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> Europeans also convinced a starving Zambia to reject the generous US gift of life saving grain. Let people starve cause hypothetically something could be bad

> Europeans also convinced a starving Zambia to reject the generous US gift of life saving grain. Let people starve cause hypothetically something could be bad for them is the height of hypocrisy. Zambia wasn't starving; as far as I can tell there was a regional famine, while some areas were actually experiencing an above average output. According to government sources the main issue was getting aid to affected areas inside the country, not the inability of the government to procure food from other countries. I've tried to search for any evidence that anyone starved to death, but couldn't find any. It's telling that when searching for info about the Zambia famine, you mostly get articles talking about GMOs and can't find any (at least I couldn't) talking about anyone who starved. This is one of those topics where whenever it comes up you can usually expect a ton of disinformation thrown about from all sides.

hueving 10y ago
Is it really a famine if it's not causing any starvation?
- jcoffland 10y ago
  It's a food shortage when someone else is not getting enough food. It's a famine when you are not getting enough food.
Godel_unicode 10y ago
Look harder. Stunting means malnutrition; starvation is not the only outcome of lack of food. "4) The prevalence of stunting in children - low growth for age - is 40 percent." http://m.wfp.org/stories/10-facts-about-hunger-zambia http://m.wfp.org/stories/10-facts-about-hunger-zambia
- BurningFrog 10y ago
  Malnutrition in childhood also causes lower IQ for life.
- Chathamization 10y ago
  Malnutrition is a pretty different claim from starvation ("Let people starve", in the initial comment). I also don't see much evidence that rejected GMO food aid in 2002 (which the above comment talked about) has a big influence on the 2015 numbers. And worth noting, from your link: "More than 350,000 people in the country are food insecure" 350,000 from a population of about 14.5 million is ~2.5%. According to the USDA, "An estimated 12.7 percent of American households were food insecure at least some time during the year in 2015"[1]. You can look at various articles on nutrition in the USA as well ("...only half of all children ages 2 to 17 meet federal diet quality standards"[2]). That's not to say that there aren't issues in Zambia, but I'd need to see more evidence to show that rejecting a specific aid package offered in 2002 (what was being discussed) is the reason for the malnutrition numbers you stated. [1] http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=79760 http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=7976... [2] http://blogs.usda.gov/2015/03/11/sound-nutrition-what-every-child-needs/ http://blogs.usda.gov/2015/03/11/sound-nutrition-what-every-...

hueving 10y ago

Is it really a famine if it's not causing any starvation?

jcoffland 10y ago
It's a food shortage when someone else is not getting enough food. It's a famine when you are not getting enough food.

Godel_unicode 10y ago

Look harder. Stunting means malnutrition; starvation is not the only outcome of lack of food. "4) The prevalence of stunting in children - low growth for age - is 40 percent." http://m.wfp.org/stories/10-facts-about-hunger-zambia http://m.wfp.org/stories/10-facts-about-hunger-zambia

BurningFrog 10y ago
Malnutrition in childhood also causes lower IQ for life.
Chathamization 10y ago
Malnutrition is a pretty different claim from starvation ("Let people starve", in the initial comment). I also don't see much evidence that rejected GMO food aid in 2002 (which the above comment talked about) has a big influence on the 2015 numbers. And worth noting, from your link: "More than 350,000 people in the country are food insecure" 350,000 from a population of about 14.5 million is ~2.5%. According to the USDA, "An estimated 12.7 percent of American households were food insecure at least some time during the year in 2015"[1]. You can look at various articles on nutrition in the USA as well ("...only half of all children ages 2 to 17 meet federal diet quality standards"[2]). That's not to say that there aren't issues in Zambia, but I'd need to see more evidence to show that rejecting a specific aid package offered in 2002 (what was being discussed) is the reason for the malnutrition numbers you stated. [1] http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=79760 http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=7976... [2] http://blogs.usda.gov/2015/03/11/sound-nutrition-what-every-child-needs/ http://blogs.usda.gov/2015/03/11/sound-nutrition-what-every-...