Famines Are Rarely Caused by a Lack of Food Alone
A famine is extreme scarcity of food. Modern research finds that entitlement and distribution matter as much as supply.
A famine is an extreme and widespread scarcity of food. The economist Amartya Sen argued influentially that famines are rarely simple food shortages: they occur when people lose the ability to obtain food that exists, through collapsing wages, rising prices or blocked distribution. His work reframed famine as a failure of entitlement rather than of harvest.
- Extreme food scarcity. *A devastating famine.*
- Any severe shortage. *A famine of ideas.*
- Feast or famine — extremes of abundance and scarcity. *Work is feast or famine.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | famine | Widespread famine. |
| Plural | famines | Recurring famines. |
| Adjective | famished | Absolutely famished. |
| Related | famish | To famish with hunger. |
| Related | hunger | Chronic hunger. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Famine was declared in the region.A formal classification with defined thresholds.
- It is feast or famine in this trade.All or nothing.
- I am famished.Informally, very hungry.
How famine is classified
- IPC scale — an international system with five phases
- Phase 5 — the famine classification itself
- Thresholds — based on malnutrition, food access and death rates
- Declaration — formally made by governments and UN bodies
- Entitlement — the ability to obtain food, central to modern analysis
From Old French *famine*, from Latin *fames*, hunger. The related verb *famish* now survives mainly in the participle *famished*.
Are famines caused by food shortages?
Not usually by shortage alone. Loss of income, price rises and blocked distribution often mean food exists but people cannot obtain it.
When is a famine officially declared?
When measured thresholds of malnutrition, food access and mortality are crossed under an internationally agreed classification system.