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Famine: Foods
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Depiction of victims of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1849 Famine is a very destabilizing and devastating occurrence. The prospect of starvation led people to take desperate measures. When scarcity of food became apparent to peasants, they would sacrifice long-term prosperity for short-term survival. They would kill their draught animals, leading to lowered production in subsequent years. They would eat their seed corn, sacrificing next year's crop in the hope that more seed could be found. Once those means had been exhausted, they would take to the road in search of food.
Famine ensued. On average, the peasants were left with a third less grain than they had between 1926 and 1930. The food shortages were most acute in the Soviet Union's richest grain-growing areas, including the Ukraine and Middle Volga. The Ukraine was particularly hard hit because Stalin initiated a campaign to crush Ukrainian nationalism and the rebellious Cossacks, who truthfully reported the existence of famine. In 1931, Stalin allowed relief grain to be delivered to all regions except the Ukraine.
An 1849 depiction of Bridget O'Donnell and her two children during the famine. In 1845, the onset of the Famine resulted in over 1,000,000 deaths. Ottoman Caliph Abdülmecid declared his intention to send 10,000 sterling to Irish farmers but Queen Victoria requested that the Caliph send only 1,000 sterling, because she had sent only 2,000 sterling. The Caliph sent the 1,000 sterling but ... secretly sent 3 ships full of food. The English courts tried to block the ships, but the food arrived in Drogheda harbor and was left there by Ottoman sailors. [85]
Famine is defined as a catastrophic food crisis that results in widespread acute malnutrition and mass mortality. It is a process, rather than an event, with a beginning, a middle, and an end.
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Famine is typically induced by a human population beyond the regional carrying capacity to provide food resources. 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 driving the creation of famine, an understanding of the complex reasons for mortality in famines, an appreciation of the extent to which famine-vulnerable communities have well-developed strategies for coping with the threat of famine, and the role of warfare and terrorism in creating famine. Modern relief agencies categorize various gradations of famine according to a famine scale.
Famine, in addition to being a human tragedy, sparks a large competition for development resources. Between 1989 and 1993, worldwide emergency food needs doubled from $1.1 billion to $2.5 billion per year.
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