One way in which this instability is manifested is through actual famines. Famines can be defined as an extreme scarcity of food. As Amartya Sen explained, most famines are not created by food shortages. The traditional “causes” such as harvest failures, droughts, and decreasing food imports are often not contributing factors. Moreover, Sen believed that social systems determine how a society’s food is distributed have the greatest influence over whether famines occur. Sen’s theory can be explained as an entitlement approach.
“An entitlement relation applied to ownership connects one set of ownerships to another through certain rules of legitimacy. It is a recursive relation and the process of connecting can be repeated. Consider a private …show more content…
A few of the most common risk factors affect the food distribution within and between societies include war, economic failure, and political instability. There are two main examples of risk factors' negative effect, coupled with failed political policy, which led to a unprecedented strain on a society's food distribution system in recent history. They are the crisis in Japan during World War II and Africa during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The food crisis in Japan during World War II is the direct product of war and the failed political policy of rationing. In the years leading up to the war, only two percent of Japan's rice came from foreign countries. During World War II Japanese food distribution drastically decreased. Due to this decrease, Japan became dependant on their colonial possessions as it imported large amounts of rice, sugar, soybeans, and wheat to Japan in …show more content…
I hypothesized that there are three means that contribute to the unequal food distribution. First, exploitation of third world countries via the mechanism of capitalist control and greed. Second, disparities of food waste in production in poorer regions. Third, failed political policies and risk factors that further weaken developing countries distribution infrastructure in times of conflict. Now that one understands how each mean works in the food distribution process, we must look for ways in which to solve this coordination problem. Clearly unequal food distribution is not inevitable. The international community and the affected countries must commit financial and physical resources in order to solve this problem together. Policies to ensure more efficient agricultural development and commodity stabilization, justifiable on economic grounds, should be implemented on both national and international law. Once these are enacted there will be positive benefits, as there will be less food waste during production processes and this will strengthen the distribution process as a whole. The other solution avenue will be to give resources to augment the inadequate food purchasing power of poor regions through special publicly financed campaigns, possibly through bodies such as the United Nations. It is with these possible solutions, and a consciousness of why
“An entitlement relation applied to ownership connects one set of ownerships to another through certain rules of legitimacy. It is a recursive relation and the process of connecting can be repeated. Consider a private …show more content…
A few of the most common risk factors affect the food distribution within and between societies include war, economic failure, and political instability. There are two main examples of risk factors' negative effect, coupled with failed political policy, which led to a unprecedented strain on a society's food distribution system in recent history. They are the crisis in Japan during World War II and Africa during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The food crisis in Japan during World War II is the direct product of war and the failed political policy of rationing. In the years leading up to the war, only two percent of Japan's rice came from foreign countries. During World War II Japanese food distribution drastically decreased. Due to this decrease, Japan became dependant on their colonial possessions as it imported large amounts of rice, sugar, soybeans, and wheat to Japan in …show more content…
I hypothesized that there are three means that contribute to the unequal food distribution. First, exploitation of third world countries via the mechanism of capitalist control and greed. Second, disparities of food waste in production in poorer regions. Third, failed political policies and risk factors that further weaken developing countries distribution infrastructure in times of conflict. Now that one understands how each mean works in the food distribution process, we must look for ways in which to solve this coordination problem. Clearly unequal food distribution is not inevitable. The international community and the affected countries must commit financial and physical resources in order to solve this problem together. Policies to ensure more efficient agricultural development and commodity stabilization, justifiable on economic grounds, should be implemented on both national and international law. Once these are enacted there will be positive benefits, as there will be less food waste during production processes and this will strengthen the distribution process as a whole. The other solution avenue will be to give resources to augment the inadequate food purchasing power of poor regions through special publicly financed campaigns, possibly through bodies such as the United Nations. It is with these possible solutions, and a consciousness of why