A
famineA famine is a widespread scarcity of food that may apply to any faunal species, which phenomenon is usually accompanied by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality...
is a phenomenon in which a large percentage of the population of a region or country are so undernourished that death by
starvationStarvation is a severe reduction in vitamin, nutrient, and energy intake. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage, and eventually death...
becomes increasingly common.
In spite of the much greater technological and economic resources of the modern world, famine still strikes many parts of the world, mostly in the developing nations.
Famine is associated with naturally-occurring
cropAgriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
failure and
pestilenceA pestilence is any virulent and highly infectious disease that can cause an epidemic or even a pandemic. The word can also be used about parasites causing large scale sickness and death, such as Guinea worm...
and artificially with
warWar is a reciprocated, armed conflict, between two or more non-congruous entities, aimed at reorganising a subjectively designed, geo-politically desired result...
and
genocideGenocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.While precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of...
. In the past few decades, a more nuanced view focused on the economic and political circumstances leading to modern famine has emerged. Modern relief agencies categorize various gradations of famine according to a famine scale.
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
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
, which saw its last peacetime famines in the early-17th century as it became a major economic power and established a complex political organization. A prominent economist on the subject, Nobel laureate
Amartya SenAmartya Kumar Sen CH , is an Indian Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics-winning economist, and Thomas W. Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University. He is also a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge...
, has noted that no functioning
democracyDemocracy is a system of government in which either the actual governing is carried out by the people governed , or the power to do so is granted by them...
has ever suffered a famine, although he admits that malnutrition can occur in a democracy and he does not consider mid 19th century Ireland to be a functioning democracy.
The bulk of the world’s food aid is given to people in areas where poverty is endemic; or to people who has suffered due to a natural disaster other than famine (such as the Asian Tsunami victims), or have lost their crops due to conflicts (such as in the Darfur region of the Sudan). Only a small amount of food aid goes to people who are suffering as a direct consequence of famine.
Famine response methods
In his book on famine,
Fred CunyFrederick C. Cuny was an American disaster relief specialist who was active in many humanitarian projects around the world from 1969 until his forced disappearance in Chechnya in 1995.-Life and career:...
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." He goes on to say that "evidence suggests the massive food shipments sent to Somalia in 1992 had little impact on the outcome of the famine . . . and that by the time it arrived in sufficient, steady quantities in the rural areas, the death rate had peaked and was already declining."" - Andrew S. Natsios (Administrator U.S. Agency for International Development)
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. In a major endorsement of the approach, the UN's World Food Program, the biggest non-governmental distributor of food, announced that it will begin distributing cash and vouchers instead of food in some areas. Josette Sheeran, the WFP's executive director, described the plan as a "revolution" in food aid.
However, for people in a
droughtA drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...
living a long way from and with limited access to markets, delivering sacks of grain and tins of
oilAn oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and is hydrophobic but soluble in organic solvents. Oils have a high carbon and hydrogen content and are nonpolar substances. The general definition above includes compound classes with otherwise unrelated chemical structures,...
may be the most appropriate way to help. 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. Usually, merchants begin hoarding food as a crisis develops — in conflicts, to keep it from being stolen, in famines, to get higher prices. 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." from memorandum to former Representative Steve Solarz (United States, Democrat Party, New York) - July 1994. The
IrishIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
aid agency
ConcernConcern , is a charitable organisation focused on providing emergency humanitarian aid and development aid to combat extreme poverty primarily in developing countries....
is piloting a method through a
mobile phoneA mobile phone or mobile is a long-range, electronic device used for mobile telecommunications...
operator, Safaricom, which runs a money transfer program that allows cash to be sent from one part of the country to another. Concern donated more than $30,000 for distribution via cellphone to some of
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
's poorest people so that they can buy local food.
In the past four years,
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
has been pioneering a program that has now become part of the World Bank's prescribed recipe for coping with a food crisis and, as a result, it 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. In addition, 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. Since then, the percentage of Ethiopians living in
povertyPoverty is the condition of lacking basic human needs such as nutrition, clean water, health care, clothing, and shelter because of the inability to afford them. This is also referred to as absolute poverty or destitution...
dropped to 39 percent in 2006 from 44 percent in 2001, according to the
World BankThe World Bank is an international financial institution that provides leveraged loans to poorer countries for capital programs, tied to neoliberal market restructurings...
.
Temporary therapeutic foods
MalnutritionMalnutrition is the insufficient, excessive or imbalanced consumption of nutrients.A number of different nutrition disorders may arise, depending on which nutrients are under or overabundant in the diet....
is a medical condition, not just a lack of food. The bodies of severely malnourished children are unable to process regular food. Instead of being fed food such as
riceRice is the seed of a monocot plant Oryza sativa, of the grass family . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East, South, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the West Indies...
or
porridgePorridge is a dish made by boiling oats or sometimes another cereal in water, milk, or both. It is usually served in a bowl or dish....
, children are fed what are known as therapeutic foods for up to one month, or until their bodies are able to process traditional foods. There are three main types of therapeutic foods in use; these consist of powdered milk formulas named F-75 and F-100 and a ready-to-eat peanut paste named
Plumpy'nutPlumpy'nut is a peanut-based food for use in famine relief which was formulated in 1999 by André Briend, a French scientist.-Overview:The Plumpy'nut product is a high protein and high energy peanut-based paste in a foil wrapper. It tastes slightly sweeter than peanut butter...
.
F-75 and F-100 (food)F-100 and F-75 are therapeutic milk products designed to treat severe malnutrition. In 1994 Action Against Hunger / Action Contre la Faim pioneered the use of milk formula F-100 for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition...
are formulated specifically for the severely malnourished and is to be used only under supervision. Plumpy’nut can be used at home without supervision.
- F-75 (phase 1 therapeutic milk) is a milk based powder mixed with water that is given to severely malnourished children when they first arrive for treatment. It is normally given for one to three days, in case of kwashiorkor
Kwashiorkor is a virulent form of childhood malnutrition characterized by edema, irritability, anorexia, ulcerating dermatoses, and an enlarged liver with fatty infiltrates. The presence of edema caused by poor nutrition defines kwashiorkor...
it can be given for a maximum of seven days. It is not intended to cause the child to gain weight, but only to condition the body to digest food.
- F-100 (phase 2 therapeutic milk) is a milk based powder mixed with water. It contains more protein and calories than F-75 and is designed for rapid weight gain, so that the body can rebuild and be able to handle normal foods.
- Plumpy'nut: a ready-to-eat mixture of peanut paste, sugar, fats, minerals, and vitamins. This is the newest of the three, and is generally used as an alternative to using F-100.
- When the bodies are able to digest more, products containing more protein can be used to increase muscle buildup. Vegetable Protein Foods such as Textured vegetable protein
Textured or texturized vegetable protein , also known as textured soy protein , soy meat, or soya meat is a meat analogue or meat substitute made from defatted soy flour, a by-product of making soybean oil...
have been advocated as besides having high amounts of protein, also feature a long storage life and is quite cheap. Also, just as tofuor called toufu, bean curd is a soft white food made by coagulating soy milk, and then pressing the resulting curds into blocks. It is of Chinese origin, and part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and others. There are many different varieties...
, ... vegetable protein can be made quite sustainably (unlike true meat), another important feature in areas such as Darfur (which has been made unarable just because of holding cattle).
Plumpy’nut has two main advantages over F-100: it comes in a ready-to-eat packet that requires no water or mixing; and it puts mothers in charge of feeding their own malnourished children in their own communities, rather than forcing them to always bring their malnourished children to hospitals or therapeutic feeding centers for assistance.
"Nutritionists for the first time can take treatment beyond crowded emergency feeding centers and hospitals settings, where disease can spread rapidly, and into communities where malnourished children live," - Wall Street Journal - referring to Plumpy’nut
Celebrity famine relief
On August 1 1971 Ex-
BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music...
member
George HarrisonGeorge Harrison MBE was an English rock guitarist, singer-songwriter and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist in The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian mysticism, and helped broaden the horizons of the other Beatles, as well as...
enlisted the aid of fellow
musicianA musician is a person who performs or writes music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music:* An instrumentalist plays a musical instrument.* A singer uses his or her voice as an instrument....
s Ravi Shankar,
Bob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet and painter who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was, at first, an informal chronicler and then an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest...
and many more in a
concertA concert is a live performance, usually of music, before an audience. The music may be performed by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band. Informal names for a concert include "show" and "gig"...
at
Madison Square GardenMadison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, has been the name of four arenas in New York City. It is also the name of the entity which owns the arena and several of the professional sports franchises which play there. There have been four incarnations of...
to raise money for
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
famine relief. Known as "
The Concert for BangladeshThe Concert For Bangladesh was the event title for two benefit concerts organized by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, held at noon and at 7:00 p.m. on August 1 1971, playing to a total of 40,000 people at Madison Square Garden in New York City...
", it was attended by more than 40,000 people.
In 1984
IrishIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
musician
Bob GeldofRobert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band Boomtown Rats. Geldof was born and raised in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland, and attended Blackrock College...
and
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
Ultravox member
Midge UreMidge Ure OBE is a guitarist, singer, keyboard player, and songwriter. He enjoyed particular success in the 1970s and 1980s in bands including Slik, Thin Lizzy, The Rich Kids, Visage, and most notably as frontman of Ultravox...
organised a charity fundraiser record for the starving of
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
. Under the name of
Band AidFor the bandage company, see Band-Aid.Band Aid was a British and Irish charity supergroup, founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia by releasing the record "Do They Know It's Christmas?" for the Christmas market that year. The single surpassed the...
, they collected together most of the singers then making the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
pop charts and got them singing together on a charity single called "
Do They Know It's Christmas?"Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a song written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in 1984 to raise money for relief of 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The original version was produced by Midge Ure, and released by Band Aid on 29 November 1984....
" The pair followed up with re-recordings of the song, with different groups of musicians, in 1989 and 2004
The following year, 1985, Geldof and Ure followed up their success with a large-scale concert:
Live AidLive 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. Billed as the 'global jukebox', the event was held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium, London and JFK Stadium, Philadelphia...
. This led to other fundraising famine relief projects such as
Sport AidSport Aid was a charitable event held on May 25 1986, raising millions of pounds to support famine relief in Africa, and is the sporting event with the most participants in history....
and Comic Relief.
The success of this single was followed by several other 1985 celebrity ensemble songs benefiting famine relief, including American group
USA for AfricaUSA for Africa was the name under which forty-seven predominantly U.S. artists, led by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, recorded the hit single "We Are the World" in 1985. The song was a US and UK Number One for the collective in April of that year...
("
We Are the World"We Are the World" is a song and charity single recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and co-produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian for the album We Are the World...
"), the Canadian
Northern LightsNorthern Lights was the name of a grand ensemble of Canadian artists who recorded the song "Tears Are Not Enough" for the African famine relief effort in 1985....
("
Tears Are Not Enough"Tears Are Not Enough" is a 1985 charity single recorded by a supergroup of Canadian artists, under the name Northern Lights, to raise funds for relief of the 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia...
"), and the heavy metal group
Hear 'n AidHear 'n Aid was a joint effort from the heavy metal scene of the 1980s to raise money for famine relief in Africa. Within a year, the project had raised $1 million.- Background :...
("Stars").
Modern relief
Today, the
Peace CorpsThe Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a governmental agency of the same name. Each program participant, or Peace Corps Volunteer, is an American citizen who commits to working abroad in an assignment for the organization for a period of...
, religious groups, and charities feed hungry people all over the world, especially in countries hardest hit by famine. In addition to giving them food, they teach the hungry to grow their own food crops, so that they can feed themselves. In some environments (such as the desert, rocky areas, or cold wastelands) farming is difficult to impossible. Such land is called un
arableIn geography, arable land is an agricultural term, meaning land that can be used for growing crops. It is distinct from cultivated land and includes jungles that are not currently used for human purposes. Arable land covers an area of approximately 12 million square miles...
. This is why famine repeats in those areas. New methods have been invented to grow food crops in these difficult areas. These new methods include:
nitrogenNitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N and atomic number 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78% by volume of Earth's atmosphere.Many industrially important...
fertilizerFertilizers are chemical compounds applied to promote plant and fruit growth. Fertilizers are usually applied either through the soil or by foliar feeding...
, hybrid food crops, digging wells,
reverse osmosisReverse osmosis is similar to the membrane filtration treatment process. However there are key differences between reverse osmosis and filtration...
water processors to turn salty ocean water into fresh water,
greenhouseA greenhouse is a building where plants are cultivated.A greenhouse is a structure with a glass or plastic roof and frequently glass or plastic walls; it heats up because incoming solar radiation from the sun warms plants, soil, and other things inside the building faster than heat can escape the...
s, hydroponics, canal digging, dirt hill walls stacking for protection against wind and dust, mylar insulation, and
sustainable agricultureSustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities. These goals have been defined by a variety of disciplines and may be looked at from the vantage point of the farmer or the consumer.-Description:Sustainable...
.
See also
- Famine, Affluence, and Morality
"Famine, Affluence, and Morality" is an essay written by Peter Singer in 1971 and published in Philosophy and Public Affairs in 1972. It argues that affluent persons are morally obligated to donate far more resources to humanitarian causes than is considered normal in Western cultures...
- Food security
Food security refers to the availability of food and one's access to it. A household is considered food secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. According to the World Resources Institute, global per capita food production has been increasing substantially for the past...
- Food and Agriculture Organization
The is a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy...
- Plumpy'nut
Plumpy'nut is a peanut-based food for use in famine relief which was formulated in 1999 by André Briend, a French scientist.-Overview:The Plumpy'nut product is a high protein and high energy peanut-based paste in a foil wrapper. It tastes slightly sweeter than peanut butter...
External links