that may apply to any faunal species, which phenomenon is usually accompanied by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Fauna is all of the Animal life of any particular region or time Malnutrition is a general term for a medical condition caused by an improper or insufficient diet. Starvation (also called inanition) is a severe reduction in Vitamin, Nutrient, and Energy intake and is the most extreme form of In Epidemiology, an epidemic (from Greek epi- upon + demos people is a classification of a disease that appears as new cases in a Death is the termination of the biological functions that define living Organisms It refers both to a specific
Although most famines coincide with regional shortages of food, famine in some human populations has occurred amid plenty or on account of acts of economic or military policy that have deprived certain populations of sufficient food to ensure survival. Historically, famines have occurred because of drought, crop failure, pestilence, and man-made causes such as war or misguided economic policies. A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply Bad harvests, overpopulation, and epidemic diseases like the Black Death helped cause hundreds of famines in Europe during the Middle Ages, including 95 in the British Isles and 75 in France. Overpopulation refers to a condition where an Organism 's numbers exceed the Carrying capacity of its Habitat. This article is a list of major Epidemics. Worldwide pandemics The following are Epidemics which spread across several continents The Black Death, or the Black Plague, was one of the deadliest Pandemics in human history widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia [1][2]
During the 20th century, an estimated 70 million people died from famines across the world, of whom an estimated 30 million died during the famine of 1958–61 in China. The twentieth century of the Common Era began on The Great Chinese Famine ( officially referred to as the Three Years of Natural Disasters ( was the period in the People's Republic of China between 1958 and 1961 China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National The other most notable famines of the century included the 1942–1945 disaster in Bengal, famines in China in 1928 and 1942, and a sequence of famines in the Soviet Union, including the Holodomor, Stalin's famine inflicted on Ukraine in 1932–33. The Bengal famine of 1943 is one amongst the several Famines that occurred in British administered Bengal. Etymology and ethnology The exact origin of the word Bangla or Bengal is unknown though it is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 The Holodomor (Голодомор is the famine that took place in Soviet Ukraine during the 1932-1933 agricultural season Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. A few of the great famines of the late 20th century were: the Biafran famine in the 1960s, the disaster in Cambodia in the 1970s, the Ethiopian famine of 1983–85 and the North Korean famine of the 1990s. The Republic of Biafra was a Secessionist state in south-eastern Nigeria. The Kingdom of Cambodia ( formerly known as Kampuchea (, transliterated: Preăh Réachéanachâkr Kâmpŭchea) is a country in South East NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page The 1984 - 1985 famine in Ethiopia were two famines that occurred simultaneously in Ethiopia, of which the northern is the most prominent North Korea is the commonly used short form name for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (or DPRK) a State located in East Asia, The North Korean famine began in 1995 and peaked in 1997 in North Korea.
Famine is typically induced by a human population exceeding the regional carrying capacity to provide food resources. Overpopulation refers to a condition where an Organism 's numbers exceed the Carrying capacity of its Habitat. The supportable Population of an Organism, given the food habitat, water and other necessities available within an environment is known as the environment's An alternate view of famine is a failure of the poor to command sufficient resources to acquire essential food (the "entitlement theory" of Amartya Sen), analyses of famine that focused on the political-economic processes, an understanding of the reasons for mortality in famines, an appreciation of the extent to which famine-vulnerable communities have strategies for coping with the threat of famine, and the role of warfare and terrorism in creating famine. Amartya Kumar Sen CH (Hon (অমর্ত্য কুমার সেন Ômorto Kumar Shen) (born 3 November 1933) is an Indian Warfare refers to the conduct of conflict between opponents and usually involves escalation of aggression from the proverbial "war of words" between politicians Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion Modern relief agencies categorize various gradations of famine according to a famine scale. Famine scales are the ways in which degrees of Food security are measured from situations in which an entire population has adequate food to full-scale Famine.
Many areas that suffered famines in the past have protected themselves through technological and social development. The first area in Europe to eliminate famine was the Netherlands, which saw its last peacetime famines in the early 17th century as it became a major economic power and established a complex economic organization. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 17th Century was that Century which lasted from 1601 - 1700 in the Gregorian calendar Noting that many famines occur under dictatorship, colonial rule, or during war, Amartya Sen has posited that no functioning democracy has suffered a famine in modern times. A dictatorship is usually defined as an autocratic Form of government in which the Government is ruled by a Dictator. See Colony and Colonization for examples of colonialism which do not refer to Western colonialism War is an international relations Dispute, characterized by organized Violence between National Military units Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system
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Characteristics of famine
Famine strikes Sub-Saharan African countries the hardest, but with exhaustion of food resources, overdrafting of groundwater, wars, internal struggles, and economic failure, famine continues to be a worldwide problem with millions of individuals suffering. The Holodomor (Голодомор is the famine that took place in Soviet Ukraine during the 1932-1933 agricultural season Sub-Saharan Africa is a geographical term used to describe the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara, or those African countries Groundwater is Water located beneath the Ground surface in Soil pore spaces and in the Fractures of lithologic formations [3] These famines cause widespread malnutrition and impoverishment; The famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s had an immense death toll, although Asian famines of the 20th century have also produced extensive death tolls. The 1984 - 1985 famine in Ethiopia were two famines that occurred simultaneously in Ethiopia, of which the northern is the most prominent Modern African famines are characterized by widespread destitution and malnutrition, with heightened mortality confined to young children. Relief technologies including immunization, improved public health infrastructure, general food rations and supplementary feeding for vulnerable children, has blunted the mortality impacts of famines, while leaving their economic consequences unchanged. Humanitarian crises also arise from civil wars, refugee flows and episodes of extreme violence and state collapse, creating famine conditions among the affected populations.
Despite repeated stated intentions by the world's leaders to end hunger and famine, famine remains a chronic threat in much of Africa and Asia. In July 2005, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network labelled Niger with emergency status, as well as Chad, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia and Zimbabwe. Famine Early Warning Systems Network ( FEWS NET) is a lead organization in the field of prediction and response to Famines and other forms of Food security Niger ( or /ˈnaɪdʒɚ/) officially the Republic of Niger, is a Landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. Chad (Tchad تشاد Tshād) officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a Landlocked country in Central Africa. NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page Southern Sudan is a region of Sudan, comprising ten of that country's states Somalia ( Soomaaliya; الصومال) officially the Somali Republic ( Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya, جمهورية الصومال) and formerly known See also Great Zimbabwe National Monument. For information about the March and June 2008 presidential elections see Zimbabwean presidential election 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. The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north Somalia to the northeast Tanzania to the south Djibouti ( جيبوتي Jībūtī, Somali: Jabuuti) officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the [1] In 2006, the most serious humanitarian crisis in Africa is in Sudan's region Darfur. Sudan (officially the Republic of Sudan) ( السودان al-Sūdān is a country in northeastern Africa. Darfur (دار فور daar foor, lit "realm of the Fur " is a region in Sudan.
Some believe that the Green Revolution was an answer to famine in the 1970s and 1980s. The Green Revolution refers to the transformation of Agriculture that began in 1945 at the request of the Mexican government to establish an agricultural research station to The Green Revolution began in the 20th century with hybrid strains of high-yielding crops. Between 1950 and 1984, as the Green Revolution transformed agriculture around the globe, world grain production increased by 250%. The Green Revolution refers to the transformation of Agriculture that began in 1945 at the request of the Mexican government to establish an agricultural research station to [4] Some criticize the process, stating that these new high-yielding crops require more chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which can harm the environment. Fertilizers ( also spelt fertiliser are chemical compounds given to Plants to promote growth they are usually applied either through the soil for uptake by plant A pesticide is a substance or mixture of substances used to kill a pest. However, it was an option for developing nations suffering from famine. These high-yielding crops make it technically possible to feed much of the world population. The world population is the total number of living Humans on Earth at a given time They can be developed to provide enhanced nutrition, and a well-nourished, well-developed population would emerge. Some say that the problems of famine and ill-nourishment are the results of ethical dilemmas over using the technologies we have, as well as cultural and class differences. Furthermore, 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 pesticides and other agricultural chemicals. Groundwater is Water located beneath the Ground surface in Soil pore spaces and in the Fractures of lithologic formations Overdrafting is the process of extracting Groundwater beyond the safe yield or equilibrium yield of the Aquifer. A pesticide is a substance or mixture of substances used to kill a pest.
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. Frances Moore Lappé (born February 10 1944) is a noted Social change and Democracy activist, and the author of 16 books including Food First, also known as the Institute for Food and Development Policy, is a nonprofit organization based in Oakland California, USA. Diet for a Small Planet is a book by Frances Moore Lappé presenting her theory of "Complementary Protein " sources in the human diet Vegetarianism is the practice of a diet that excludes Meat (including game and slaughter by-products Fish (including Shellfish and other sea
Noting that modern famines are sometimes the outcome of 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. Amartya Sen 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. Alex de Waal is a British writer and researcher on African issues
Causes of famine
Traditionally, famines are thought to be caused by a population outgrowing its regional carrying capacity. Overpopulation refers to a condition where an Organism 's numbers exceed the Carrying capacity of its Habitat. The supportable Population of an Organism, given the food habitat, water and other necessities available within an environment is known as the environment's In this perception, the operative cause of famine is an imbalance of population with respect to food supply. Most famines however, are caused by a combination of political, economic, and biological factors. Famines can be exacerbated or even caused by poor governance or inadequate logistics for food distribution. In some modern cases, it is political strife, poverty, and violence that disrupt the agricultural and food distribution processes. Modern famines have often occurred in nations that, as a whole, were not initially suffering a shortage of food. One of the largest historical famines (proportional to the affected population) was the Great Irish Famine, which began in 1845 and occurred as food was being shipped from Ireland to England because only the English could afford to pay higher prices. The largest famine ever (in absolute terms) was the Chinese famine of 1958–61 that occurred as a result of the Great Leap Forward. The Great Leap Forward ( of the People's Republic of China (PRC was an economic and social plan used from 1958 to 1960 which aimed to use China 's vast population Here it was principally government policy that lead first to a decrease in food production and second did not try anything at scale to prevent the famine. In a similar manner, the 1973 famine in Ethiopia was concentrated in the Wollo region, although food was being shipped out of Wollo to the capital city of Addis Ababa where it could command higher prices. NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page Addis Ababa (sometimes spelled Addis Abeba, the spelling used by the official Ethiopian Mapping Authority Amharic In contrast, at the same time that the citizens of the dictatorships of Ethiopia and Sudan had massive famines in the late-1970s and early-1980s, the democracies of Botswana and Zimbabwe avoided them, despite having worse drops in national food production. A dictatorship is usually defined as an autocratic Form of government in which the Government is ruled by a Dictator. Sudan (officially the Republic of Sudan) ( السودان al-Sūdān is a country in northeastern Africa. The Republic of Botswana (Lefatshe la Botswana is a Landlocked nation in Southern Africa. See also Great Zimbabwe National Monument. For information about the March and June 2008 presidential elections see Zimbabwean presidential election This was possible through the simple step of creating short-term employment for the worst-affected groups, thus ensuring a minimal amount of income to buy food, for the duration of the localized food disruption and was taken under criticism from opposition political parties and intense media coverage.
The failure of a harvest or the change in conditions, such as drought, can create a situation whereby large numbers of people live where the carrying capacity of the land has dropped radically. A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply The supportable Population of an Organism, given the food habitat, water and other necessities available within an environment is known as the environment's Famine is often associated with subsistence agriculture, that is, where most farming is aimed at producing enough food energy to survive. Subsistence is the food necessary to sustain life The following is a list of subsistence techniques: Hunting and Gathering Food energy is the amount of Energy in food that is available through Digestion. 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. The State of Arizona ( is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States.
Disasters, whether natural or man-made, have been associated with conditions of famine ever since humankind has been keeping written records. The Torah describes how "seven lean years" consumed the seven fat years, and "plagues of locusts" could eat all of the available food stuffs. term " Torah " ( Hebrew: תּוֹרָה "teaching" or "instruction" sometimes translated as "Law" most commonly refers to Locust is the Swarming phase of short-horned Grasshoppers of the family Acrididae. War, in particular, was associated with famine, particularly in those times and places where warfare included attacks on land, by burning or salting fields, or on those who tilled the soil. Not to be confused with Salt of the earth. Salting the earth refers to the practice of spreading salt on fields to make them incapable
As observed by the economist Amartya Sen, famine is sometimes a problem of food distribution and poverty. Food distribution, a method of distributing (or transporting food from one place to another is a very important factor in public Nutrition. Poverty (also called penury) is deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life including food clothing shelter and safe Drinking water, and In certain cases, such as the Great Leap Forward, North Korea in the mid-1990s, or Zimbabwe in the early-2000s, famine can be caused as an unintentional result of government policy. The Great Leap Forward ( of the People's Republic of China (PRC was an economic and social plan used from 1958 to 1960 which aimed to use China 's vast population North Korea is the commonly used short form name for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (or DPRK) a State located in East Asia, Famine is sometimes used as a tool of repressive governments as a means to eliminate opponents, as in the Ukrainian famine of the 1930s. The Holodomor (Голодомор is the famine that took place in Soviet Ukraine during the 1932-1933 agricultural season In other cases, such as Somalia, famine is a consequence of civil disorder as food distribution systems break down. Somalia ( Soomaaliya; الصومال) officially the Somali Republic ( Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya, جمهورية الصومال) and formerly known Most cases are not simply the result of the excedence of the Earth's carrying capacity. The supportable Population of an Organism, given the food habitat, water and other necessities available within an environment is known as the environment's
Approximately 40% of the world's agricultural land is seriously degraded. [5] In Africa, if current trends of soil degradation continue, the continent might be able to feed just 25% of its population by 2025, according to UNU's Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa. The (UNU is an agency of the United Nations established in Tokyo in 1973 to "research into the pressing global problems of human survival development [6] As of late 2007, increased farming for use in biofuels,[7] along with world oil prices at nearly $100 a barrel,[8] 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. This article is about the price of crude oil see Gasoline usage and pricing for information about derivative motor fuels [9][10] Food riots have recently taken place in many countries across the world. The years 2007–2008 saw dramatic rises in world food prices creating a global crisis and causing political and economical instability and social unrest in [11][12][13] An epidemic of stem rust on wheat caused by race Ug99 is currently spreading across Africa and into Asia and is causing major concern. In Epidemiology, an epidemic (from Greek epi- upon + demos people is a classification of a disease that appears as new cases in a Wheat ( Triticum spp is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Levant area of the Middle East. The stem, black or cereal rusts are caused by the Fungus Puccinia graminis and are a significant disease affecting cereal crops [14][15]
There are a number of ongoing famines caused by overpopulation, loss of arable land, war or political intervention. Overpopulation refers to a condition where an Organism 's numbers exceed the Carrying capacity of its Habitat. In Geography, arable land (from Latin arare, to Plough) is an agricultural term meaning land that can be used for War is an international relations Dispute, characterized by organized Violence between National Military units Beginning in the 20th century, nitrogen fertilizers, new pesticides, desert farming, and other agricultural technologies began to be used as weapons against famine. Fertilizers ( also spelt fertiliser are chemical compounds given to Plants to promote growth they are usually applied either through the soil for uptake by plant A pesticide is a substance or mixture of substances used to kill a pest. Desert farming generally relies on Irrigation, as it is the easiest way to make a Desert bloom Between 1950 and 1984, as the Green Revolution transformed agriculture around the globe, world grain production increased by 250%. The Green Revolution refers to the transformation of Agriculture that began in 1945 at the request of the Mexican government to establish an agricultural research station to Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture These agricultural technologies temporarily increased crop yields, but there are signs as early as 1995 that not only are these technologies reaching their peak of assistance, but they may now be contributing to the decline of arable land (e. g. persistence of pesticides leading to soil contamination and decline of area available for farming. Soil contamination is caused by the presence of man-made chemicals or other alteration in the natural soil environment Developed nations have shared these technologies with developing nations with a famine problem, but there are ethical limits to pushing such technologies on lesser developed countries. Developing countries are countries that haven't reached Western-style standards of democratic government free market economy industrialization social programs and human rights guaranties This is often attributed to an association of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides with a lack of sustainability. Organic farming is a form of agriculture that relies on Crop rotation, Green manure, Compost, Biological pest control, and mechanical Cultivation In any case, these technological advances might not be influential in those famines which are the result of war. Similarly so, increased yield may not be helpful with certain distribution problems, especially those arising from political intervention.
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), place in their study Food, Land, Population and the U. Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture S. Economy the maximum U.S. population for a sustainable economy at 200 million. The United States is an urbanized nation with 808 percent of its population of 305186613 residing in cities and suburbs as of mid-year 2005 Sustainability, in a general sense is the capacity to maintain a certain process or state indefinitely [16] To achieve a sustainable economy and avert disaster, the United States must reduce its population by at least one-third, and world population will have to be reduced by two-thirds, says study. A disaster is the impact of a natural or human-made hazard that negatively affects society or environment. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The world population is the total number of living Humans on Earth at a given time [17]
The authors of this study believe that the mentioned agricultural crisis will only begin to impact us after 2020, and will not become critical until 2050. The oncoming peaking of global oil production (and subsequent decline of production), along with the peak of North American natural gas production will very likely precipitate this agricultural crisis much sooner than expected. Natural gas is a Gaseous Fossil fuel consisting primarily of Methane but including significant quantities of Ethane, Propane, Geologist Dale Allen Pfeiffer claims that coming decades could see spiraling food prices without relief and massive starvation on a global level such as never experienced before. Dale Allen Pfeiffer is a geologist from Michigan, US who has recently been investigating and writing about Hubbert Peak theory and the specter Food is any substance usually composed primarily of Carbohydrates Fats water and/or Proteins that can be eaten or drunk by an Starvation (also called inanition) is a severe reduction in Vitamin, Nutrient, and Energy intake and is the most extreme form of [18]
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. Water Crisis is a term that refers to the status of the world’s Water resources relative to human demand China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country [19] The water tables are falling in scores of countries (including Northern China, the US, and India) due to widespread overpumping using powerful diesel and electric pumps. Other countries affected include Pakistan, Iran, and Mexico. Pakistan () officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia, Southwest Asia, Middle East and For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iran topics. The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. This will eventually lead to water scarcity and cutbacks in grain harvest. Even with the overpumping of its aquifers, China has developed a grain deficit, contributing to the upward pressure on grain prices. An aquifer is an underground layer of Water -bearing Permeable rock or unconsolidated materials ( Gravel, Sand, Silt, or Clay Most of the three billion people projected to be added worldwide by mid-century will be born in countries already experiencing water shortages. Water Crisis is a term that refers to the status of the world’s Water resources relative to human demand After China and India, there is a second tier of smaller countries with large water deficits — Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Mexico, and Pakistan. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Algeria ( ar [[Arabic]] الجزائر, Al Jaza'ir ælʤæˈzæːʔir Amazigh: ⴷⵥⴰⵢⴻⵔ Dzayer) officially the People's This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iran topics. The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. Pakistan () officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia, Southwest Asia, Middle East and 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. [20][21]
According to a UN climate report, the Himalayan glaciers that are the principal dry-season water sources of Asia's biggest rivers - Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween and Yellow - could disappear by 2035 as temperatures rise and human demand rises. The Ganges (ˈgænʤiːz also Ganga, Devanāgarī: hi गंगा in most Indian languages) is the major river in the Indian subcontinent The Indus River { Sanskrit: सिन्धु Sindhu; Urdu: urd {{Nastaliq سندھ}} Sindh; Sindhi: snd The Brahmaputra, also called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra is a Trans-boundary river and one of the major Rivers of Asia. The Mekong is one of the world’s major Rivers It is the 11th-longest river in the world and 7th longest in Asia The Salween River (သံလွင်မြစ် θànlwìn myiʔ also spelled Salwine) rises in Tibet ( after which it flows through Yunnan The Yellow River or Huang He / Hwang Ho ( Hatan Gol Queen river) is the second-longest river in China (after the Yangtze River) and the [22] Approximately 2. 4 billion people live in the drainage basin of the Himalayan rivers. A drainage basin is an extent of Land where Water from Rain or Snow melt drains downhill into a body of water such as a River, [23] India, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar could experience floods followed by severe droughts in coming decades. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Pakistan () officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia, Southwest Asia, Middle East and Afghanistan /æfˈgænɪstæn/ officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan ( Pashto: د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت, ( Bengali: বাংলাদেশ inc-Latn Bangladesh) officially Nepal (नेपाल) is a Landlocked country in South Asia. Burma, officially the Union of Myanmar ( pjìdàunzṵ mjàmmà nàinŋàndɔ̀ is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia. A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply [24] In India alone, the Ganges provides water for drinking and farming for more than 500 million people. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country [25][26]
Effects of famine
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 normal times male longevity advantage. Reasons for this may include greater female resilience under the pressure of malnutrition, and the fact that women are more skilled at gathering and processing wild foods and other fall-back famine foods. 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. Thomas Robert Malthus FRS (13 February 1766 – 23 December 1834 was an English political economist and demographer who expressed views 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 1840s famines by waves of emigration.
Levels of food insecurity
In modern times, governments and non-governmental organizations that deliver famine relief have limited resources with which to address the multiple situations of food insecurity that are occurring simultaneously. Famine scales are the ways in which degrees of Food security are measured from situations in which an entire population has adequate food to full-scale Famine. 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 Indian Famine Codes, developed by the colonial British in the 1880s were one of the earliest Famine scales The Famine Codes defined three levels of Food 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 Turkana are a Nilotic people of Kenya, numbering about 340000 The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north Somalia to the northeast Tanzania to the south
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. Income, refers to consumption opportunity gained by an entity within a specified time frame which is generally expressed in monetary terms before taking desperate measures, such as selling off plots of agricultural land. Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture 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. Starvation (also called inanition) is a severe reduction in Vitamin, Nutrient, and Energy intake and is the most extreme form of Famine may thus be viewed partially as a social phenomenon, involving markets, the price of food, and social support structures. Sao Paulo Stock Exchangejpg|thumb| Virtual market arena where buyer and seller are not present and trade via intemediates and electronical information 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 2004, many of the most important organizations in famine relief, such as the World Food Programme, Thom Bauermann and the U. S. Agency for International Development chris Scott, 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.
Historical famine, by region
Famine in Africa
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. Upper Egypt (صعيد مصر Sa'id Misr) is a narrow strip of land that extends from the cataract boundaries of modern-day Aswan to the area between The resulting famine and civil strife is believed to have been a major cause of the collapse of the Old Kingdom. The Old Kingdom is the name commonly given to that period in the 3rd millennium BCE when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization in complexity and achievement An account from the First Intermediate Period states, "All of Upper Egypt was dying of hunger and people were eating their children. The First Intermediate Period is the name conventionally given by Egyptologists to that period in Ancient Egyptian history between the end of the Old " In 1680s, famine extended across the entire Sahel, and in 1738 half the population of Timbuktu died of famine. See also Sahel Tunisia, a region of eastern Tunisia. The Sahel or Sahel Belt (from Arabic ساحل sāḥil Timbuktu ( Timbuctoo; Koyra Chiini: Tumbutu; French: Tombouctou) is a city in Tombouctou Region, in the West African [27]
Historians of African famine have documented repeated famines in Ethiopia. NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page Possibly the worst episode occurred in 1888 and succeeding years, as the epizootic rinderpest, introduced into Eritrea by infected cattle, spread southwards reaching ultimately as far as South Africa. Eritrea () ( Ge'ez: ኤርትራ ʾErtrā, Arabic: إرتريا Iritriya) officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of 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 Nino oscillation, human epidemics of smallpox, and in several countries, intense war. A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply Smallpox is an Infectious disease unique to humans caused by either of two virus variants named Variola major and Variola minor. War is an international relations Dispute, characterized by organized Violence between National Military units The great famine that afflicted Ethiopia from 1888 to 1892 cost it roughly one-third of its population. [28] In Sudan the year 1888 is remembered as the worst famine in history, on account of these factors and also the exactions imposed by the Mahdist state. Sudan (officially the Republic of Sudan) ( السودان al-Sūdān is a country in northeastern Africa. Muhammad Ahmad ibn as Sayyid Abd Allah (otherwise known as The Mahdi or Muhammad Ahmed Al Mahdi Arabic:محمد أحمد المهدي ( August Colonial "pacification" efforts often caused severe famine, as for example with the repression of the Maji Maji revolt in Tanganyika in 1906. Tanganyika is the name of an East African territory lying between the largest of the African great lakes Lake Victoria, Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika Year 1906 ( MCMVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting The introduction of cash crops such as cotton, and forcible measures to impel farmers to grow these crops, also impoverished the peasantry in many areas, such as northern Nigeria, contributing to greater vulnerability to famine when severe drought struck in 1913.
However, for the middle part of the 20th century, agriculturalists, economists and geographers did not consider Africa to be famine prone (they were much more concerned about Asia). 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. The Republic of Rwanda (ruːˈændə or /rəˈwɑːndə/ in English ɾwanda or in Kinyarwanda is a small Landlocked country in the The Republic of Malawi (məˈlɑːwi or; formerly Nyasaland) is in southern Africa. The specter of famine recurred only in the early 1970s, when Ethiopia and the west African Sahel suffered drought and famine. NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page See also Sahel Tunisia, a region of eastern Tunisia. The Sahel or Sahel Belt (from Arabic ساحل sāḥil 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. Haile Selassie I ( Ge'ez: am ኃይለ፡ ሥላሴ "Power of the Trinity " 23 July 1892 &ndash 27 August 1975 born Tafari Makonnen, was 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.
Since then, African famines have become more frequent, more widespread and more severe. Many African countries are not self-sufficient in food production, relying on income from cash crops to import food. In Agriculture, a cash crop is a crop which is grown for Money. Agriculture in Africa is susceptible to climatic fluctuations, especially droughts which can reduce the amount of food produced locally. Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture Climate encompasses the temperatures humidity rainfall atmospheric particle count and numerous other meteorogical factors in a given region over long periods of A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply Other agricultural problems include soil infertility, land degradation and erosion, swarms of desert locusts, which can destroy whole crops, and livestock diseases. Soil fertility is the characteristic of soil that supports abundant plant life Land degradation are a concept in which the value of the Biophysical environment is affected by one or more combination of human-induced processes acting upon the land Erosion is the carrying away or displacement of solids ( Sediment, Soil, rock and other particles usually by the agents of currents such as wind Plagues of the Desert Locust ( Schistocerca gregaria) have threatened agricultural production in Africa, the Middle East and Asia 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 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. Gaafar Muhammad an-Nimeiry (otherwise known as Jaafar Nimeiry, Gaafar Nimeiry or Ga'far Muhammad an-Numayri; born 1 January 1930)
Numerous factors make the food security situation in Africa tenuous, including political instability, armed conflict and civil war, corruption and mismanagement in handling food supplies, and trade policies that harm African agriculture. Food security refers to the availability of food and one's access to it A civil war is a War between a State and domestic political actors that are in control of some part of the territory claimed by the state Political corruption is the use of governmental powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain An example of a famine created by human rights abuses is the 1998 Sudan famine. The Famine in Sudan in 1998 was a Humanitarian disaster caused mainly by Human rights abuses as well as Drought and the 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. [29] 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 UNU's Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa. Population growth is the change in Population over time and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals in a population using "per unit time" for The (UNU is an agency of the United Nations established in Tokyo in 1973 to "research into the pressing global problems of human survival development [30]
Recent examples include Ethiopia in 1973 and mid-1980s, Sudan in the late-1970s and again in 1990 and 1998. NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page Sudan (officially the Republic of Sudan) ( السودان al-Sūdān is a country in northeastern Africa. The 1980 famine in Karamoja, Uganda was, in terms of mortality rates, one of the worst in history. Karamoja sub-region is a region in northeastern Uganda comprising of the five districts of Abim, Kaabong, Kotido, Moroto and The Republic of Uganda is a Landlocked country in East Africa. 21% of the population died, including 60% of the infants. [2]
In October 1984, television reports around the world carried footage of starving Ethiopians whose plight was centered around a feeding station near the town of Korem. October events and holidays Children's Book Week ( England) - First Week of October National Day ( China People's Republic Year 1984 ( MCMLXXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1984 Gregorian calendar) NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page Korem (alternative forms include Quoram Vecchia, BBC newsreader Michael Buerk gave moving commentary of the tragedy on 23 October 1984, which he described as a "biblical famine". Michael Duncan Buerk (born February 18, 1946) is a BBC Journalist and newsreader, most famous for his reporting of the Ethiopian Events 4004 BC - Creation of the world begins according to the calculations of Archbishop James Ussher 42 BC - Year 1984 ( MCMLXXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1984 Gregorian calendar) This prompted the Band Aid single, which was organised by Bob Geldof and featured more than 20 other pop stars. Band Aid was a British and Irish charity supergroup, founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in order to raise money Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof, KBE, known as Bob Geldof (born 5 October 1951, is an Irish singer The Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia raised further funds for the cause. Live Aid was a multi-venue rock music concert held on. The event was organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə An estimated 900,000 people die within one year as a result of the famine, but the tens of millions of pounds raised by Band Aid and Live Aid are widely believed to have saved the lives of around 6,000,000 more Ethiopians who were in danger of death.
More than 20 years on, famine and other forms of poverty are still affecting Ethiopia, but all concerned have insisted that the problems would have been far worse had it not been for Geldof and his fundraising causes. NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page
Famine in Asia
China
Chinese scholars had kept count of 1,828 rampages by the famine since 108 B. C. to 1911 in one province or another — an average of close to one famine per year. [31] From 1333 to 1337 a terrible famine killed 6,000,000 Chinese. The four famines of 1810, 1811, 1846, and 1849 are said to have killed not less than 45,000,000 people. [32] The period from 1850 to 1873 saw, as a result of Taiping Rebellion, drought, and famine, the population of China drop by over 60 million people. The Taiping Rebellion or Rebellion of Great Peace was a large-scale Revolt against the authority and forces of the Qing Government in China [33] China's Qing Dynasty bureaucracy, which devoted extensive attention to minimizing famines, is credited with averting a series of famines following El Niño-Southern Oscillation-linked droughts and floods. Not to be confused with Qin Dynasty, the first dynasty of Imperial China Bureaucracy is the structure and set of regulations in place to control activity usually in large organizations and government El Niño-Southern Oscillation ( ENSO; commonly referred to as simply El Niño) is a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon These events are comparable, though somewhat smaller in scale, to the ecological trigger events of China's vast 19th century famines. (Pierre-Etienne Will, Bureaucracy and Famine) 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).
When a stressed monarchy shifted from state management and direct shipments of grain to monetary charity in the mid-nineteenth 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 vast catastrophe. The Tongzhi Restoration (c 1860 – 1874) was an attempt to arrest the dynastic decline of the Qing dynasty of China by restoring the traditional The province of Shanxi was substantially depopulated as grains ran out, and desperately starving people stripped forests, fields, and their very houses for food. ( Postal map spelling: Shansi) is a province in the northern part of the People's Republic of China. Estimated mortality is 9. 5 to 13 million people. (Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts)
Great Leap Forward
The largest famine of the 20th century, and almost certainly of all time, was the 1958–61 Great Leap Forward famine in China. Mike Davis (born 1946 is an American Social commentator, urban theorist historian and political activist Late Victorian Holocausts El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World is a Book by Mike Davis concerning the connection between global climate patterns The Great Leap Forward ( of the People's Republic of China (PRC was an economic and social plan used from 1958 to 1960 which aimed to use China 's vast population The Great Leap Forward ( of the People's Republic of China (PRC was an economic and social plan used from 1958 to 1960 which aimed to use China 's vast population The immediate causes of this famine lay in Chairman Mao Zedong's ill-fated attempt to transform China from an agricultural nation, 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. Mao Zedong ( 26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976) was a Chinese Military and political leader who led Collectivization 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 (see Chang, G, and Wen, G (1997), "Communal dining and the Chinese Famine 1958-1961" ). Such was the centralized control of information and the intense pressure on party cadres to report only good news—such as production quotas 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 1958–61 famine is estimated to have caused excess mortality of about 30 million, with a further 30 million cancelled or delayed births. It was only when the famine had wrought its worst that Mao reversed the agricultural collectivization policies, which were effectively dismantled in 1978. China has not experienced a major famine since 1961 (Woo-Cummings, 2002).
India
Owing to its almost entire dependence upon the monsoon rains, India is more liable than any other country in the world to crop failures, which upon occasion deepen into famine. Owing to its almost entire dependence upon the Monsoon rains India is more liable A monsoon is a seasonal prevailing wind which lasts for several months India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country [34] There were 14 famines in India between 11th and 17th century (Bhatia, 1985). This article is about the history of South Asia prior to the Partition of British India in 1947 For example, during the 1022-1033 Great famines in India entire provinces were depopulated. Famine in Deccan killed at least 2 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. For usage see British rule in India British Raj ( rāj, lit "reign" in Hindustani) primarily refers to the British 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. Tamil Nadu ( Tamil:, Country of the Tamils, t̪ɐmɨɻ n̪aːɽɯ is one of the 28 states of India. Bihar ( Hindi:बिहार Urdu: بہار bɪhaːr) is a state in eastern India. Etymology and ethnology The exact origin of the word Bangla or Bengal is unknown though it is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang
Romesh Dutt argued as early as 1900, and present-day scholars such as Amartya Sen agree, that the 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 unsuccessful British expeditions in Afghanistan (see The Second Anglo-Afghan War), inflationary measures that increased the price of food, and substantial exports of staple crops from India to Britain. Romesh Chunder Dutt, CIE ( Calcutta August 13 1848 — Baroda November 30 1909 or R Amartya Kumar Sen CH (Hon (অমর্ত্য কুমার সেন Ômorto Kumar Shen) (born 3 November 1933) is an Indian Afghanistan /æfˈgænɪstæn/ officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan ( Pashto: د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت, The European influence in Afghanistan refers to political social and sometimes Imperialistic influence various European nations have had on this historical development of the (Dutt, 1900 and 1902; Srivastava, 1968; Sen, 1982; Bhatia, 1985. ) Some British citizens, such as William Digby, agitated for policy reforms and famine relief, but Lord Lytton, the governing British viceroy in India, opposed such changes in the belief that they would stimulate shirking by Indian workers. William Digby (birth - death 1918 was a British Author and Humanitarian. 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. The Bengal famine of 1770 (Bengali ৭৬-এর মন্বন্তর Chhiattōrer monnōntór; lit The Famine of '76) was a catastrophic Famine between The famines continued until independence in 1947, with the Bengal Famine of 1943–44— even though there were no crop failures —killing 1. The Bengal famine of 1943 is one amongst the several Famines that occurred in British administered Bengal. 5 million to 3 million Bengalis during World War II. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including
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 Burma, had a surplus of foodgrains, and the annual surplus was 5. Burma, officially the Union of Myanmar ( pjìdàunzṵ mjàmmà nàinŋàndɔ̀ is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia. 16 million tons (Bhatia, 1970). At that time, annual export of rice and other grains from India was approximately one million tons.
In 1966, there was a close call in Bihar, when the United States allocated 900,000 tons of grain to fight the famine. Bihar ( Hindi:बिहार Urdu: بہار bɪhaːr) is a state in eastern India. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the
North Korea
Famine struck North Korea in the mid-1990s, set off by unprecedented floods. This autarkic urban, industrial society had achieved food self-sufficiency in prior decades through a massive industrialization of agriculture. An autarky is an economy that is self-sufficient and does not take part in International trade, or severely limits trade with the outside world However, the economic system relied on massive concessionary inputs of fossil fuels, primarily from the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES 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 1996–99. An estimated 600,000 died of starvation (other estimates range from 200,000 to 3. 5 million). [35] North Korea has not yet resumed its food self-sufficiency and relies on external food aid from China, Japan, South Korea and the United States. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often referred to as Korea ( Korean: 대한민국 tɛː The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Recently, North Korea requested that food supplies no longer be delivered. (Woo-Cummings, 2002)
Vietnam
Various famines have occurred in Vietnam. Japanese occupation during World War II caused the Vietnamese Famine of 1945, which caused 2 million deaths. The Empire of Japan ( {{unicode|Kyūjitai}}: ja 大日本帝國 Shinjitai: ja 大日本帝国 pronounced Dai Nippon Teikoku World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The Vietnamese Famine of 1945 ( Vietnamese: Nạn đói Ất Dậu - Famine of the Ất Dậu Year) was a Famine that occurred in northern Following the unification of the country after the Vietnam War, Vietnam briefly experienced a food shortage in the 1980s, which prompted many people to flee the country. The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
Famine in Europe
Western Europe
The Great Famine of 1315–1317 (or to 1322) was the first crisis that would strike Europe in the 14th century, millions in northern Europe would die over an extended number of years, marking a clear end to the earlier period of growth and prosperity during the 11th and 12th centuries. The Great Famine of 1315–1317 (occasionally dated 1315-1322 was the first of a series of large scale crises that struck Europe early in the 14th century, causing Starting with bad weather in the spring of 1315, universal crop failures lasted until the summer of 1317, from which Europe did not fully recover until 1322. 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.
The 17th century was a period of change for the food producers of Europe. As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 17th Century was that Century which lasted from 1601 - 1700 in the Gregorian calendar For centuries they had lived primarily as subsistence farmers in a feudal system. Feudalism, a term first used in the early modern period (17th century in its most classic sense refers to a Medieval Europe Political system composed They had obligations to their lords, who had suzerainty over the land tilled by their peasants. The lord of a fief would take a portion of the crops and livestock produced during the year. Peasants generally tried to minimize the amount of work they had to put into agricultural food production. A peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists by working a small plot of ground Their lords rarely pressured them to increase their food output, except when the population started to increase, at which time the peasants were likely to increase the production themselves. More land would be added to cultivation until there was no more available and the peasants were forced to take up more labour-intensive methods of production. Nonetheless, they generally tried to work as little as possible, valuing their time to do other things, such as hunting, fishing or relaxing, as long as they had enough food to feed their families. For the computer security term see Phishing. Fishing is the activity of catching Fish. Leisure or free time, is a period of Time spent out of work and essential domestic Activity. It was not in their interest to produce more than they could eat or store themselves.
During the 17th century, continuing the trend of previous centuries, there was an increase in market-driven agriculture. Sao Paulo Stock Exchangejpg|thumb| Virtual market arena where buyer and seller are not present and trade via intemediates and electronical information Farmers, people who rented land in order to make a profit off of the product of the land, employing wage labour, became increasingly common, particularly in western Europe. A farmer is a person who raises living organisms for food or raw materials Wage labour is the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer in which the worker sells their labour under a Contract ( Employment Western Europe at its most general meaning means 'all the countries in the West of Europe ' It was in their interest to produce as much as possible on their land in order to sell it to areas that demanded that product. They produced guaranteed surpluses of their crop every year if they could. Farmers paid their labourers in money, increasing the commercialization of rural society. Money is anything that is generally accepted as Payment for Goods and services and repayment of Debts. Rural areas can be large and isolated (also referred to as "the country" and/or "the countryside over the course of time This commercialization had a profound impact on the behaviour of peasants. Commercialization is the process of introducing a new product into the market Farmers were interested in increasing labour input into their lands, not decreasing it as subsistence peasants were.
Subsistence peasants were also increasingly forced to commercialize their activities because of increasing taxes. Taxes that had to be paid to central governments in money forced the peasants to produce crops to sell. Sometimes they produced industrial crops, but they would find ways to increase their production in order to meet both their subsistence requirements as well as their tax obligations. An industrial crop is a crop grown to produce goods not Food. 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 sixteenth century, but were spurred on more directly by the adverse conditions for food production that Europe found itself in the early seventeenth century — there was a general cooling trend in the Earth's temperature starting at the beginning end of the sixteenth century.
The 1590s saw the worst famines in centuries across all of Europe, except in certain areas, notably the Netherlands. 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). Subsistence peasant populations will almost always increase when possible since the peasants will try to spread the work to as many hands as possible. 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.
Famine is a very destabilizing and devastating occurrence. The prospect of starvation led people to take desperate measures. Starvation (also called inanition) is a severe reduction in Vitamin, Nutrient, and Energy intake and is the most extreme form of When scarcity of food became apparent to peasants, they would sacrifice long-term prosperity for short-term survival. They would kill their draught animals, leading to lowered production in subsequent years. A working animal is an animal that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks They would eat their seed corn, sacrificing next year's crop in the hope that more seed could be found. A seed (in some plants referred to as a kernel) is a small embryonic Plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat usually with some stored 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. In the sociological field, crime is the breach of a rule or Law for which some governing authority or force may ultimately prescribe a Punishment Many peasants resorted to banditry in order to acquire enough to eat. This is about the television program Bandit as a general term refers to Outlaw.
One famine would often lead to difficulties in 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. God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. 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.
The great famine of the 1590s began the 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. Actual famine did not occur, for the Amsterdam grain trade [with the Baltic] guaranteed that there would always be something to eat in the Netherlands although hunger was prevalent. Amsterdam (pronounced) is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west Baltic Seven Islandsgif|right|thumb|330px|A contemporary transnational Euroregion encompasses the islands of the Baltic countries
The Netherlands had the most commercialized agriculture in all of Europe at this time, growing many industrial crops, such as flax, hemp, and hops. Flax (also known as common flax or linseed) (binomial name Linum usitatissimum) is a member of the genus Linum This article is about the cultivation and uses of industrial hemp not its psychoactive cousin Cannabis (drug. Hops are the female Flower cones of the hop plant ( Humulus lupulus) Agriculture became increasingly specialized and efficient. As a result, productivity and wealth increased, allowing the Netherlands to maintain a steady food supply. By the 1620s, the economy was even more developed, so the country was able to avoid the hardships of that period of famine with even greater impunity.
The years around 1620 saw another period of famines 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 a third of the population. [3]PDF (589 KiB)
The period of 1740–43 saw frigid winters and summer droughts which led to famine across Europe leading to a major spike in mortality. A kibibyte (a contraction of ki lo bi nary byte) is a unit of Information or Computer storage, established by the International (cited in Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts, 281)
Other areas of Europe have known famines much more recently. France saw famines as recently as the nineteenth century. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Famine still occurred in eastern Europe during the 20th century. The twentieth century of the Common Era began on
The frequency of famine can vary with climate changes. For example, during the little ice age of the 15th century to the 18th century, European famines grew more frequent than they had been during previous centuries. The Little Ice Age (LIA was a period of cooling occurring after a warmer era known as the Medieval Warm Period or Medieval Climate Optimum The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini / Common Era numbering system
Because of the frequency of famine in many societies, it has long been a chief concern of governments and other authorities. In pre-industrial Europe, preventing famine, and ensuring timely food supplies, was one of the chief concerns of many governments, which employed various tools to alleviate famines, including price controls, purchasing stockpiles of food from other areas, rationing, and regulation of production. Rationing is the controlled distribution of resources and scarce goods or services Most governments were concerned by famine because it could lead to revolt and other forms of social disruption. Rebellion is a refusal of obedienceIt may therefore be seen as encompassing a range of Behaviours from Civil disobedience and mass Nonviolent resistance
In contrast, the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1849, was in no small part the result of policies of the Whig government of the United Kingdom under Lord Russell. The Whigs (with the Tories) are often described as one of two political parties in England and later the United Kingdom from the late 17th to The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927 John Russell 1st Earl Russell, KG, GCMG, PC (18 August 1792 &ndash 28 May 1878 known as Lord John Russell before 1861 was an English Unlike in Britain, the land in Ireland was owned mostly by Anglican people of English descent, who did not identify culturally or ethnically with the Irish population. See also Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain (Breatainn Mhòr Prydain Fawr Breten Veur Graet Breetain is the larger of the two main islands Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world Anglicanism is a tradition of Christian faith Churches in this tradition either have historical connections to the Church of England or have similar beliefs The landlords were known as the Anglo-Irish. " Anglo-Irish " was a term used historically to describe a privileged Social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the As the landowners felt no compunction to use their political clout to aid their tenants, the British government's expedient response to the food crisis in Ireland was to leave the matter solely to market forces to decide. Her Majesty's Government, or when the monarch is male His Majesty's Government, is the title used by the Government of the United Kingdom, based at A strict free-market approach, aided by the British army guarding ports and food depots from the starving crowds, ensured food exports continued as before, and even increased during the famine period. A free market is a Market in which property rights are voluntarily exchanged at a price arranged completely by the mutual consent of sellers and buyers The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. The immediate effect was 1,000,000 dead and another 1,000,000 refugees fleeing to Britain and the United States. According to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race The United States of America —commonly referred to as the After the famine passed, infertility caused by famine, diseases and immigration spurred by the landlord-run economy being so thoroughly undermined, caused the population to enter into a 100-year decline. An infectious disease is a clinically evident Disease resulting from the presence of Pathogenic microbial agents including Pathogenic viruses Pathogenic Immigration refers to the movement of people among countries While the movement of people has existed throughout human history at various levels modern immigration implies long-term The Protestant Ascendancy is a convenient phrase used when referring to the political economic and social domination of the former Kingdom of Ireland by a minority of great It was not until the 1970's that the population of Ireland, then at half of what it had been before the famine, began to rise again. This period of Irish population decline after the famine was at a time when the European population doubled and the English population increased fourfold. This left the country severely underpopulated. The population decline continued in parts of the country worst affected by the famine until the 1990s - 150 years after the famine and the British government's laissez-faire economic policy. Her Majesty's Government, or when the monarch is male His Majesty's Government, is the title used by the Government of the United Kingdom, based at Laissez-faire ( pronunciation: French,; English,) is a French phrase literally meaning Let do (“allow to do” Before the Hunger, Ireland's population was over half of England's. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Today it is an eighth. The population of Ireland is 6 million but there are over 80 million more people of Irish descent outside of Ireland. That is 20 more times the population of Ireland.
Famine returned to the Netherlands during World War II in what was known as the Hongerwinter. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The Dutch famine of 1944 (known as hongerwinter ("Hunger winter" in Dutch was a Famine that took place in the Netherlands during the winter It was the last famine of Europe, in which approximately 30,000 people died of starvation. Some other areas of Europe also experienced famine at the same time.
Italy
The harvest failures were devastating for the northern Italian economy. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest The economy of the area had recovered well from the previous famines, but the famines from 1618 to 1621 coincided because of a period of war in the area. The economy did not recover fully for centuries. There were serious famines in the late-1640s and less severe ones in the 1670s throughout northern Italy.
England
From 1536 England began legislating Poor Laws which put a legal responsibility on the rich, at a parish level, to maintain the poor of that parish. This article deals chiefly with the English Poor Laws covering England and Wales English agriculture lagged behind the Netherlands, but by 1650 their agricultural industry was commercialized on a wide scale. The last peace-time famine in England was in 1623–24. There were still periods of hunger, as in the Netherlands, but there were no more famines as such. Rising population levels continued to put a strain on food security, despite potatoes becoming increasingly important in the diet of the poor. On balance, potatoes increased food security in England where they never replaced bread as the staple of the poor. Climate conditions were never likely to simultaneously be catastrophic for both the wheat and potato crops.
Iceland
In 1783 the volcano Laki in south-central Iceland erupted. Plate tectonics and hotspots Divergent plate boundaries At the Laki or Lakagígar ( Craters of Laki) is a volcanic fissure situated in the south of Iceland, not far from the canyon of Eldgjá and Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland ( ( Ísland or Lýðveldið Ísland ( The lava caused little direct damage, but ash and sulfur 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, 152-153]
Russia and the USSR
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. The Russian Empire ( Pre-reform Russian: Pоссійская Имперія Modern Russian: Российская Империя translit: Rossiyskaya Famines continued in the Soviet era, the most notorious being the Holodomor in Ukraine (1932–1933). The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 The Holodomor (Голодомор is the famine that took place in Soviet Ukraine during the 1932-1933 agricultural season Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. The last major famine in the USSR happened in 1947 due to the severe drought. A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply
See also
- List of famines
- List of natural disasters
- Port Famine
- Atmit a porridge used to fight famine
- Drought and trasvasements. This is an incomplete list of major Famines ordered by date A complete list will almost certainly never become available For man-made disasters see List of wars and disasters by death toll A death toll is the number of dead as a result of War, Violence, Puerto Hambre, also known as Puerto del Hambre and at one time as Port Famine, is a historic settlement site at Buena Bay on the west side of the Strait Atmit is a Nutritional supplement used to fight Famine in impoverished countries A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply An aqueduct is an artificial channel that is constructed to convey water from one location to another
- Dutch famine of 1944
- Economics
- Famine relief
- Famines in Ethiopia
- Food security
- Climate change and agriculture
- Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
- Great Leap Forward
- Holodomor (Ukrainian Famine)
- Hunger
- Disaster
- Great Irish Famine
- Malthusian catastrophe
- Starvation
- Year Without a Summer
- Overpopulation
- Medieval demography
- Life expectancy
- Agriculture and population limits
- Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth
- FreeRice
- Food price crisis
References
- ^ Poor studies will always be with us
- ^ The facts on malnutrition & famine
- ^ Rising food prices curb aid to global poor
- ^ The limits of a Green Revolution?
- ^ Global food crisis looms as climate change and population growth strip fertile land
- ^ Africa may be able to feed only 25% of its population by 2025
- ^ 2008: The year of global food crisis
- ^ The global grain bubble
- ^ The cost of food: Facts and figures
- ^ New York Times (2007 September) At Tyson and Kraft, Grain Costs Limit Profit
- ^ Riots and hunger feared as demand for grain sends food costs soaring
- ^ Already we have riots, hoarding, panic: the sign of things to come?
- ^ Feed the world? We are fighting a losing battle, UN admits
- ^ Millions face famine as crop disease rages
- ^ "Billions at risk from wheat super-blight" (2007-04-03). The Dutch famine of 1944 (known as hongerwinter ("Hunger winter" in Dutch was a Famine that took place in the Netherlands during the winter Economics is the social science that studies the production distribution, and consumption of goods and services. A Famine is a phenomenon in which a large percentage of the population of a region or country are so undernourished that death by Starvation becomes increasingly common Traditionally the Economy of Ethiopia was based on Subsistence agriculture, with an Aristocracy that consumed the surplus Food security refers to the availability of food and one's access to it Climate change and Agriculture are interrelated processes both of which take place on a global scale The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are the forces of man's destruction described in the Christian Bible in chapter six of the Book of Revelation. The Great Leap Forward ( of the People's Republic of China (PRC was an economic and social plan used from 1958 to 1960 which aimed to use China 's vast population The Holodomor (Голодомор is the famine that took place in Soviet Ukraine during the 1932-1933 agricultural season Hunger is a feeling experienced usually followed by a desire to Eat. A disaster is the impact of a natural or human-made hazard that negatively affects society or environment. A Malthusian catastrophe (or Malthusian check, crisis, dilemma, disaster, trap, controls, or limit) is a return Starvation (also called inanition) is a severe reduction in Vitamin, Nutrient, and Energy intake and is the most extreme form of The Year Without a Summer, also known as the Poverty Year, The Year There Was No Summer or Eighteen hundred and froze to death Overpopulation refers to a condition where an Organism 's numbers exceed the Carrying capacity of its Habitat. Medieval Demography is the study of human Demography in Europe during the Middle Ages. Life expectancy is the average number of years of life remaining at a given age This is about the future of civilization humans and the earth FreeRice is a charity website where users play a various educational multiple-choice games in order to raise money to fight world hunger. The years 2007–2008 saw dramatic rises in world food prices creating a global crisis and causing political and economical instability and social unrest in New Scientist Magazine (issue 2598).
- ^ Eating Fossil Fuels | EnergyBulletin.net
- ^ Peak Oil: the threat to our food security
- ^ Agriculture Meets Peak Oil
- ^ Asia Times Online :: South Asia news - India grows a grain crisis
- ^ The Food Bubble Economy
- ^ Global Water Shortages May Lead to Food Shortages-Aquifer Depletion
- ^ Vanishing Himalayan Glaciers Threaten a Billion
- ^ Big melt threatens millions, says UN
- ^ Glaciers melting at alarming speed
- ^ Ganges, Indus may not survive: climatologists
- ^ Himalaya glaciers melt unnoticed
- ^ Len Milich: Anthropogenic Desertification vs ‘Natural’ Climate Trends
- ^ El Niño and Drought Early Warning in Ethiopia
- ^ See, for example, Andrey Korotayev and Daria Khaltourina Secular Cycles and Millennial Trends in Africa. Andrey Korotayev (born in 1961 is an anthropologist, economic Historian, and sociologist. Moscow: Russia, 2006. ISBN 5484005604
- ^ Africa may be able to feed only 25% of its population by 2025
- ^ China: Land of Famine
- ^ Fearfull Famines of the Past
- ^ Ch'ing China: The Taiping Rebellion
- ^ Famine - Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911
- ^ LRB · Bruce Cumings: We look at it and see ourselves
Sources & further reading
- Asimov, Isaac, Asimov's New Guide to Science, pp. 152-153, Basic Books, Inc. : 1984.
- Bhatia, B. M. (1985) Famines in India: A study in Some Aspects of the Economic History of India with Special Reference to Food Problem, Delhi: Konark Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
- Davis, Mike, Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World, London, Verso, 2002 (Excerpt online. )
- Dutt, Romesh C. Open Letters to Lord Curzon on Famines and Land Assessments in India, first published 1900, 2005 edition by Adamant Media Corporation, Elibron Classics Series, ISBN 1-4021-5115-2.
- Dutt, Romesh C. The Economic History of India under early British Rule, first published 1902, 2001 edition by Routledge, ISBN 0-415-24493-5
- Genady Golubev and Nikolai Dronin, Geography of Droughts and Food Problems in Russia (1900-2000), Report of the International Project on Global Environmental Change and Its Threat to Food and Water Security in Russia (February, 2004). Routledge is a publisher of non-fiction academic books and journals
- Greenough, Paul R. , Prosperity and Misery in Modern Bengal. The Famine of 1943-1944, Oxford University Press 1982
- 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. The term Paleolithic (or Palaeolithic) (from Greek παλαιός palaios, " Old " and λίθος Lithos, "stone" ISBN 0312310897
- Mead, Margaret. “The Changing Significance of Food. ” American Scientist. (March-April 1970). pp. 176-189.
- Sen, Amartya, Poverty and Famines : An Essay on Entitlements and Deprivation, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1982 via Questiavia Oxford Press
- Srivastava, H. Amartya Kumar Sen CH (Hon (অমর্ত্য কুমার সেন Ômorto Kumar Shen) (born 3 November 1933) is an Indian C. , The History of Indian Famines from 1858-1918, Sri Ram Mehra and Co. , Agra, 1968.
- Sommerville, Keith. Why famine stalks Africa, BBC, 2001
- Woo-Cumings, Meredith, The Political Ecology of Famine: The North Korean Catastrophe and Its LessonsPDF (807 KiB), ADB Institute Research Paper 31, January 2002. A kibibyte (a contraction of ki lo bi nary byte) is a unit of Information or Computer storage, established by the International
External links
- Famine Early Warning System monitors agricultural production and other warning signs worldwide
- United Nations World Food ProgrammeHunger relief against poverty and famine
- International Food Policy Research Institute Sustainable solutions for ending hunger
- In Depth: Africa's Food Crisis, BBC News
- Fighting Hunger and poverty in EthiopiaPDF (1. 48 MiB) (Peter Middlebrook)
- Overfarming African Land Is Worsening Hunger Crisis - New York Times
- The blog about the upcoming food shortage crisis
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