Famine Causes Debate

Being cruel to the point where the farmers that feed you are dying is also ineptitude.Similar story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943

Famines are almost universally caused by political failures rather than by actual food shortages. For example we have seen wars where the combatants routinely confiscated food from civilians and prevented delivery of relief supplies. Or misguided governments have imposed price controls which acted as a disincentive to increase production. If you don't have a free market then obviously shortages can persist a long time.

Please expand then on what the causes of the famine were.

Hunger, yes, famine, no. There's a huge difference in degree. I know it's popular these days to use extreme words trying to make a point, but it isn't acceptable in a serious discussion. Wikipedia did not say "famine".> I've given a brief explanation twice already.Sorry, it makes no sense. What makes food cheap is abundance, not scarcity. Do you really think that if the country was gripped by famine, that FDR would have gotten away with slaughtering

It doesn't take a huge drop in production to cause famine, either. The Wheat Stem Rust epidemics in the US caused famines at regular intervals before genetics made wheat resistant, and production was down under ten percent in some cases. It's about getting food where it needs to be, and it sounds like the English weren't helping.

I think this is more of an economic issue. Poor countries, or better stated their population, can't afford to pay for the food. Exact example would be during the Irish famine Ireland was still exporting food the GB as they were able to pay for it. Got the example from "Development as Freedom" [1][1] https://www.amazon.com/Development-as-Freedo

The Bengal Famine is a well-studied case where, AIUI, the current consensus is that imperial policies contributed significantly to the suffering and death toll:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943

Farmer here. Attacks on agriculture have historically lead to famines.

Almost every case famine during last few decades had to do with some kind of local conflict (e.g. local gangs interfering with delivery of food aid) as opposed to resource shortage. Developed countries produce much more food than they need and then consume it in a very inefficient way. Growing grain and using it to feed livestock as opposed to consuming grain directly is one such example. Earth could comfortably support much large population than we have now.

Food was weaponized a long time ago. Modern famines generally are not due to lack of resources or economic problems.