IN THE MIDST OF PLENTY…

Economist Amartya Sen, has made many significant contributions to economic theory and philosophy, yet his painful observation that famine occurs even when there was sufficient food to go around is the most profound. Warehouses can be stuffed with food, and nearby people can be dying from starvation. On a global scale, the rich world has uncontrollable stocks of grains and other foods, while around half a billion people suffer regularly from malnutrition. 
People starve not because there is no food, but because there is no means to buy or reach that food. Next time when you see the scene of famine on TV, think and reflect: what would happen if each were to fortuitously receive a million dollars? The camera crew would not have been able to get through the throng of hard businessmen trying to sell food, clothing, housing and medicine. Of course there is no way that sort of money will ever be made available. Relief budgets are much less. But no matter how famine is caused, the method of breaking it typically requires a large supply of food in the public distribution system. Relief is temporary and is unlikely to be sufficient.
Famine is not a result of mere nature or social upheavals. It shows the way society and its entitlements are organized.

The mathematics of Famine goes beyond simple arithmetic. Looking at the figures for how much food was produced and available and how much was consumed is not enough. As Sen writes: "There is, I believe quite a bit of exaggeration in reading the available statistics ... arising from the imbalance between population and food. Along with the exaggeration goes a certain loss of focus away from the central role of exchange, towards counting bushels of wheat and the total number of mouths, and indulging in long divisions of the former by the latter. While the arithmetic operations of division can be done with ease and grace, the real economics of the division of food among the people depends on the complete structure of exchange entitlements based on institutional features. And that must be a central concern in a realistic attack on starvation and famines."

M. Ghosh

FAMINE HAPPENS WHEN