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by nine_k 654 days ago
People are hungry not because the civilization fails to produce enough food. It fails to produce enough order to let this food reach the hungry.

The causes of any prolonged famine are political: local overlords and thugs grab the food and keep it under their control, so that they would stay on top of their local social pyramid and / or profit from reselling.

1 comments

Isn't order a part of civilization though? Aren't local thugs and overlords part of our civilization? I'm not sure what your argument is. Our civilization cannot secure enough food for everyone.

edit: typo

Yes. It's not that the land is overloaded and cannot produce enough food. It can and it does. The constraints are not physical but cultural.