Famine is the extreme scarcity of food, to such a degree as to result in widespread starvation, swallowing entire segments of the impoverished masses. Famine results from the immediate consequences of the lack of sustenance on a population, whereas hunger is a persistent, chronic, long-term, and slowly debilitating problem associated with insufficient food. Hunger is more widespread and problematic than famine, yet it receives considerably less public attention. The popular image of famine portrayed by media and pushed by political elites and agribusiness is a person of color, wide-eyed, with a bloated belly, surrounded by swarming flies. This image implies the innocence of such victims, whose misfortune is being born on a continent—usually Africa, Asia, or South America—where people are not educated enough to produce food for themselves, where population growth surpasses ecological limits, and where political conflicts and/or environmental disasters tax the available food supply. The prevailing view depicts ...