ABSTRACT
What is famine? To most people in the developed world, famine is defined by television pictures from Africa. People still think of it in terms of mass starvation caused primarily by drought. Such a view, simplistic yet easy to accept, is hard to dispel. It has led many to accept Food Availability Decline (FAD) as its major cause. Famine is seen as a result of population increase or climatic/environmental management factors. A discussion in a United Nations Environment Programme document about “Environmental Refugees” moves straight from a description of drought in Africa to one of famine. “In early 1984 more than 150 million people in twenty-four western, eastern and southern African nations were on the brink of starvation” because of drought.
