It's relative. The competing risk only has to be a little greater to bias the decision. (Or, more accurately, the perceived risk). Remember, risk is probabilit

It's relative. The competing risk only has to be a little greater to bias the decision. (Or, more accurately, the perceived risk). Remember, risk is probability x severity. In your first example, the severity of not growing crops is starvation vs. the severity of wasted toil in agriculture. I'd imagine the probability is probably higher, too.