Nature of Starvation and Famine - Report Example

Nature of Starvation and Famine: Cultural or Ecological? NATURE OF STARVATION AND FAMINE: CULTURAL OR ECOLOGICAL? Introduction Famine and starvation have been regarded as primary forces of evolution ever since the time of Darwin. However, their relationship to two major causes that are the ecological factors and the cultural factors remain a debate. Some believe that starvation and famine is caused as the land where the population resides is not so fertile. Some believe that cultural factors such as social inequality lead to starvation. While some believe that famine and starvation are the major influences that drive the cultural changes in a specific direction. What is Starvation? Starvation is generally regarded as a condition which is caused when there is an inadequate intake of calories. Either the calorie intake deficiency is generally due to a deficiency in the intake of food or diet, or the deficiency is caused due to the dearth in the supply of food. Starvation can be endemic as well as epidemic. The epidemic forms of starvation can include famine, seasonal starvation as well as short-term starvation. Endemic Starvation Endemic starvation occurs when there is a proof that the caloric insufficiency is existing in few members of the society even when the food is abundant under normal conditions. This type of starvation describes a case of chronic under-nutrition and has no relationship with the fortunes, season, contingencies or any other factor that might affect the availability of food for any specific year. Epidemic Forms of Starvation All epidemic forms of starvations can occur episodically. They are simply differentiated on the duration and timing of the episode. Short-term starvation is termed when there is a shortage of food supply for a few weeks or days. These shortages can be unpredictable, yet they remain familiar and typically recurrent. However painful the shortage may be, they do not result in death and normally do not excite any alarm. The occasional death of the senile remains an exception. The seasonal starvation has a regular pattern and occurs within a defined timeframe every year. It could either range between several weeks up to three or four months. Normally, an increase in mortality and morbidity is accompanied with this time of starvation, within the elderly and the children. These increases however, are not readily detected, and not often reported. Seasonal starvation is also familiar, and communities that face it regularly have worked out alternatives through which they avoid social disruption. Famine is the deadliest of the starvation. It is unpredictable, and increases disruptions and mortality rates. It can cause a disruption of balance within the society and is often strong enough to bring the whole institution down with it. Causes of Famine Events and conditions of many different sorts can lead to famine. These causes can include various political, economic and social factors such as war, market collapse, and class inequities etc., technological failures such as destructive farming practices and unreliable storage and natural disasters such as plant diseases or floods. It is very rarely that a specific famine is attributed to a single cause. For example, Sahel is located at the arid to semi-arid belt just below the Sahara Desert, and has been affected by the most popular famine. This region includes Sahelian countries such as Upper Volta, Senegal, Niger, Mauritania, Mali and Chad. While the actual disaster began with the drought, the key to the survival of the population who had been facing with unusually scant rainfall for centuries was through their nomadic lifestyle and maintenance of more than necessary herds throughout. The actual reason for the large famine was the reduction of grass cover, overgrazing and the attention to other cash crops leaving animals to face a reduction of grazing on grain stubble (Watts, 2013). The Sahel example was enough to understand that famine can never occur overnight. For such a disaster to happen, there have to be stages setup for more than decades. It is the actual underlying causes that can cause the famine to last longer than necessary (Walker, 2013). Famine, Food Production and Foraging Agricultural development is the foundation of all modern food systems and the very foundation of civilization. According to Jared Diamond, it is one of the gravest mistakes by the human races to go down in the history (Diamond, 2011). The statement by Diamond is a representation of a drastic prehistorical revision. The transition to cultivation from foraging was not doubted by anyone that it brought an increase in the nutritional well-being, reliable food supplies and more bounties. However, the paleo-pathological data that was gleaned from examining prehistoric skeletal materials helped the scientists to uncover that agriculture was not a great blessing as everyone thought it to be. According to Mark Cohen, after a comparison of information collected by the early agriculturalist and foragers found that farming did not improve nutritional conditions (Thompson & Cohen, 2012). The actual information showed that people who decided to give up foraging had to trade in starvation bouts in exchange for stark famine. Famine and Population The major underlying cause for the famine and hunger is the growth of population beyond the subsistence means of the society. This problem was pointed out years ago by Thomas Malthus that the growth of populations that remained unchecked tended to grow exponentially (Malthus, 2013). The food provisions are linear to population growth. Consequently, if there is no institution of preventive checks by the society on growth, the starvation and famine become inevitable. One of the greatest temptation in any agricultural societies is the neglecting of preventive checks in which children can perform economically important but simple tasks. As long as there is an increase in the help for providing food provisions, then there is no danger for famine. The actual trouble begins when the food provision demand becomes greater than the help available. It becomes a matter of people with numbers more than necessary trying to struggle for food from an area which does not have the capacity to feed too many people. Therefore, it can easily be regarded that the population density leads to an increase in famine susceptibility (Timberlake, 2013). Famine and World Economic System Studies of famine and hunger in the third world have continuously pointed out to changes and economic intrusions in the foreign world that are initiated as developments, as a major reason for famine. A lot of schemes that promote the international businesses have to face severe criticism, as the critics continuously point out that the major reason for these businesses is to turn a profit, not to feed the world. Due to the schemes, the food flows from where it is needed most to areas where it can be bought for the highest price. Eager for export income, third world governments support the international businesses as they encourage the farmers to grow cash crops more, instead of the crops that can help them support their country. For example, even though Africa faces a deadly famine and should focus more on food crops, it pays more attention to cash crops such as tea and coffee instead (Millstone, 2013). The displacement of traditional systems historically was devoted to foods that were locally important for subsistence. The thoughts changed as the idea was promoted for cash crops and local subsistence was considered to be backwards. Introduction of foreign trade and an increase in land usage are two more major causes for food emergencies. French in Vietnam for example, drove peasants from sparsely populated areas to declare the land unused and then use that same area for export cultivation. Eventually, it lead to a famine in Vietnam where more than two million people starved to death (Gunn, 2011). Keeping the history in mind, the ranching and intensive farming in the tropical forest regions has to be considered as a great worry. Famine, Poverty and Class Inequity All famines can be considered as class famines according to Aykroyd, since in every famine it is the rich who can buy their way to the food while the poor suffer and die (Aykroyd, 1974). Although it is true to an extent, even the societies who have formal class are susceptible to famine when it strikes (Novak & Turner., 2014). However, the famine can be quite severe in a society where the class structure system is complex. The income opportunities in the complex systems is restricted to occupational spheres that are quite narrow which causes economic disturbances to affect the population unequally. It can simply be seen that if the burden is placed on the shoulder of few people, it is more difficult rather than when it is equally divided into more than few people. Famine and Food Entitlements The famine can be culturally conditioned through the actual rules of exchange and ownership by the society (Berry, Dernini, Burlingame, Meybeck, & Conforti, 2015). The rules of the society can define who gets the food and who doesn’t. Famine can affect those people deeply who cannot survive on the resources that have been entitled to them legally. It is a mistake to believe that a decline in the overall availability of food can lead to famine. Starvation depends more on the legal entitlement even with the unusual scarcity. For example, farmers experience both, a loss of direct entitlement and the reduction of food supply, even if they are the ones growing the crops. If they are starving, it’s not because they did not have food, but because they could not legally acquire it for themselves. Effects of Famine Famine can lead to both long-term as well as immediate effects. The immediate effects include increases in mortality and disease epidemics while long-term effects can include psychological and physical scars such as mental illness and developmental abnormalities, and cultural transformation. Starvation causes a deficit of energy within the body that can become susceptible to malnutritional diseases such as marasmus and kwashiorkor. There is an increase in endurance as well as weight loss within the older generation and the society that is faced with famine becomes susceptible to diarrhea, edema and rapid weight loss (Devereux, 2012). Starvation also leads to greater diseases such as loss of immunity response and resistance, infectious diseases and other contagious problems. Eventually, even after the famine, they have to face a suffering in productivity and work capacity. Conclusion The major argument that has been ongoing is whether the government could prevent famine if it acted on time. Famine has a cultural as well as ecological effect. The actual arguments lean more towards the cultural factor than the ecological one. Earth has always been rich in resources. In given time, land can always end up with the crops as it was initially producing. The actual problem becomes when the people are denied the food that the land is producing. References Aykroyd, W. R. (1974). The conquest of famine. Berry, E. M., Dernini, S., Burlingame, B., Meybeck, A., & Conforti, P. (2015). Food security and sustainability: can one exist without the other? Public Health Nutrition, 1-10. Devereux, S. (2012). Hunger: The biology and politics of starvation. Global Public Health, 104-106. Diamond, J. (2011). Is Sustainable Agriculture an Oxymoron? Food and Democracy, 120. Gunn, G. C. (2011). The Great Vietnamese Famine of 1944-45 Revisited. 東南アジア研究年報, 81-105. Malthus, T. R. (2013). An essay on the principle of population. Cosimo, Inc. Millstone, E. (2013). Chronic Hunger: A Problem of Scarcity or Inequity? In The Limits to Scarcity: Contesting the Politics of Allocation (p. 179). Novak, S. A., & Turner., B. S. (2014). Skeletal Signatures of a Starvation Diet. In An Archaeology of Desperation: Exploring the Donner Partys Alder Creek Camp (p. 185). Thompson, B., & Cohen, M. J. (Eds.). (2012). The impact of climate change and bioenergy on nutrition. Springer Science & Business Media. Timberlake, L. (Ed.). (2013). Africa in crisis: The causes and cures of environmental bankruptcy. Routledge. Walker, P. (2013). Famine early warning systems: victims and destitution. Routledge. Watts, M. J. (2013). Silent violence: Food, famine, and peasantry in northern Nigeria. University of Georgia Press. Read More