Paul Collier explains the famine.
In the modern era, famines are usually caused by war or socialism. This time around, it is a bit different. Collier lists four causes – one is Chinese prosperity, two are environmentalism – the ban on genetically modified food, and the American biofuel program, and one is social engineering – state intervention to preserve small (and thus ineffectual) farms as a voting block.
As I remarked earlier, the twentieth century was a time of socialist famines. Let us hope the twenty first century is not a time of greenie famines.
