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Famine
 The world produces more than enough food for everyone. Famines occur
because food is unequally distributed .
This is partly
due to variations in the fertility of the land and weather conditions, but historical,
political and economic divisions between different countries and regions also play an
important part in famine.
Drought and
crop failures happen all over the world. When they occur in developed countries like
England or the United States, the government buys food from elsewhere and subsidises it to
prevent the shortage from affecting prices too drastically.
In poorer
countries, governments simply do not have money to spend on extra food. This means that
the price of food rises and people have to pay more for less food. Famines occur when
people can no longer afford To buy any food at all and supplies dry up completely.
Causes of Famine
 Drought - when
rains fails, harvests fail. When harvests fail for several years running people's
self-reliance is severely eroded.
Desertification -
deforestation, over-cultivation, over-grazing, and poor irrigation makes land very
vulnerable to erosion and turns it quickly into desert in a process known as
desertification.
Over-cultivation
causes most of the desertification in Africa as people desperately try to make a living
from the land.
The Sahara
region (sub Saharan Africa) has seen twenty years of drought and deforestation and the
Sahara desert has gradually expanded.
War - fields turn
into battlegrounds, villages are overrun and harvests are left to rot when men and women
go to war or get caught in the crossfire; compulsory conscription has taken thousands of
Ethiopians off their farms into the army. Tens of thousands of Mozambicans, including
children have, have been forced by the MNR (National Resistance Movement) to leave home
and join the rebel army.
Many countries
are forced to spend any surplus they generation repaying interest on loans they have
received from Western banks. This prevents developing countries from spending the profits
in their own economies. CAFOD's fact sheet on debt, trade and aid deal with this complex t
Colonial rulers
introduced cash crops to the poor countries of the south to provide raw materials for
European manufacturers and markets for European manufactured goods. Today, the terms of
trade still work against the poorer countries since raw materials fetch lower prices on
the world market than manufactured goods, and cash crops grown solely for export like
coffee, tea and cotton have declined in value over the past 25 years.
Africa has the
potential to feed three times its present population, yet it depends on cash crops to
generate enough foreign currency with which to buy manufactured goods and land cannot be
used to grow staple foods.
 MYTH: People are
hungry because there is not enough food.
FACT: There is
more than enough food for every man, woman and child to have a proper diet. Enough grain
is produced to provide everyone with ample protein and more than 300 calories a day. The
real problem is one of distribution and accessibility for the poor. In poor countries
there may be enough foods for the whole population but it is exported or hoarded because
the people cannot afford to pay for it.
High Risk Zones
Famine is the culmination of a crisis that develops over a long period of
time and is usually caused by a combination of several different factors, including
poverty, drought, war and debt.
Some countries, particularly in Africa, have suffered all these problems
for years, they are weak and vulnerable: their land, their people and their economies are
completely run down, they hardly recover from one crisis before the next one strikes and
so famine constantly threatens. More than simply food, long term development is vital if
famine is to be prevented.
What CAFOD Is Doing
 When a major
disaster like famine occurs, CAFOD and several major British development agencies often
join forces to raise money for the people most affected.
Caritas
Internationalis, a network of Catholic agencies has offices throughout the Third World
which means that CAFOD can channel emergency aid quickly and efficiently - through local
parishes - to those who need it most.
To try to
prevent crises like famine arising, CAFOD supports food production and water development
programmes, literacy and adult education projects. CAFOD believes that the most important
aspect of any project is that the community involved sees the need to act and decides what
type of project would be most helpful in their situation.
Things To Do
1. Find newspaper reports on famine and discuss the reasons given for
it.
2. Look at the labels on the food you usually eat to find out how
much of it is grown in the Third World.
3. Play the "Trading Game" (available from Cafod, price 50p
Inc postage and packaging).
4. Write to Cafod for education materials on "Food For
Life" and other fact sheets on Food, Environment, Disasters, Debt etc. A complete set
of 20 fact sheets including the above is available for �1.00 + 20p p&p.
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