Cause and Effect of Famine - Essay Example

Famine: Cause and Effect Everyone is haunted when they see the pictures of famine stricken children on television and are prompted to contribute to an international relief effort. These stark images are most often set against a backdrop of sub-Saharan Africa and we intuitively assume that the population is starving due to the drought conditions. The viewing public also believes that by contributing money and food that it can stop the suffering and save the children. In fact, these assumptions are only partially correct. The causes of famine are far more complex than simply the weather or temporary natural conditions. Social, economic, and political forces are more likely to be the driving forces behind widespread starvation than drought, floods, or natural disasters. In addition, the effects of famine, even for a short period, may be irreversible in children who are malnourished during their developmental years. This paper will examine the causes that create and perpetuate famine as well as the short and long-term effects on individuals and the larger social structure. It will conclude by offering some recommendations on minimizing the severity and effects of famine. This report will reveal the man-made reasons for the mis-distribution of food around the planet and the lasting health effects it has on the children of today and the adults of tomorrow. There are varying degrees and severities of hunger and famine that confront the people of the world. Often there are temporary and transitory conditions, such as the weather, that cause a short-term period of under-nutrition. However, in some parts of the world the problem is more severe. During the next year, as many as 6 million preschool children will die of acute starvation (Pinstrup-Anderson & Cheng, 2007). Many more children will feel the greatest long-term health effects of severe malnutrition. While the problem can be found worldwide, including the developed countries of Europe and North America, it is predominantly an issue for Africa and some parts of Asia. Almost all those affected are the rural poor who have lost social and economic access to food. Almost universally, at the core of starvation are poverty and the inability to acquire the most basic nutritional needs. External events such as draught, floods, and natural disasters contribute to famine, but are not the driving cause. Scrimshaw (1987, p.6) noted that the widespread famine in Ethiopia during 1984 and 1985 was due to the poverty that arose from "primitive cultivation methods, as archaic land tenure system, overgrazing, exploitation of peasant farmers, lack of transport systems, and heavy bureaucracies". There was not a systemic shortage of food, but there was no economic means to acquire it and no motivation on the part of the social system to provide it. As the economic condition worsens, people sell off assets such as animals and land and are left destitute (Swift, 2006, p.45). In Bangladesh during the 1972-1975 famine, there was a wide availability of international aid that flowed into the country. However, the rural poor in Bangladesh during this period were denied even the basics due to a lack of political clout and the irregular distribution of the food supplies to the more wealthy, rather than those who did not have the money for even the barest minimum of rations (Dowlah, 2006, p.349). In the midst of an ample food supply, abject poverty will still prevent the poorest population segments from obtaining the necessary food. While poverty is a generic factor that is almost universally at the core of famine, there are many other factors that contribute to the poverty, or exploit the poverty situation. The tragic famine that gripped Bangladesh in 1972 was made worse by a nine month long guerrilla war that devastated the existing economy. According to Dowlah (2006, p.346), "War dislocations, along with critical shortages of agricultural ingredients - seeds, fertilizer, and irrigation - prevented the proper planting of crops". The self-imposed militant isolation of North Korea has contributed to its own famine when it could not provide the necessary fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides that had previously been supplied by the Soviet Union (Natsios, 1999, p.3). In addition to the disruption that war brings to the economy, it also dislocates people and resources. Jenkins, Scanlon, and Peterson (2007, p.825) report that, "Armed conflicts can create refugee crises that spill across national borders, creating hunger crises and pressure on host countries and the international community to respond to such complex emergencies". These dislocated refugees are often the poorest people that have been uprooted from any land ownership and have no resources to provide for their own subsistence. Though poverty is the reason for their famine, war and political upheavals are the causes of their poverty. When there is poverty and nutrition is at a subsistence level, natural disasters such as floods and drought can initiate, exaggerate, and perpetuate famine. The floods in Bangladesh in 1971 set off hoarding and speculation of the existing food supplies that elevated the price beyond what the rural poor could afford (Scrimshaw, 1987, p.6). Although there was no actual shortage of food, the drought precipitated a chain of events that resulted in a famine. If class, gender, and socio-economics stratify a population, it places the population at additional risk from slight disruptions due to natural causes. Jenkins et al. (2007, p.842) contends that, "While existing famine early-warning systems with their focus on drought, locust infestations, crop shortages, and market disruptions have a legitimate purpose, the problem is that hunger has deeper roots in what are ultimately human-created famines and disasters that demand alteration of existing economic, political, and social structures". Natural disasters, political polarization, economic inequality, and lack of social capital all work together to create a famine. The wide-ranging effects of famine are as diverse as economic downturns, relocation, demographic dislocation, disease, health problems, and ultimately death. Many of these effects also contribute to the furthering of the famine and increase its severity. According to Scrimshaw (1987, p.9), "overcrowding, breakdown of environmental sanitation and personal hygiene, and the movement of populations--leads to epidemics of infectious disease that cause high mortality rates and further worsen nutritional status". Severe illness causes a loss of employment opportunities and the ability to provide an income. These aspects of famine intensify the problem and create a snowball effect of hunger, lowered resistance to disease, and fewer opportunities for recovery. The death in a family from hunger can have severe consequences for the rest of the family members. Families in Africa, where AIDS is a significant factor, are at increased risk due to lower immunity from starvation and their reliance on the family. De Waal and Whiteside (2003) noted the significant decline in a family's production when confronted with a death and stated, "an adult death resulted in a 45% decline in a household's marketed maize, but in cases when the cause of death was identified as AIDS, the fall was 61%". The proliferation of disease, and the people's greater susceptibility, places the family at ever-greater risk that a food shortage will turn into a famine. For those that experience a famine the immediate effects are numerous pronounced physical and mental impairments. Both children and adults will suffer from the severe weight loss due to famine. Body temperature is reduced, heart rate is slowed, skin becomes thin and wrinkled, and the victims will have a higher susceptibility to a variety of infectious diseases (Scrimshaw, 1987, p.8-9). Scrimshaw (1987, p.9) states that, " Few people die directly from starvation alone because infectious diseases, particularly pneumonia and dysentery, intervene". Prolonged starvation from a famine greatly increases the chance of ending in a terminal illness or disease. Children are at particular risk of long-term consequences from famine when they are subjected to starvation during the prenatal and developmental periods of their life. Stunting a child's growth from under-nutrition results in poor physical and mental health later in life. Studies from the Dutch famine in 1944 and 1945 found that pregnant women exposed to famine had low birth weight babies that had an increased risk of insulin resistance (Loke, Lin, & Deurenburg-Yap, 2008, p.433). Loke, Lin, and Deurenburg-Yap (2008, p.433) further stated that, "Famine exposure at different stages of gestation was associated with increased risk of obesity, dyslipidaemia and coronary heart disease". In addition, Langley-Evans (2006, p.102) reported that inadequate amounts of protein during pregnancy can result in a higher level of hypertension of their offspring as adults. The effects of famine are not limited to the immediate consequences of disease, death, or maldevelopment, but also have an effect on the social fabric. When a population is faced with a food shortage, they will be forced to relocate in search of necessities, income, and survival. This alters the demographics of a region and results in a geographic population shift. This shift is often a move from the rural areas to the more urban centres in search of employment. In addition, it may have deep cultural effects such as the "rapid rises in the numbers of young women entering commercial sex work in affected areas" (De Waal & Whiteside, 2003). These shifts destroy the traditional family and community ties that are imperative for survival in a rural, agrarian, or nomadic society. This shift is also accompanied by a loss of assets, one the more important which are the animals that are lost during a famine. Rural farmers and pastoral people are dependent upon animals to perform work and to provide milk and food. As these animals are lost, it becomes almost an impossibility to regain them in a short period of time. According to Orskov (1987, p.303), "For many families it will be many years before they have recovered from the drought since they must build up sufficient surplus by hand labour to be able to buy cattle again". This shift in the social structure will become a permanent change for many families that relocate due to famine. Reducing the threat and incidence of famine in the world is largely dependent upon improving agricultural methods and providing greater social and economic equality for the rural poor. In regards to famine, "The poorest people have fewest assets, so in general the poorest households reach the threshold of collapse much faster than others" (Swift, 2006, p.46). By creating greater land and asset ownership and a greater equality of social and cultural capital, famine could be greatly curtailed. In addition, gender equality and the access to employment could also buffer the effects of an impending famine. As has been shown, famine is a cumulative effect of poverty, oppression, and hardship that results in the lasting effects of disease, illness, and death. In addition to greater economic equality, there should be a global effort to reduce the impact of militarism and warfare on the poorest people in the world. The disruption in food supplies and the relocation of rural populations due to war can start a famine even in the face of adequate food supplies. Natural disasters that contribute to the initiation of famines should be used as warning signs for the international community to step in to alleviate an out of control situation from developing. In conclusion, famine is for the most part a man made social construction. Temporary disruptions can occur due to a natural disaster such as a flood or draught. However, it is the government's and society's failure to adequately distribute existing food supplies that creates the problem of long-term famine. Wars can also initiate a famine by disrupting the supply of food or dislocating the rural poor. Once the famine has begun, the situation spirals out of control as the people lose assets, contract disease, and become ever more incapable of supporting themselves. International relief is often misallocated due to politics and social capital. Children most directly feel the long-term health effects of malnutrition due to famine and they are faced with a lifetime of suffering from diseases such as heart disease and hypertension. In addition, their physical and mental growth can be stunted. The global suffering that results from famine is an international health problem that can be solved only with the political will and the social courage to effect the necessary change. 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