ABSTRACT
This chapter presents basic facts and ideas about the political ecology of famine. It provides examples of how politics affects ecology and how, in interaction, they both cause famine. The chapter offers a simple historical perspective on the “political versus ecological” factors in famine and a food systems model to describe political influences on the ecology of famine to analyze specific famines. In Western tradition, the Bible, for example, cites drought, but also sociopolitical actions like siege and warfare as sources of starvation. The interdependence of political, socioeconomic, and environmental factors in the production and amelioration of hunger is evident throughout history in all parts of the world. Political-economic policies favoring the well-to-do over the poor further contributed to hunger at local, national, and global levels. Both the food systems model and a consideration of why food security measures no longer work are useful approaches for investigating the ecology and politics of famine.
