"Population increase, natural disasters, climate change and shocks to the global food supply are all

problems. None of them, on their own, threaten famine.

It requires a combination of many factors, including

shocks, of which at least one must be a political decision,

to create famine. Among those who have studied the topic,

the concept of “famine” has gradually shed the misleading and dangerous

associations with “overpopulation” and food shortages per se, and instead

famines are now correctly seen as political decisions acting on or against

vulnerable populations."

Alex de Waal – Mass starvation – The history and future of famine