How Real Is the Threat of Famine?

FAMINE may seem remote to you. Throughout history the majority of mankind have managed to get enough to eat. And you may have other problems that are more pressing to you than food shortages.

But why is it that the subject of famine keeps appearing in the news? Why do world authorities on food and nutrition repeatedly employ the term “world famine” or “universal famine”? Are they merely trying to scare people, creating a false sense of alarm?

Or could it be that famine is really a world threat today? Is it possible that food shortage may affect you personally in the near future?

Two years ago Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, known as the “father of the Green Revolution,” said that the world could hold the line in food production for the next thirty years. Does he still feel that way? “No, I am no longer that optimistic,” answers Dr. Borlaug. He explains:

“From 1947 until mid-1972, the world’s consumption of food seemed to be amazingly stable, and the wheat reserves had a cushioning effect on food prices. But then came the disastrous harvest of 1972, with a drought that swept across the Soviet Union, China and Australia. That precipitated the big purchases of grain by Russia and triggered this horrible inflation. The same summer there were also poor monsoon rains across all south Asia, and the rice crop was bad. Food reserves, which we thought were adequate to meet any situation, simply disappeared overnight.”

As a result, now the world has grain reserves sufficient for only about twenty-five days of world consumption, whereas in 1961 there was enough for some ninety-five days. And the reserve margin is steadily decreasing as world grain consumption grows 1.4 million tons a year faster than world grain production.

A staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal cautions against brushing aside too quickly, without adequate consideration, the current reports of food shortage:

“To those who have heard all their lives that people in China or Armenia, or some place else were starving, such dire predictions may seem overdrawn and unnecessarily alarmist. Throughout history there have been famines, . . . and accompanying doomsday prophets; each time, the world recovered somehow. Today, however, agricultural, nutritional and economic experts agree that the current world food situation is substantially more ominous than ever before.”

In an article entitled “The Next Crisis: Universal Famine” the writer explained: “This time the doomsayers aren’t just talking again about squalor in India, but also about shortages, high prices, and maybe even food rationing in the United States.” A report last October by a leading gain exporter, Cargill, Inc., said that reduced food supplies of today “absolutely preclude” consumption levels anywhere close to what they have been during the last twelve months. The report added: “Rationing must occur in both domestic and export consumption.”

A Portent of a World Without Hunger

It ought to be noted here that careful students of the Bible expected world famine to become a threat in this generation. Jesus foretold that his “presence” in Kingdom power, which began in 1914 C.E. according to Bible chronology, would be marked by “food shortages . . . in one place after another.”​—Matt. 24:3, 7; compare Revelation 6:1, 2, 5, 6.a

This should be no cause for despair, however, for Jesus linked up his “presence” with “the conclusion of the [present] system of things.” (Matt. 24:3 ) Soon a new system in which mankind “will hunger no more” will spread earth wide.​—Rev. 7:16; compare Isaiah 49:10.

But in the short remaining time before that promise reaches its grand fulfillment, hunger really stalks the human family. How does it affect people when it strikes?

[Footnotes]

[Pictures on page 8]

[New York Times, October 20, 1974]

32 Nations Close to Starvation

[The National Observer, March 30, 1974]

The Next Crisis: Universal Famine

[Daily Times, Lagos, Nigeria, October 9, 1974]

AFRICA FACES FOOD PROBLEM

[Los Angeles Times, October 20, 1974]

Starving Ethiopians Estimated at 1 Million

[Free Press Journal, India, September 2, 1974]

Asia may face greatest food deficit in history

[New York Times, November 13, 1974]

Bangladesh Fears Thousands May Be Dead as Famine Spreads