Nevertheless, famines continue, with several manifestations occurring already in the 21st century-the most recent and most severe of which was in Somalia in 2011.Ĭlassification of Famines and “Famine Thresholds” Since the 1970s, major emphases have been on the establishment of famine early warning systems, investment in strategic food reserves, and the growth of humanitarian agencies capable of quickly intervening to prevent or mitigate the impact of famines. Contemporary understandings of famine emphasize that while triggering factors can be “natural” or “human,” the actual emergence of famine represents a failure of public policy and collective action. More recent understandings of famine emphasize that heightened levels of malnutrition and mortality are the result of cumulative processes that can be predicted, and therefore prevented, through timely public action. Other characteristics of famine include destitution and distress migration in search of food or employment. These shocks can be droughts or other “natural disasters,” wars or violent conflict, or they can be other political or economic shocks that don’t necessarily involve militarized conflict. Famines have long been thought of simply as food shortages and as time-bound events, usually the direct result of some triggering factor or shock. Not all perceptions of famine-particularly of those directly affected by it-involve widespread mortality but rather the experience of hunger and destitution by large numbers of people. The use of the term is controversial, however, in part-at least until recently-because of the lack of a technical definition of famine but also because the term has the power to provoke political responses that similar terms such as “humanitarian emergency” or “food security crisis” do not. Famine is now generally described as an extreme crisis of access to adequate food, manifested in widespread malnutrition and loss of life due to starvation and infectious disease.
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