HISTORY OF FOOD SHORTAGES

Food shortages are production shortfalls on a regional level. Hunger is produced when need is greater than food availability. A food shortage occurs when food supplies within a given region are lower than the amount needed by that region’s population. Food shortages are not the same thing as food poverty or food deprivation.
Food deprivation is the situation in which the nutrients consumed by an individual are fewer than he or she needs. Food poverty, or food insecurity, operates at the household level and is the result of a household being unable to obtain enough food to meet the needs of its members. Food shortages can certainly lead to household food poverty, which in turn can contribute to food deprivation. However, multiple causes contribute to all three levels of hunger.
Food shortages can be thought of as a production problem, but often food shortages occur as a result of political interventions that affect rules about importation of food. Even when food shortages occur because of a production problem, there is usually a connection to environmental reasons such as drought and a connection to political intervention such as prevailing economic policies.
Choice of diet has much to do with the occurrence of food shortages. Estimates indicate that if the world were to subsist on a vegetarian diet, there would be more than enough food to sustain the world’s population.
However, the growing Western trend toward a preference for animal foods has had a contributing factor in food shortages. Currently, global preferences are for a diet that is derived, in part, from animal products. Following this type of diet is more likely to lead to food shortages.
Shortfalls in the global food systems have been addressed in a variety of efforts in both developed and developing countries. Meat products are being discouraged in more developed countries. In the interest of equity, “food first” advocates have urged citizens to eat lower on the food chain in order to make more food available for global food needs. In developing countries, consuming meat products is associated with higher status. Thus, it is challenging to introduce dietary change.
Global food shortages are different from regional food shortages. This is because an analysis of available evidence points toward the fact that a global food shortage does not exist. Regional food shortages, in contrast, have occurred in some developing regions, partly from rapidly increasing population growth.
Sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia have been identified as regions where dietary energy supplies fall below basic average requirements. Higher fertility rates along with underdeveloped agricultural technology, natural disasters, and political unrest are cited as causes. However, birth rates have slowed and agricultural production has increased in south Asia, yet this region still lacks enough food. Experts suggest that the cause of food shortages cannot simply be seen as a product of overpopulation, and food importation is not always the solution.
The causes of food shortages are complex. Food production is certainly an issue but not the only issue. Production is affected by the climate of the region, with temperature and rainfall being important determinants of how many harvests can occur in a single year.
Droughts are likely to interrupt crops, but should not immediately be linked with hunger, as seasonal variations in water supply could potentially be offset with stored foods. Natural disasters can also be a factor in diminishing food production, but often the severity is dependent on effective governmental response to the crisis.
Production is not the only determinant of food shortages. Sociocultural factors, which include the organization of land, labor use, as well as dietary preferences, are also important. Land and water control are important dimensions of how the organization of land can greatly influence food shortages. Inequality in landholding is a marker of social inequality.
Higher aggregate landholding is an important marker of household poverty or wealth and a predictor of household agricultural and food self-sufficiency. One of the key ways landholding affects food supply is by crop selection. Being compelled to choose cash crops over food crops places local residents at an economic disadvantage. Maybe more important is the role of political violence that permeates the cycle of internal conflict in causing significant food deprivation.
To counteract food shortages and prevent famine deaths, the international community has maintained famine early-warning systems and food reserves since the 1970s. Where information systems identify impending or actual acute food shortages, the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) ordinarily move food and other emergency care into affected zones to prevent suffering. Such interventions also are meant to slow involuntary migrations by those potentially affected. By the 1980s, early warning and response had been associated with success in preventing famine, except in war zones.
Transporting and guarding emergency food supplies in conflict situations also become a source of livelihood for would-be combatants. Such possibilities have led to concern that food aid might prolong conflicts. It remains a challenge for donors to deliver food and other essential aid in ways that can relieve food shortages and renew productive capacities, without problematic unintended consequences.
Food shortages related to conflicts also can be characterized as entitlement failures where political powerlessness prevents communities from getting access to available food. After being deprived of essential assets or using them for food to meet immediate nutritional needs, people find themselves without further resources.
Conflict-related destitution thus creates conditions of chronic food insecurity and shortage for households that otherwise may have been temporarily or seasonally short of food. Further research is needed to more fully understand the dynamics of why food shortages occur and how to prevent them more effectively.

By Lori Kowaleski-Jones (University of Utah) in the book 'Encyclopedia of World Poverty', general editor Mehmet Odekon, Sage Publications, London, 2006, vol. 1, p. 374-375. Edited and adapted to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.

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