1 00:00:00,600 --> 00:00:05,000 Speaker 1: So hey, let's talk about this cool new podcasting push 2 00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:08,719 Speaker 1: called tripod hashtag tripod. There's this really cool thing going 3 00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:12,159 Speaker 1: on right now the podcasting industry, which is one thing 4 00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:14,840 Speaker 1: I love about the podcasting industry is that we all 5 00:00:14,880 --> 00:00:17,439 Speaker 1: like try to support one another. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah, 6 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:19,639 Speaker 1: Like what's good for us is good for other shows. 7 00:00:20,040 --> 00:00:23,239 Speaker 1: It's like, uh, all boats ride with the rides with 8 00:00:23,280 --> 00:00:25,760 Speaker 1: the tide or something. That's right. So there's this new 9 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:28,800 Speaker 1: push going on. It's this cool program called tripod t 10 00:00:29,240 --> 00:00:35,080 Speaker 1: r y pod as in try a pod, right, get it? Yeah? 11 00:00:35,120 --> 00:00:38,400 Speaker 1: And the whole basis of this is that we podcasters 12 00:00:38,440 --> 00:00:42,839 Speaker 1: are asking you podcast listeners to go tell a friend 13 00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:46,440 Speaker 1: to go try podcast not necessarily ours. I mean, if 14 00:00:46,479 --> 00:00:48,479 Speaker 1: you want to recommend stuff, you should know, we're always 15 00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:51,240 Speaker 1: fine with that. But even if it's some other one 16 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,520 Speaker 1: that um that you like or love even more, just 17 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:58,560 Speaker 1: turned a friend onto podcasting is basically the whole point. Yeah, 18 00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:00,160 Speaker 1: I mean you're probably gonna hear this on a lot 19 00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:02,880 Speaker 1: of podcasts. And the the whole deal is, even though 20 00:01:02,920 --> 00:01:05,840 Speaker 1: podcasting has come a long way since we've started, it's 21 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:10,120 Speaker 1: still sort of a baby of a medium. Yeah, half 22 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:12,399 Speaker 1: of a half of a percent is what we always 23 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:14,520 Speaker 1: say in the podcasting industry. But a lot of people 24 00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:17,400 Speaker 1: still don't even know what podcasts are. So, uh, get 25 00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:19,760 Speaker 1: out there, tell a family member, tell a friend what 26 00:01:19,959 --> 00:01:23,200 Speaker 1: podcasts are. Recommend when you like, tell them how to 27 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:25,480 Speaker 1: get it. Uh, you know, just go out in your 28 00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:27,800 Speaker 1: backyard and put your ear to the sky until you 29 00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:29,920 Speaker 1: hear a podcast. Yeah, that's a big one too, because 30 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:32,040 Speaker 1: a lot of people are like, Okay, sure I've heard 31 00:01:32,080 --> 00:01:34,640 Speaker 1: a podcast, I have no idea where to start. Yeah, 32 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:37,200 Speaker 1: so recommend a good way to listen, maybe how you listen. 33 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:41,199 Speaker 1: And we really appreciate it, Like the whole industry appreciates 34 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:43,440 Speaker 1: you spreading the word. That's how we grow and that's 35 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:47,520 Speaker 1: how we've grown on behalf of the entire podcasting industry. 36 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:52,400 Speaker 1: Thank you. Welcome to Stuff you should Know from House 37 00:01:52,400 --> 00:02:01,120 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hey, I'm welcome to the podcast 38 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:04,280 Speaker 1: on Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and Jerry 39 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:10,280 Speaker 1: did jeer stir that should we say what just happened here? 40 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:16,880 Speaker 1: Or focus like, oh, what is this? Probably twenty something 41 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:19,600 Speaker 1: thirty something episodes, Let's get up there and for the 42 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:23,240 Speaker 1: first time ever, right before we went go, Jerry said, focus, 43 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:26,720 Speaker 1: what does that mean? Usually she goes, huh what I 44 00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:31,480 Speaker 1: don't get It is just me so bothering you guys, right, exactly, 45 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:38,480 Speaker 1: the smell that's so Jerry. Focus Alright. I feel pressure now, 46 00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:42,040 Speaker 1: yeah I do. I'm a little off now, Jerry. So yeah, 47 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:47,280 Speaker 1: that worked. All right, let's concentrate. All right. So we're 48 00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:51,520 Speaker 1: talking Chuck about use your eye okay, yeah, I got 49 00:02:51,639 --> 00:02:54,880 Speaker 1: something large in it. We're talking about famine today, yes, 50 00:02:55,480 --> 00:03:00,800 Speaker 1: which goes with our super sad uh horrific geo political 51 00:03:00,919 --> 00:03:04,240 Speaker 1: catastrophe sweets. Yeah, this probably will not be chock full 52 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:07,000 Speaker 1: of humor. No, I try to think of a way 53 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:10,040 Speaker 1: to insert some jokes. There's not unless we go on 54 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:12,799 Speaker 1: a tangent. Do you remember the eighties stand up comedians, 55 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:16,960 Speaker 1: like they would make just the worst jokes that just 56 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:20,160 Speaker 1: would not fly, Like they get chased off stage by 57 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:22,840 Speaker 1: people with like like just the jokes they would make 58 00:03:22,880 --> 00:03:27,960 Speaker 1: aids jokes and and famine jokes. Yea, yeah, he's just 59 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:30,120 Speaker 1: like the material they would make jokes about, and they 60 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:34,040 Speaker 1: like they weren't even remotely funny, you know, it was 61 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:37,120 Speaker 1: not not nuance or smarts or anything. Yeah, I think 62 00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:42,240 Speaker 1: as Sam Kennison made like starving Ethiopian kid jokes, give 63 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:46,600 Speaker 1: him a sandwich, cameraman, wouldn't him? Was that him? I 64 00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:50,160 Speaker 1: think so, like just people can't do that today. It's 65 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:54,280 Speaker 1: a different world. So yeah, there probably won't be any 66 00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:57,440 Speaker 1: jokes in this one. Uh, what there will be is 67 00:03:57,520 --> 00:04:01,960 Speaker 1: tons of information and hopefully everybody who will understand famines 68 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:04,400 Speaker 1: after this can come together and prevent them for the 69 00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:08,120 Speaker 1: rest of eternity, unless climate change gets that says we'll 70 00:04:08,160 --> 00:04:10,520 Speaker 1: see at the end. Yes, I just spoiled it though, 71 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:15,320 Speaker 1: didn't I. I'm glad you said that was relevant. Yeah, 72 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:18,880 Speaker 1: so everybody has a pretty good idea of what famine is. 73 00:04:18,920 --> 00:04:21,280 Speaker 1: It's when you run out of food and a bunch 74 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:25,239 Speaker 1: of people start dying. That's actually pretty close to the 75 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:30,280 Speaker 1: real definition. But there's this guy who's a scholar of famine. 76 00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:34,680 Speaker 1: His name is Cormac o Grata and he um has 77 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:38,120 Speaker 1: written several books on famines and studied famines and he's 78 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:40,960 Speaker 1: a pretty sharp tack. So people kind of looked at 79 00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:43,880 Speaker 1: him to say, what's the actual definition of a famine 80 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:48,640 Speaker 1: and he says in his best Irish accent, Uh, it's 81 00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:52,599 Speaker 1: a lot like malnutrition. But it's a lot worse. There's 82 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:56,280 Speaker 1: a lot more crisis, there's a lot more death. YEA. Specifically, 83 00:04:56,320 --> 00:04:58,760 Speaker 1: he says, it's a shortage of food or purchasing power 84 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:03,640 Speaker 1: that leads directly to excess mortality from starvation or hunger 85 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:10,120 Speaker 1: induced diseases. And um, that's an important addition because it's 86 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:15,320 Speaker 1: not just hunger starvation related, but all the disease that 87 00:05:15,400 --> 00:05:18,400 Speaker 1: comes along with that that can kill people very much 88 00:05:18,440 --> 00:05:22,080 Speaker 1: more easily because you're so under nourished. Right, And we'll 89 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:24,080 Speaker 1: find out too, it's a It forms a bit of 90 00:05:24,120 --> 00:05:27,719 Speaker 1: a vicious cycle because people start to get hungry and 91 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:31,400 Speaker 1: start to starve and start to suffer from disease. They 92 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:35,480 Speaker 1: have an even harder time, say, working in field produce crops, 93 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:37,839 Speaker 1: and so the whole thing just keeps getting worse and 94 00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:41,520 Speaker 1: worse and worse. Once it passes um breaking point, it 95 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:45,240 Speaker 1: really starts to spiral out of control. Yeah, it's a 96 00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:52,160 Speaker 1: it's a three pronged terror of poverty, hunger, and disease, 97 00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:57,720 Speaker 1: all contributing to one another. Right. So, Cormeco grads definition 98 00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:00,960 Speaker 1: of a famine is a daily death rate um of 99 00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:07,320 Speaker 1: above one per ten thousand people. Is that ten thousand? Yeah, alright, 100 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:10,320 Speaker 1: I had a period and not a comma. That's uh, 101 00:06:10,600 --> 00:06:14,800 Speaker 1: that's European and I didn't, is it. It's gotta be 102 00:06:14,800 --> 00:06:19,680 Speaker 1: because that didn't. That's like point zero zero zero one 103 00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:23,000 Speaker 1: percent of the population per day, is that right? Yeah? 104 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:27,159 Speaker 1: I think that is ten thousand, because just off the 105 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:30,000 Speaker 1: top of my head, like the normal American death rate 106 00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:32,440 Speaker 1: is like eight hundred and twenty three per one hundred 107 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:36,640 Speaker 1: thousand people, So that is significantly more daily death rate. 108 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:40,320 Speaker 1: That's the first characteristic. Yeah. Number two is the proportion 109 00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:47,600 Speaker 1: of wasted children is above and wasted means there there 110 00:06:47,680 --> 00:06:51,480 Speaker 1: muscle masses withering away due to starvation. Yeah. Technically it 111 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:55,440 Speaker 1: means they weigh too standard deviations or more below average. 112 00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:59,200 Speaker 1: And just that term itself is like the most heartbreaking 113 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:02,760 Speaker 1: thing you can wasted children. Yeah, in any sense, that's 114 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:04,800 Speaker 1: not a good thing, because especially when it has to 115 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:08,120 Speaker 1: do with famine. Uh. And then finally, the prevalence of 116 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:12,920 Speaker 1: what's called quash or core, which is um it's basically 117 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:18,080 Speaker 1: an extreme malnutrition due to protein deficiency. Yeah, and those 118 00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:21,680 Speaker 1: pictures everybody who grew up in the eighties and saw 119 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:24,640 Speaker 1: the pictures of the starving children in Africa that were 120 00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:28,240 Speaker 1: just little skin and bone kids, but they had these 121 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:33,600 Speaker 1: huge bloated pot bellies. That's a classic hallmark of quash core. Yeah, 122 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:36,640 Speaker 1: very sad. Yeah uh. And then he went on to 123 00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:40,240 Speaker 1: qualify further with severe famine that means a daily death 124 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:43,800 Speaker 1: rate above five out of ten thousand, uh, proportion of 125 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:49,080 Speaker 1: wasted children above and then that same quash or core prevalence. Right, 126 00:07:49,080 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: So if quash your core is around, you got a 127 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:54,000 Speaker 1: famine on your hands. That's not a normal thing that 128 00:07:54,080 --> 00:07:58,800 Speaker 1: happens in a normal food secure population. Yeah. And that's 129 00:07:59,640 --> 00:08:04,200 Speaker 1: that's the main distinguishing factor between famine and just what 130 00:08:04,240 --> 00:08:08,080 Speaker 1: you would consider malnutrition. And this is all tied into 131 00:08:08,200 --> 00:08:11,440 Speaker 1: what we call food security, right, and we we we 132 00:08:11,520 --> 00:08:15,480 Speaker 1: talked about food security before, I think maybe in desertification 133 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:17,560 Speaker 1: or something like that. Yeah, I know we have at 134 00:08:17,600 --> 00:08:19,559 Speaker 1: some point, but we talked a lot about the food 135 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:22,679 Speaker 1: the green Revolution to which factors in but um, food 136 00:08:22,680 --> 00:08:26,280 Speaker 1: security is that means you have you have food available, 137 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:28,720 Speaker 1: you can get to that food or that food can 138 00:08:28,760 --> 00:08:31,840 Speaker 1: get to you readily, and you can use that food 139 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:35,360 Speaker 1: to meet your health needs. You can leverage it to 140 00:08:35,400 --> 00:08:38,679 Speaker 1: make your population healthy. Yeah, Like if it's if your 141 00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:42,560 Speaker 1: entire countries food supply is twinkies. You do not have 142 00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:45,760 Speaker 1: food security. There's an abundance of it. People can get 143 00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:49,080 Speaker 1: to it very easily. It's probably affordable for everybody, but 144 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:52,839 Speaker 1: it's not nutritious. Or if your country has nothing but 145 00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:57,199 Speaker 1: like the finest fruits and vegetables and proteins, but only 146 00:08:57,240 --> 00:09:00,880 Speaker 1: the very wealthy have access to it because it's too expensive, well, 147 00:09:00,920 --> 00:09:03,520 Speaker 1: you don't have food security. So, according to the u N, 148 00:09:03,880 --> 00:09:07,320 Speaker 1: if you have food security in a nation, all people 149 00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:13,000 Speaker 1: at all times have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, 150 00:09:13,280 --> 00:09:17,120 Speaker 1: and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and get 151 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:21,560 Speaker 1: this food preferences for an active and healthy life. Yeah, 152 00:09:21,559 --> 00:09:24,520 Speaker 1: which I mean we'll talk about Ethiopia some later, but 153 00:09:24,559 --> 00:09:27,560 Speaker 1: at one point the goal was, which they you know, 154 00:09:27,640 --> 00:09:30,120 Speaker 1: never met, was that not only would they have food 155 00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:33,640 Speaker 1: one day readily available, but be able to choose what 156 00:09:33,679 --> 00:09:35,800 Speaker 1: they wanted to eat. Like there's something you don't think about. 157 00:09:35,800 --> 00:09:38,120 Speaker 1: You really take that for granted here in the United 158 00:09:38,160 --> 00:09:41,800 Speaker 1: States and elsewhere. Um, it's not just having food, but like, 159 00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:46,240 Speaker 1: oh I might like to eat this or that. You know, uh, 160 00:09:46,720 --> 00:09:48,360 Speaker 1: all right, so a lot of things can affect this 161 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:51,480 Speaker 1: food security. UM. And We're gonna talk about all these 162 00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:53,640 Speaker 1: as throughout the show as they relate to famine. But 163 00:09:54,080 --> 00:10:00,199 Speaker 1: obviously you think of natural disasters first, and probably drought first. Yeah, 164 00:10:00,200 --> 00:10:03,240 Speaker 1: that's a that's a big one. If you don't have 165 00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:07,720 Speaker 1: water and rain, you can't grow crops, usually uh, crop blight, 166 00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:10,760 Speaker 1: which we'll talk a little bit about the potato famine 167 00:10:10,800 --> 00:10:16,080 Speaker 1: in Ireland later on. Um, but any kind of disease pest, 168 00:10:16,640 --> 00:10:19,839 Speaker 1: even like over abundance of weeds, could conceivably ruin a 169 00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:25,120 Speaker 1: crop flooding, extraordinarily cold weather, extraordinarily hot weather, we'll just 170 00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:28,360 Speaker 1: say weather patterns in general, Yes, severe weather. And then 171 00:10:28,400 --> 00:10:30,839 Speaker 1: a big one which a lot of people, a lot 172 00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:34,439 Speaker 1: of people I think, mainly think of natural disasters or 173 00:10:34,559 --> 00:10:39,960 Speaker 1: natural factors, and political conflict is one of the big, big, 174 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:43,400 Speaker 1: big contributors. So here's this is what we're coming to 175 00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:47,840 Speaker 1: though eventually, is there's a big debate on what causes famine. 176 00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:51,880 Speaker 1: And for many, many years everyone said, well, don't be dump, 177 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:57,680 Speaker 1: droughts caused famine, right, But studies, much more recent studies 178 00:10:57,679 --> 00:11:01,520 Speaker 1: have found that actually, if you kind of peek behind 179 00:11:01,559 --> 00:11:03,760 Speaker 1: the curtain a little bit, yeah, there was a drought 180 00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:06,400 Speaker 1: and it started the famine, But what actually caused the 181 00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:10,480 Speaker 1: famine or caused it to be horrible is usually government, 182 00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:15,480 Speaker 1: either government that has bungled something or um just is 183 00:11:15,520 --> 00:11:18,679 Speaker 1: it moved to actually care to do anything to alleviate 184 00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:20,959 Speaker 1: the famine. As we'll see. Yeah, what I gathered from 185 00:11:20,960 --> 00:11:27,480 Speaker 1: reading this was most famine throughout all of history has 186 00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:31,959 Speaker 1: been caused by natural factors, but modern famine, like from 187 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:37,680 Speaker 1: the nineteenth century on, has largely been that plus government factors. 188 00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:41,800 Speaker 1: Does that sound about right? I think the very presence 189 00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:50,440 Speaker 1: of famine in the globalized era is just because of 190 00:11:50,679 --> 00:11:54,320 Speaker 1: governments screwing things up. Yes, because there is enough food 191 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:57,120 Speaker 1: defeat everyone at this point, right, and enough of a 192 00:11:57,200 --> 00:12:01,959 Speaker 1: trade supply lines and government aid agency NGOs who are 193 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:05,439 Speaker 1: working to get that food to those people, and prices 194 00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:08,480 Speaker 1: that a lot of times there's people standing in their way. Yes. 195 00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:12,280 Speaker 1: Another big It can be sort of a domino effect too. 196 00:12:12,280 --> 00:12:15,079 Speaker 1: So when you have food security in one place start 197 00:12:15,160 --> 00:12:20,079 Speaker 1: to crumble or wayne, uh, then you have another country nearby, 198 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:25,880 Speaker 1: maybe it may start stockpiling for themselves, uh, fewer exports 199 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:28,960 Speaker 1: and protecting their own population, and then that drives up 200 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:32,600 Speaker 1: process prices for people that were depending on importing that 201 00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:36,880 Speaker 1: food and it just starts this big vicious cycle, right exactly. Um, 202 00:12:36,920 --> 00:12:41,199 Speaker 1: back in two eight there were food riots in Bangladesh 203 00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:44,000 Speaker 1: and Haiti and Egypt. Do you remember that because of rice? Right? 204 00:12:44,360 --> 00:12:46,800 Speaker 1: It was because of rice. But the global food price 205 00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:50,240 Speaker 1: head like when they look at food prices, they look 206 00:12:50,240 --> 00:12:54,719 Speaker 1: at baskets of foods around the world, UM, put them 207 00:12:54,720 --> 00:12:57,800 Speaker 1: together and say this is how much food costs these days. 208 00:12:58,280 --> 00:13:01,319 Speaker 1: It rose between two thousand two and two thousand eight. 209 00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:05,080 Speaker 1: Food prices rose a hundred globally, and a lot of 210 00:13:05,120 --> 00:13:07,679 Speaker 1: people got priced out of the market. And when they 211 00:13:07,720 --> 00:13:13,120 Speaker 1: looked at what happened, apparently that price increase was due 212 00:13:13,160 --> 00:13:18,120 Speaker 1: to using food for biofuels, like using crops that normally 213 00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:21,400 Speaker 1: would have gone to food, we're being used to create 214 00:13:21,559 --> 00:13:25,960 Speaker 1: energy like biofuels, right, And so that drove grain prices 215 00:13:26,080 --> 00:13:29,480 Speaker 1: up through the roof because speculators got involved and food 216 00:13:29,640 --> 00:13:34,000 Speaker 1: was being diverted from the food supply into the energy supply, 217 00:13:34,520 --> 00:13:38,640 Speaker 1: and then crop land was being increasingly diverted to produce 218 00:13:38,720 --> 00:13:41,560 Speaker 1: the stuff for the energy supply as well. And it 219 00:13:41,640 --> 00:13:45,600 Speaker 1: had a huge effect that just drove food prices up 220 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:48,560 Speaker 1: around the world. One of the big problems that can 221 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:51,520 Speaker 1: contribute to famines. As we'll see in a lot of famines, 222 00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:57,040 Speaker 1: there are people still producing food for export because they 223 00:13:57,080 --> 00:14:00,800 Speaker 1: can't afford it. But their country starving to death. But 224 00:14:00,880 --> 00:14:04,760 Speaker 1: they can't afford it because they don't have the money. 225 00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:07,120 Speaker 1: So ts but the rest of us, you have the money, 226 00:14:07,160 --> 00:14:12,120 Speaker 1: so keep growing that food. Yeah, it's pretty devastating effect. Uh. 227 00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:15,760 Speaker 1: And it's obviously most devastating for um. And you always 228 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:19,760 Speaker 1: hear about this, the two groups, the elderly and the young. UM. 229 00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:22,000 Speaker 1: I don't know about the total number of children, but 230 00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:24,480 Speaker 1: the stat that I have from the u N, the 231 00:14:24,520 --> 00:14:29,320 Speaker 1: most recent STATA have, is that twenty one thousand children 232 00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:36,040 Speaker 1: die of hunger every day day yep, every four seconds. 233 00:14:37,160 --> 00:14:41,200 Speaker 1: Oh it's awful. Yeah, it's sobering to say the least. 234 00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:45,240 Speaker 1: So uh, you know what happens is, especially if you're 235 00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:48,360 Speaker 1: young or you're old. Uh, that disease sets in and 236 00:14:48,960 --> 00:14:52,200 Speaker 1: little kids and old people can't fight it like um, 237 00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:54,600 Speaker 1: you know the parents can. And then you know the 238 00:14:54,640 --> 00:14:56,360 Speaker 1: parents are in bad shape too. Well, it's not like 239 00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:59,640 Speaker 1: anyone's doing great. When you're malnourished, your immune system starts 240 00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:02,320 Speaker 1: to dig cline and when your immune system starts to decline, 241 00:15:02,840 --> 00:15:07,120 Speaker 1: that's the disease comes in, especially if um, a group 242 00:15:07,200 --> 00:15:12,040 Speaker 1: starts to migrate in search of food, because then you 243 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:16,600 Speaker 1: could be living in um unsanitary conditions and everybody has 244 00:15:16,640 --> 00:15:19,720 Speaker 1: lower immune systems and you're basically in a herd. Now 245 00:15:20,160 --> 00:15:23,000 Speaker 1: moving like moving to a different place to get food, 246 00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:26,000 Speaker 1: and so a disease can just rip through a population. 247 00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:29,360 Speaker 1: Well yeah, and and uh that's article points out that 248 00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:33,400 Speaker 1: refugees are not often resettled in, you know, the most 249 00:15:33,440 --> 00:15:38,000 Speaker 1: hospitable areas either, so uh, moving doesn't necessarily help the 250 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:41,360 Speaker 1: cause in a lot of cases. Um, all right, let's 251 00:15:41,400 --> 00:15:44,240 Speaker 1: take a break and we're gonna come back and talk 252 00:15:44,280 --> 00:15:48,040 Speaker 1: a little bit about some of the more noteworthy famines 253 00:15:48,080 --> 00:16:20,800 Speaker 1: throughout history. All right, So I said, we're gonna talk 254 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:27,760 Speaker 1: about historical famines. I lied, that's coming later. Is that 255 00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:30,440 Speaker 1: all right? Yeah? That's fine, all right, So we're gonna talk. 256 00:16:30,480 --> 00:16:32,880 Speaker 1: He sent this great article, Um, what was the name 257 00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:36,240 Speaker 1: of it? The History of Humanity is a history of hunger. 258 00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:38,560 Speaker 1: It was written by a guy named Mark Joseph Stern 259 00:16:38,760 --> 00:16:41,600 Speaker 1: on Slate. This is a good one. Yeah. Yeah, he's 260 00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:44,680 Speaker 1: basically ringing the bell. He's saying Hey guys, Uh, there 261 00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:49,480 Speaker 1: seems to be this movement towards looking at famines as 262 00:16:49,520 --> 00:16:55,120 Speaker 1: the result of dictatorships, which we'll get into super interesting. Um, 263 00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:58,160 Speaker 1: but let's not forget something else, and it's a little 264 00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:03,520 Speaker 1: something called global climate change, because I think from Stearns perspective, 265 00:17:03,560 --> 00:17:07,440 Speaker 1: and he doesn't put this explicitly, but he basically says, yes, 266 00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:10,320 Speaker 1: dictatorships can have this effect and have had this effect. 267 00:17:10,320 --> 00:17:16,119 Speaker 1: That's proven. But really, honestly, that's fairly localized from a 268 00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:21,159 Speaker 1: globalized perspective. Right, even if it just happens in China, 269 00:17:21,320 --> 00:17:25,000 Speaker 1: that's still technically local as far as the globe is concerned. 270 00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:27,280 Speaker 1: And that means that there's other people around the globe 271 00:17:27,280 --> 00:17:29,879 Speaker 1: that can help the people in China or Ethiopia or 272 00:17:29,920 --> 00:17:33,640 Speaker 1: Ireland or wherever a famine happens. Again, so we've got 273 00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:37,679 Speaker 1: stuff in place, but if the entire global food supply 274 00:17:37,960 --> 00:17:41,439 Speaker 1: starts to become threatened by climate change, then we're all toast. 275 00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:44,360 Speaker 1: I think is ultimately the message of what he's saying. Yeah, 276 00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:46,399 Speaker 1: and he he was kind of saying like he kind 277 00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:48,600 Speaker 1: of set up really well throughout history and then said, 278 00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:52,000 Speaker 1: but nowadays, you know, things have never been better there's 279 00:17:52,040 --> 00:17:55,520 Speaker 1: more food than ever. Supply chain is more robust, so 280 00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:57,760 Speaker 1: like we shouldn't have anything to worry about, right, like 281 00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:00,240 Speaker 1: on a global scale. And that's when he said, you know, 282 00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:02,320 Speaker 1: you might want to look at some of these studies 283 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:05,000 Speaker 1: and uh, one of them, there was a report from 284 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:09,240 Speaker 1: the U N inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change and 285 00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:11,960 Speaker 1: they said that rising temperatures around the globe are cutting 286 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:15,359 Speaker 1: into global food supply. Um. I think to the point 287 00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:18,720 Speaker 1: now where if it continues at current levels, there could 288 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:23,720 Speaker 1: be a two cut in crop harvests each decade moving forward. 289 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:26,959 Speaker 1: And it might not sound like a lot two percent 290 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:29,359 Speaker 1: a decade though, but when you couple that with a 291 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:34,000 Speaker 1: rising population, that's a problem. Um. Especially like in the 292 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:35,840 Speaker 1: short term, you might think, oh, well, you can grow 293 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:38,320 Speaker 1: more food more places if if it's warmer, if things 294 00:18:38,359 --> 00:18:43,080 Speaker 1: are melting, Yeah, and certainly more CEO two will increase 295 00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:46,920 Speaker 1: yields in the short term, but um, in the long term, 296 00:18:47,080 --> 00:18:50,240 Speaker 1: warming trends will make crops wilt, especially near the tropics. 297 00:18:50,720 --> 00:18:53,960 Speaker 1: I saw one step that said a three percent I'm sorry, 298 00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:58,320 Speaker 1: a three degree celsius increase in temperature at the tropics 299 00:18:58,359 --> 00:19:04,320 Speaker 1: could uh cut on crops. So it's you know, it's 300 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:07,240 Speaker 1: a real threat. Yeah. Well, even without a massive temperature 301 00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:10,000 Speaker 1: change like that, are an increase in CEO to One 302 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:14,280 Speaker 1: of the trademarks of UM climate change is severe weather, 303 00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:17,360 Speaker 1: which we're seeing more and more. It seems too much rain. 304 00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:22,040 Speaker 1: Severe weather is not enough. Yeah yeah, or either one 305 00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:25,280 Speaker 1: over like a couple of year period you're not going 306 00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:27,320 Speaker 1: to be able to grow crops, or you're growing season 307 00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:30,840 Speaker 1: is going to be shortened, or the whole crop will 308 00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:33,040 Speaker 1: just be wiped out right there at the end, who 309 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:35,040 Speaker 1: knows well. And then the other thing you need to 310 00:19:35,080 --> 00:19:37,400 Speaker 1: think about, which he points out, is what we can 311 00:19:37,440 --> 00:19:40,440 Speaker 1: invent our way out of this, like technology will take 312 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:44,640 Speaker 1: care of it always. And the study from NASA there's 313 00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:46,520 Speaker 1: a more dire wind from NASA than even the U 314 00:19:46,640 --> 00:19:50,240 Speaker 1: n one UM that basically says we're screwed UM And 315 00:19:50,280 --> 00:19:53,520 Speaker 1: the NASA one says technological change tends to raise both 316 00:19:54,080 --> 00:19:58,159 Speaker 1: per capital resource consumption and the scale of resource extraction, 317 00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:02,520 Speaker 1: basically meaning it's just it's sort of a net net, 318 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:06,360 Speaker 1: like we can't invent our way out of it, Like 319 00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:09,000 Speaker 1: it's net net up to the point where we run 320 00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:13,919 Speaker 1: out of resources and then we're toasts. So there is 321 00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:16,520 Speaker 1: a big threat from climate change. But what Stern's saying 322 00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:19,000 Speaker 1: is actually kind of retro to tell you the truth, 323 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:24,399 Speaker 1: because up until the last couple of decades, everybody looked 324 00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:31,479 Speaker 1: at famine as strictly a a natural disaster, and it 325 00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:35,959 Speaker 1: it started to become increasingly apparent of what kind of 326 00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:40,920 Speaker 1: a man made disaster famine can be, especially when people 327 00:20:40,920 --> 00:20:44,200 Speaker 1: started to look at China's Great Famine back as part 328 00:20:44,280 --> 00:20:49,720 Speaker 1: of Mao's cultural revolution. So Chuck China I didn't really 329 00:20:49,760 --> 00:20:52,080 Speaker 1: realize this. I don't think I didn't know a lot 330 00:20:52,119 --> 00:20:55,280 Speaker 1: about it either. There is there's a something called when 331 00:20:55,280 --> 00:20:59,560 Speaker 1: Mao took over, when the Communists took over China UM. 332 00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:01,800 Speaker 1: One of the things that Mao set his sights on 333 00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:06,480 Speaker 1: Chairman Mao Mousley doing was that he wanted to show 334 00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:10,000 Speaker 1: the West just how great communism was, the same dream 335 00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:13,399 Speaker 1: of Stalin Um. But he also wanted to be the 336 00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:16,840 Speaker 1: top guy in the communist world too, so he was 337 00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:19,159 Speaker 1: very ambitious and one of the ways to do that 338 00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:22,440 Speaker 1: was one of the same path that Stalin had followed, 339 00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:27,160 Speaker 1: which was what We've got a lot of agriculture here, 340 00:21:27,359 --> 00:21:32,760 Speaker 1: Let's use our agriculture to fund and finance industrialization. We're 341 00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:35,760 Speaker 1: gonna shock the system. We're gonna take these old agrarian 342 00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:39,000 Speaker 1: backwards ways, we're gonna put him together in this great 343 00:21:39,119 --> 00:21:43,200 Speaker 1: communist way, and we're gonna squeeze as much productivity out 344 00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:45,359 Speaker 1: of them as we can. We're gonna funnel that money 345 00:21:45,560 --> 00:21:48,920 Speaker 1: into the workers in the cities. We're gonna make China 346 00:21:49,280 --> 00:21:51,600 Speaker 1: the glorious leader of the world, and we're gonna catch 347 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:55,240 Speaker 1: up to productivity, uh, to the productivity of the UK 348 00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:59,359 Speaker 1: or the US within ten years, five years, which is insane. 349 00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:02,280 Speaker 1: It's called the Great Leap Forward. Uh. And it was 350 00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:04,600 Speaker 1: a five year plan, which you're right it was. It 351 00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:07,520 Speaker 1: was I mean to call it ambitious, it was. What 352 00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:10,800 Speaker 1: it was was a disaster in the making. Because what 353 00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:14,520 Speaker 1: happened was, especially when you live under someone like mouse Tongue, 354 00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:17,480 Speaker 1: you're gonna have people that are afraid to tell the 355 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:20,560 Speaker 1: truth about what's going on. So what happened from the 356 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:24,760 Speaker 1: very beginning is officials, either driven by fear or just 357 00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:27,320 Speaker 1: because they were so caught up in the movement, started 358 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:31,919 Speaker 1: um exaggerating reports of crop success, like they were literally 359 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:35,000 Speaker 1: reporting like three to five times what they were really 360 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:39,679 Speaker 1: bringing in with their crops. Uh. And then the authorities 361 00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:42,680 Speaker 1: came along and basically took those crops to the urban centers, 362 00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:47,120 Speaker 1: killed off anyone who had any opposition to this. Well, 363 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:49,199 Speaker 1: I think they will also kill off locally to like 364 00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:51,520 Speaker 1: if we were gonna say no, this guy's lying about 365 00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:55,080 Speaker 1: crop yields, but the local people would would take care 366 00:22:55,119 --> 00:22:58,080 Speaker 1: of you. Yeah, you just disappear. Uh. And so what 367 00:22:58,119 --> 00:23:01,800 Speaker 1: happened in this is an actual quote, um mouse tongue said, 368 00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:05,480 Speaker 1: to distribute resources evenly will only ruin the great leap forward. 369 00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:08,440 Speaker 1: When there's not enough to eat, people starved to death. 370 00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:10,680 Speaker 1: It is better to let half the people die so 371 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:13,200 Speaker 1: that the others can eat their fill. So there you 372 00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:16,360 Speaker 1: have it, right. It was very clearly a man made famine, 373 00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:19,879 Speaker 1: like they were aware of it, um. And you you wonder, 374 00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:22,720 Speaker 1: like why were they coming to grab the grain? Well, 375 00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:26,320 Speaker 1: grain had turned from something that people produced locally for 376 00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:31,720 Speaker 1: basically local consumption, into a national commodity that was used 377 00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:34,600 Speaker 1: to feed these workers and then to sell on the 378 00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:39,840 Speaker 1: global market to finance the glorious revolution. Right, So when 379 00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:42,680 Speaker 1: grain was turned into a commodity and people were given 380 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:45,439 Speaker 1: quotas to meet, if you wanted to get ahead, you 381 00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:48,000 Speaker 1: could just say, oh, we had this great great yield 382 00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:51,000 Speaker 1: this this year, so we've got all this green. And 383 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:53,960 Speaker 1: there were cases where the Chinese government would come and 384 00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:58,800 Speaker 1: requisition more grain than the the than they had then 385 00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:02,080 Speaker 1: they'd even grown that based on these false reports. Right, 386 00:24:02,359 --> 00:24:05,520 Speaker 1: So people started to starve. Clearly, Mao had no problem 387 00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:07,359 Speaker 1: with it because it was the people out in the 388 00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:10,520 Speaker 1: and it was the farmers, not the workers, who were starving. 389 00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:15,760 Speaker 1: And in three years, the lowest number anyone's willing to 390 00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:18,600 Speaker 1: say of the total number of people who died in 391 00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:22,920 Speaker 1: three years from this famine is fifteen million people. Yeah, 392 00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:27,480 Speaker 1: that's the lowest. That's what the Chinese government itself officially says. Yeah, 393 00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:31,000 Speaker 1: I've seen numbers. I've seen a total population loss and 394 00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:34,640 Speaker 1: that means thirty five million deaths and forty million people 395 00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:38,600 Speaker 1: that weren't born because of all this, So total population 396 00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:43,520 Speaker 1: loss of seventy five million um. And it's still apparently, 397 00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:46,840 Speaker 1: like I looked into it today, it's very taboo to 398 00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:49,240 Speaker 1: even talk about it today in China, and they don't 399 00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:51,920 Speaker 1: they don't even call it a famine. They call it, uh, 400 00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:55,080 Speaker 1: three years of natural disaster or three years of difficulties. 401 00:24:55,960 --> 00:24:58,760 Speaker 1: That's what they call capitalized. Yeah, yeah, like that's the 402 00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:04,040 Speaker 1: titial name. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, and apparently the um Yeah, 403 00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:06,879 Speaker 1: they don't talk about it. It's it's not obviously not 404 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:11,280 Speaker 1: taught in schools and certainly not taught as the result 405 00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:16,840 Speaker 1: of a calamitous um government policy because that same government, 406 00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:19,960 Speaker 1: the Communist Party, is still in charge there. But yeah, 407 00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:24,240 Speaker 1: that was a huge, enormous famine, and I guess scholarship 408 00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:28,679 Speaker 1: on that sorted to open people's eyes about how human 409 00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:33,720 Speaker 1: intervention could make a famine much much worse. Same thing 410 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:39,159 Speaker 1: with Ethiopia as well. Um. Ethiopia is almost famous in 411 00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:43,280 Speaker 1: a weird way for for famines. Yeah, they were, especially 412 00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:44,720 Speaker 1: like you said, if you grew up in the eighties, 413 00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:47,880 Speaker 1: it was sort of the face of famine and drought. 414 00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:52,600 Speaker 1: It was Ethiopia. Um. And if you go back, you know, 415 00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:58,120 Speaker 1: back in time Prime Minister uh melists Zenawi. Um. This 416 00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:00,280 Speaker 1: was what more than twenty years ago at this point 417 00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:03,639 Speaker 1: that when I mentioned earlier what his vision for the country, 418 00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:05,760 Speaker 1: he said, you know, I hope in ten years that 419 00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:09,000 Speaker 1: Ethiopians will eat three times a day. And after twenty years, 420 00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:11,000 Speaker 1: not only were gonna have enough food, but they're gonna 421 00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:13,480 Speaker 1: have the luxury of choosing what they eat. Uh. He 422 00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:15,800 Speaker 1: was in office for twenty one years before he died 423 00:26:15,840 --> 00:26:19,880 Speaker 1: in power and Uh, things these days aren't a whole 424 00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:26,040 Speaker 1: lot better. No, So Um, Like I remember learning about 425 00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:29,119 Speaker 1: Ethiopia and their famines, and I just was thinking, like, Wow, 426 00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:32,080 Speaker 1: they must have just the worst weather. They've got the 427 00:26:32,119 --> 00:26:34,960 Speaker 1: worst luck with weather. Turns out no, they had the 428 00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:40,280 Speaker 1: worst luck with governments. Um. So they had a famine 429 00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:45,600 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy three that the government basically just covered up. Yeah, 430 00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:49,320 Speaker 1: the Wallow Famine. Yeah. And in that three hundred thousand 431 00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:53,439 Speaker 1: people died. Uh. And even though there were there was 432 00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:57,320 Speaker 1: actually plenty of food. The reason the family had come 433 00:26:57,359 --> 00:27:01,440 Speaker 1: along was because food prices had increased just a little bit, 434 00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:06,000 Speaker 1: but the people in the Wallow region were so poor 435 00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:09,040 Speaker 1: they couldn't afford the food that was even available to them. Yeah. 436 00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:12,320 Speaker 1: And this is nineteen seventy three, the same year that 437 00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:16,480 Speaker 1: Emperor Highley Selassie spent thirty five million dollars on his 438 00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:20,880 Speaker 1: eightieth birthday celebration. So he's starting it's starting to kind 439 00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:22,920 Speaker 1: of become clear what's going on. And then the very 440 00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:28,880 Speaker 1: famous famine famous here in the West, the eighty five famine. Um, 441 00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:31,720 Speaker 1: everyone who was funding that. That was when band Aid 442 00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:35,320 Speaker 1: came out. They had that do they know It's Christmas song? Um? 443 00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:38,560 Speaker 1: They had the Live Aid concerts. Phil Collins flew in 444 00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:41,800 Speaker 1: the Concorde from London to the Philadelphia to play two 445 00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:44,159 Speaker 1: shows at the same night. Do you remember Live Aid? 446 00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:50,119 Speaker 1: How old are you? I was eight? Do you remember 447 00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:52,639 Speaker 1: it happening? Like? Did you watch it? I remember the 448 00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:55,920 Speaker 1: Phil Collins thing, of course you do, because he loved 449 00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:59,880 Speaker 1: Phil Collins. Now I totally remember. I was babysitting at 450 00:27:59,880 --> 00:28:02,880 Speaker 1: a summer gig, a regular summer gig where I would 451 00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:06,439 Speaker 1: baby sitting these kids like for half days, like you know, 452 00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:09,359 Speaker 1: money through Friday. And I was babysitting these kids and 453 00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:13,320 Speaker 1: we watched Live Aid and I remember seeing, of course 454 00:28:13,359 --> 00:28:18,199 Speaker 1: Phil Collins, and I remember seeing the amazing performance by 455 00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:22,160 Speaker 1: Queen Like it's still like one of their like hallmark 456 00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:26,520 Speaker 1: performances was their Live Aid. Um. But yeah, it was 457 00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:28,840 Speaker 1: like it was all over the place USA for Africa 458 00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:31,920 Speaker 1: that was one of the big causes because of this famine, right, 459 00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:34,040 Speaker 1: and it was great, like there was all these great 460 00:28:34,119 --> 00:28:37,520 Speaker 1: pictures of not great pictures, but they were pictures spread 461 00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:40,440 Speaker 1: far and wide. They were waking up the west, Like, guys, 462 00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:43,560 Speaker 1: there's a huge problem. You gotta give. And band Aid 463 00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:46,640 Speaker 1: and live Aid raised a hundred and fifty million dollars 464 00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:52,560 Speaker 1: in nine four for famine relief in in Ethiopia. They 465 00:28:52,560 --> 00:28:56,840 Speaker 1: had a significant impact. But what no one realized because 466 00:28:56,840 --> 00:29:00,000 Speaker 1: the reporters were too lazy to report and the government 467 00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:03,600 Speaker 1: was doing a good job covering up. This famine was 468 00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:07,680 Speaker 1: not the direct result of a drought or a crop failure. 469 00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:12,280 Speaker 1: The government was actually fighting a civil war secretly against 470 00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:15,800 Speaker 1: the Um what the group that now makes up Aera Trea, 471 00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:21,000 Speaker 1: the err trean Um ethnic group. Uh. And the government 472 00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:28,720 Speaker 1: was like napalming the crop lands there, blowing up cargo transports, um, 473 00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:32,440 Speaker 1: blowing up farmers markets to affect the food supply and 474 00:29:32,480 --> 00:29:35,720 Speaker 1: to create a famine. It was a man made famine. Yeah, 475 00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:37,880 Speaker 1: and not only that, you know, I talked about frivolous 476 00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:41,680 Speaker 1: spending by the government. They spent that year and uh, 477 00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:45,280 Speaker 1: I think three they spent between a hundred million and 478 00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:48,720 Speaker 1: two hundred million dollars to celebrate the tenth anniversary of 479 00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:54,880 Speaker 1: the revolution, almost up to two d million dollars. So 480 00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:58,440 Speaker 1: here's here's the thing. I'm reading this article from Spin 481 00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:01,320 Speaker 1: I think it was written in called The Terrible Truth 482 00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:05,160 Speaker 1: about band Aid. And so at the time, there are 483 00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:08,760 Speaker 1: a lot of aid groups working in Ethiopia, and if 484 00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:11,760 Speaker 1: you said anything about how the government was taking this 485 00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:16,600 Speaker 1: um like aid money and using it for themselves and 486 00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:21,200 Speaker 1: not distributing it correctly. They were trying to put tariffs 487 00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:26,160 Speaker 1: and taxes on age shipments into the country just to 488 00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:28,800 Speaker 1: make money off of it. If you said anything, your 489 00:30:28,840 --> 00:30:32,240 Speaker 1: your group would get kicked out. And apparently Medicine Songs, 490 00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:36,520 Speaker 1: Frontier Doctors Without Borders UM had raised the alarms and 491 00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:38,760 Speaker 1: they got kicked out of Ethiopia. And they went to 492 00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:42,120 Speaker 1: Bob Geldof and said, hey, um, we know you have 493 00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:44,160 Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty million dollars that you're about to 494 00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:47,000 Speaker 1: give to Ethiopia. Let us tell you what's really going 495 00:30:47,040 --> 00:30:49,960 Speaker 1: on there and then you just wait until there's a 496 00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:53,520 Speaker 1: stable government to give it to. And he was like, no, 497 00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:56,240 Speaker 1: it's fine, it'll be fine. I'd rather I'd rather work 498 00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:58,320 Speaker 1: with these devils and help these people out a little 499 00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:01,520 Speaker 1: bit then than just not right. And a lot of 500 00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:05,600 Speaker 1: people say that he um he was extremely reckless and 501 00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:07,760 Speaker 1: basically he gave a hundred and fifty million dollars to 502 00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:11,200 Speaker 1: an autocratic government that was creating a famine in its 503 00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:15,160 Speaker 1: own country. Is that a new article? It was from? 504 00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:16,880 Speaker 1: All right, I need to check that out. Yeah, it's 505 00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:20,200 Speaker 1: called the Terrible Truth about Live about band Aid, About 506 00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:22,640 Speaker 1: band Aid. Uh. Well, there's a great book in the 507 00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:25,600 Speaker 1: same article that's reference that you sent. UM. A Nobel 508 00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:28,960 Speaker 1: Prize winning economist name Marcia Sin wrote a book called 509 00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:31,760 Speaker 1: Development is Freedom and basically kind of backs up what 510 00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:36,080 Speaker 1: we're talking about. Uh. Sin says that, you know, authority, 511 00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:39,600 Speaker 1: authoritarian systems are the were the ones who have famines. Uh. 512 00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:42,480 Speaker 1: And they went back and did a historical investigation and 513 00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:45,640 Speaker 1: these are twenty century famines, thirty major famines that happened. 514 00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:48,600 Speaker 1: We're all in countries led by autocratic rule or that 515 00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:51,840 Speaker 1: we're under armed conflict at the time. Yeah, and the 516 00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:55,600 Speaker 1: the um this article from I don't I wish I 517 00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:57,480 Speaker 1: knew who wrote it. I feel terrible, but it was 518 00:31:57,520 --> 00:32:01,840 Speaker 1: in huff Po, So there you go. Um. The author said, 519 00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:07,200 Speaker 1: there's a country right next to Ethiopia that that has 520 00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:09,360 Speaker 1: a lot of the same weather, a lot of the 521 00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:14,440 Speaker 1: same soil conditions, growing conditions, crop plant Botswana. They said, 522 00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:18,720 Speaker 1: Botswana is a democracy and it has been. Yeah, it 523 00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:21,520 Speaker 1: has been since the sixties, and since it's been a democracy, 524 00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:24,240 Speaker 1: it's never had a famine. And it's right next door 525 00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:27,080 Speaker 1: to Ethiopia. Well yeah, and the whole idea there is 526 00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:31,680 Speaker 1: that if resources were not being allocated properly, the people 527 00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:35,280 Speaker 1: would have a voice and change the people in power. 528 00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:40,080 Speaker 1: But when you're under autocratic rule, you're either completely squashed 529 00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:44,320 Speaker 1: or so disregarded that they don't care if you are dying. Basically, 530 00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:46,880 Speaker 1: they are in power so and they can't do anything 531 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:49,200 Speaker 1: to change it. They don't need your vote or your 532 00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:51,800 Speaker 1: support because they've got a barrel of a gun at you. 533 00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:54,640 Speaker 1: That's how they stay in power. Yeah. A group called 534 00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:57,000 Speaker 1: Human Rights Watch, which is great. I know we've talked 535 00:32:57,000 --> 00:32:59,720 Speaker 1: about them before. Uh. In two thousand ten, they did 536 00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:04,160 Speaker 1: a work called Development Without Freedom How AID underwrites repression Ethiopia, 537 00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:07,520 Speaker 1: and it just completely confirms all of this that it's 538 00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:11,920 Speaker 1: just it's suppression of a people and watching them die 539 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:14,920 Speaker 1: and not caring and it's still going on. So let's 540 00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:17,240 Speaker 1: take another break and then we'll talk about Ireland and 541 00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:53,480 Speaker 1: then we'll talk about how to combat famines. So, chuck Um, 542 00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:55,920 Speaker 1: I think when most people think of famine they think, 543 00:33:56,160 --> 00:33:59,560 Speaker 1: if not of Ethiopia and of Ireland, because Ireland had 544 00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:02,320 Speaker 1: one heck of a famous famine back in the nineteenth 545 00:34:02,320 --> 00:34:07,720 Speaker 1: century that actually created Ireland and the Irish as we 546 00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:11,680 Speaker 1: know him today. Yeah, the Irish potato famine. Um are 547 00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:16,319 Speaker 1: cohorts are colleagues Tracy and Hollyott. Stuff you miss in 548 00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:18,160 Speaker 1: history class. They do one on it. Yeah, did a 549 00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:20,640 Speaker 1: great episode just on this. I recommend listening to that. 550 00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:26,840 Speaker 1: But um, here's our knuckle headed overview. Uh. This was 551 00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:29,360 Speaker 1: also called the Great Irish Famine and their famine of 552 00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:34,120 Speaker 1: eighteen forty five to forty nine because that's when it happened. Um. 553 00:34:34,160 --> 00:34:37,280 Speaker 1: This was one of the ones that initially was caused 554 00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:43,120 Speaker 1: by UH disease, it's called late blight, and it basically 555 00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:49,080 Speaker 1: destroyed kind of every part of the potato. Yeah, the leaves, 556 00:34:49,160 --> 00:34:51,240 Speaker 1: the roots, which I mean, if you're eating a potato, 557 00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:55,560 Speaker 1: the root is what you're after. Um. They had I 558 00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:59,760 Speaker 1: guess a cold, rainy spring. Yeah, it's kind of a 559 00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:02,279 Speaker 1: per picked storm of bad luck. Right, and this this 560 00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:06,120 Speaker 1: microbe showed up from North America accidentally from what we understand, 561 00:35:06,440 --> 00:35:10,680 Speaker 1: and so there were three successive years of dead crops. 562 00:35:11,560 --> 00:35:14,080 Speaker 1: And one of the reasons why this had such an 563 00:35:14,080 --> 00:35:16,319 Speaker 1: impact is that by this time, by the middle of 564 00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:19,200 Speaker 1: the nineteenth century in Ireland, there are a lot of 565 00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:23,640 Speaker 1: um Irish farmers who were basically subsistence farmers. A lot 566 00:35:23,680 --> 00:35:27,160 Speaker 1: of farmers in Ireland were small small land farmers who 567 00:35:27,160 --> 00:35:31,040 Speaker 1: are tenant farmers, which means they they work the land 568 00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:33,759 Speaker 1: and they had to give up a substantial amount of 569 00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:38,000 Speaker 1: their crop yield in this case to Great Britain, which 570 00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:41,080 Speaker 1: held Ireland under colonial rule at the time, and then 571 00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:42,879 Speaker 1: they could keep a little bit for themselves to keep 572 00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:45,040 Speaker 1: their family alive, so they could come out and work 573 00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:48,360 Speaker 1: the fields for another day. Right, most of those people 574 00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:53,920 Speaker 1: depended almost exclusively on potatoes. Yeah, not only for income, 575 00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:57,080 Speaker 1: but like what they ate on a daily basis exactly 576 00:35:57,200 --> 00:36:00,120 Speaker 1: so for their nutrition. And not only that, but they 577 00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:02,799 Speaker 1: they had whittled it down to just a couple of 578 00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:07,720 Speaker 1: varieties of potato. It's like, yeah, it's like that's bad 579 00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:11,880 Speaker 1: news if uh, disease strikes or or blight or something 580 00:36:11,920 --> 00:36:14,160 Speaker 1: like that. If you've got just a couple of varieties 581 00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:16,040 Speaker 1: and your dependent on that as a nation, and they're 582 00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:18,920 Speaker 1: both susceptible to that blight yeah, then you're you're screwed. 583 00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:21,960 Speaker 1: And that's exactly what happened. Um it said in the 584 00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:27,120 Speaker 1: early eighteen forties, almost half the Irish population depended almost 585 00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:31,080 Speaker 1: exclusively on the potato for diet, and especially the rural 586 00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:36,640 Speaker 1: poor farmers and um in five that uh, that's strain. 587 00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:41,520 Speaker 1: It was called fidoh uh phido thora. I think so, 588 00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:43,520 Speaker 1: I think there's got to be some silent letters in there. 589 00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:48,879 Speaker 1: There's a there's a lot of consonants strung together and 590 00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:51,719 Speaker 1: um like you said that came from North America and 591 00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:56,399 Speaker 1: everything just rotted and uh, this was the natural part 592 00:36:56,440 --> 00:36:59,640 Speaker 1: of it. So then you have England, the controlling body, 593 00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:03,400 Speaker 1: um like needs to step in and do something, and 594 00:37:03,440 --> 00:37:09,359 Speaker 1: they kind of did, but not a chin up. Keep 595 00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:12,440 Speaker 1: that grain coming our way. Yeah, that was a primister 596 00:37:12,560 --> 00:37:16,000 Speaker 1: named Sir Robert Peel, and he he provided a little 597 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:18,399 Speaker 1: bit of relief. He authorized the import of corn from 598 00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:21,799 Speaker 1: the United States. Helped avoid a little bit of starvation. 599 00:37:22,280 --> 00:37:24,640 Speaker 1: But it was certainly not a problem solver. No, and 600 00:37:24,680 --> 00:37:28,359 Speaker 1: again they really did say, uh, we're sorry to having 601 00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:30,359 Speaker 1: these troubles. We'll see what we can do, but keep 602 00:37:30,400 --> 00:37:34,080 Speaker 1: those grain imports coming. Because just like in the wallow 603 00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:38,440 Speaker 1: Uh famine in Ethiopia. There were plenty of places in 604 00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:42,560 Speaker 1: Ireland where the there was grain in abundance, but the 605 00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:47,160 Speaker 1: people growing the green couldn't afford it. And so because 606 00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:52,240 Speaker 1: the people elsewhere we're having problems with the potato crop, 607 00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:56,000 Speaker 1: the price of food was going through the roof because 608 00:37:56,040 --> 00:37:59,480 Speaker 1: there was less food overall, and the people back in 609 00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:02,640 Speaker 1: great break and still typically had money to pay for 610 00:38:02,680 --> 00:38:05,440 Speaker 1: this food. So they were exporting the stuff out of 611 00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:09,640 Speaker 1: Ireland during a famine for their own consumption, including livestock 612 00:38:10,280 --> 00:38:14,960 Speaker 1: which must be fed that grain. So to add insul 613 00:38:15,040 --> 00:38:18,120 Speaker 1: to injury. They were saying, you guys are starving over there. 614 00:38:18,239 --> 00:38:20,719 Speaker 1: Keep exploring that grain, but feed some of it to 615 00:38:20,719 --> 00:38:24,839 Speaker 1: your livestock, and then export the livestock to us to eat. Yeah, 616 00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:27,640 Speaker 1: and not only that, it was just so compounded. It's 617 00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:30,319 Speaker 1: just like so frustrating to look at, like through a 618 00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:33,320 Speaker 1: modern lens of like things that they could have done differently. 619 00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:37,239 Speaker 1: But um, these poor farmers like you said that they 620 00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:39,239 Speaker 1: were farming a lot of time on farms owned by 621 00:38:39,239 --> 00:38:43,040 Speaker 1: British absentee landowners. They couldn't farm all of a sudden, 622 00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:45,120 Speaker 1: so they weren't getting paid. So then they in turn 623 00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:49,520 Speaker 1: couldn't pay rent back to the landowners, and so they 624 00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:53,000 Speaker 1: were basically evicted. Hundreds of thousands of tenant farmers were 625 00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:57,280 Speaker 1: evicted under these years. And uh there was an eighteen 626 00:38:57,320 --> 00:38:59,439 Speaker 1: thirty four there was something called the British Poor Law 627 00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:04,440 Speaker 1: and acted in Ireland that said able bodied indigence were 628 00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:09,279 Speaker 1: sent to a workhouse rather than given relief. So now 629 00:39:09,320 --> 00:39:11,840 Speaker 1: you're sent to a workhouse. You're not even like farming 630 00:39:11,840 --> 00:39:14,000 Speaker 1: the land that you lived on to provide for your family, right, 631 00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:17,560 Speaker 1: which is a terrible, terrible move in any famine. Part 632 00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:20,720 Speaker 1: of the spiral that spiral out of control of famine 633 00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:25,320 Speaker 1: is something called livelihood shock, when farmers who can still 634 00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:32,280 Speaker 1: conceivably grow um food get priced out of their own 635 00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:36,000 Speaker 1: crop land and they can't afford to work any longer. 636 00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:40,359 Speaker 1: Your your food supply is taking a further hit, which 637 00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:43,440 Speaker 1: you should not allow to happen. But the British government 638 00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:46,200 Speaker 1: definitely did allow it to happen. Um the guy who 639 00:39:46,239 --> 00:39:50,360 Speaker 1: came after John Peel or Robert Peel, not John Peel. 640 00:39:51,040 --> 00:39:54,960 Speaker 1: Um the guy who came after Robert Peel, Lord John Russell. 641 00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:59,479 Speaker 1: He did even less than Um Peel did. Basically kicked 642 00:39:59,520 --> 00:40:03,080 Speaker 1: it back to Ireland to deal with. But still give 643 00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:05,879 Speaker 1: us your your export that grain to us and we'll 644 00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:08,560 Speaker 1: just leave it to the free markets. If you ever 645 00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:12,480 Speaker 1: leave dealing with the famine to the markets to hammer out, 646 00:40:13,040 --> 00:40:17,320 Speaker 1: you have abdicated all responsibility for dealing with that famine. Yeah, 647 00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:20,839 Speaker 1: that's not okay. The markets aren't equipped to deal with 648 00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:25,000 Speaker 1: the famine, right. The famine happens when the markets break down, right, 649 00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:28,759 Speaker 1: and you need assistance to correct that. It doesn't just 650 00:40:28,760 --> 00:40:33,920 Speaker 1: work itself out. Uh. So you know, Ireland already is 651 00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:37,000 Speaker 1: not so happy to be under the thumb of uh 652 00:40:37,080 --> 00:40:40,960 Speaker 1: the British. Um. This got even worse when there was 653 00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:44,600 Speaker 1: this sort of attitude among sort of the elite of 654 00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:48,239 Speaker 1: of England that, um, you know what this is. This 655 00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:50,560 Speaker 1: is really just a sort of a correction because you know, 656 00:40:50,600 --> 00:40:53,319 Speaker 1: those Irish all they do is have children, and there 657 00:40:53,320 --> 00:40:55,840 Speaker 1: are far too many of them anyway, These poor Irish 658 00:40:55,840 --> 00:40:58,360 Speaker 1: people have ten kids. So this is sort of a 659 00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:02,040 Speaker 1: necessary correction, um in the long run. Apparently at the 660 00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:05,080 Speaker 1: time that was a bit of the mentality of the 661 00:41:05,120 --> 00:41:08,400 Speaker 1: intellectuals of England. Yeah, so that's not going to do 662 00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:12,440 Speaker 1: yourself any favors as far as getting along and one 663 00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:16,560 Speaker 1: of the other things that happened was a consolidation of wealth. 664 00:41:16,880 --> 00:41:19,839 Speaker 1: Like all of those small farms that were that people 665 00:41:19,880 --> 00:41:22,600 Speaker 1: were getting kicked off of because they couldn't pay their rent. 666 00:41:23,200 --> 00:41:26,480 Speaker 1: The their landlords couldn't afford the farms any longer either 667 00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:29,719 Speaker 1: because they weren't able to collect rent, And so wealthier 668 00:41:30,440 --> 00:41:32,680 Speaker 1: landowners said, I'll buy your farm and your farm and 669 00:41:32,719 --> 00:41:34,880 Speaker 1: your farm and your farm, and you're farming here, go 670 00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:37,000 Speaker 1: buy some corn. You can get it from the soup 671 00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:38,840 Speaker 1: kitchen over here. And then they put it together. So 672 00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:42,320 Speaker 1: these small farms that farming these communities now we're single 673 00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:46,080 Speaker 1: large farms owned by single wealthy landowners. As a result, 674 00:41:46,200 --> 00:41:48,840 Speaker 1: it's kind of like that's saying, if there's blood in 675 00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:52,080 Speaker 1: the streets by real estate, that's what those guys were doing. 676 00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:55,920 Speaker 1: Not cool. So in the end, this had a huge 677 00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:59,040 Speaker 1: effect on the I mean, the way you put in 678 00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:03,560 Speaker 1: this article the Dimmock graphic history of Ireland um directly 679 00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:06,279 Speaker 1: caused from the famine. Their population of about eight point 680 00:42:06,320 --> 00:42:10,799 Speaker 1: four million in eighteen eight sorry eighteen forty four fell 681 00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:14,680 Speaker 1: to six point six million, uh just seven years later, 682 00:42:15,480 --> 00:42:20,520 Speaker 1: and about a million people died literally just died from starvation, 683 00:42:21,239 --> 00:42:24,520 Speaker 1: and by the time Ireland achieved independence in nineteen one. 684 00:42:25,080 --> 00:42:28,480 Speaker 1: In twenty one, the population was barely half of what 685 00:42:28,560 --> 00:42:31,239 Speaker 1: it was in the early eighteen forties. Yeah, because that's 686 00:42:31,360 --> 00:42:35,319 Speaker 1: not supposed to happen. Death and emigration, Yeah, how many 687 00:42:35,440 --> 00:42:38,480 Speaker 1: like people? Uh? Another two I think a million died 688 00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:43,160 Speaker 1: in another two million immigrated as a result. New York City, baby, Yeah, 689 00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:44,839 Speaker 1: that's how New York got to be in New York. 690 00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:49,839 Speaker 1: So we've got, um, we've got a pretty good idea 691 00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:52,560 Speaker 1: of what famines are, how they happen. There is still 692 00:42:52,560 --> 00:42:54,839 Speaker 1: that struggle between how much of it is man made 693 00:42:54,920 --> 00:42:57,080 Speaker 1: how much of it is natural. I think it's a 694 00:42:57,080 --> 00:43:00,520 Speaker 1: combination of the two at this time. Sure, but how 695 00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:05,319 Speaker 1: do you prevent something like a famine? Chuck Well, Um, 696 00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:11,279 Speaker 1: there's a lot of controversy and um, there's a lot 697 00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:13,960 Speaker 1: of controversy surrounding it. A lot of people rightfully are 698 00:43:13,960 --> 00:43:18,120 Speaker 1: saying that even AID groups like what we're doing is 699 00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:21,040 Speaker 1: putting a band aid on something, and they're not like 700 00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:23,880 Speaker 1: getting to the root of some of these problems. And 701 00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:26,920 Speaker 1: aid is great, you know, it's keeping people alive. They're 702 00:43:26,960 --> 00:43:29,239 Speaker 1: not saying don't do that, but it's not addressing the 703 00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:33,359 Speaker 1: real problems, right, and apparently the real problems are autocratic rule. 704 00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:37,000 Speaker 1: Well want one of them for sure. Yeah. Another one 705 00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:40,680 Speaker 1: is you know, just food education. Um, there are food 706 00:43:40,719 --> 00:43:43,719 Speaker 1: for work programs which apparently are working out pretty good. 707 00:43:43,760 --> 00:43:46,240 Speaker 1: So they'll have you know, I think they will deliver 708 00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:48,919 Speaker 1: some food aid to get people able bodied enough to work, 709 00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:53,319 Speaker 1: and then um, try and get people working on infrastructure 710 00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:56,600 Speaker 1: jobs in the country. UM, and exchange for food. Yeah, 711 00:43:56,640 --> 00:43:59,600 Speaker 1: in exchange for food, and I would imagine money. I 712 00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:01,839 Speaker 1: don't know for sure, but I don't think it's straight 713 00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:05,959 Speaker 1: up food. I wonder if like, yeah, I wonder maybe 714 00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:08,160 Speaker 1: it seems like could be a combination the two or 715 00:44:08,160 --> 00:44:12,960 Speaker 1: maybe not. I don't know. Another one is hashing out 716 00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:18,000 Speaker 1: early warning signs. Probably they have different UM scales now 717 00:44:18,719 --> 00:44:23,160 Speaker 1: of food security to kind of gauge where a country 718 00:44:23,239 --> 00:44:27,439 Speaker 1: is as far as it's spiral towards famine, like don't 719 00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:31,600 Speaker 1: wait till you're seeing the unit SEF commercial before you act. 720 00:44:31,719 --> 00:44:34,960 Speaker 1: But not only that, you government of this, this the 721 00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:37,400 Speaker 1: people that are about to enter into a famine. You 722 00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:40,160 Speaker 1: need to do certain things like there's a famine that 723 00:44:40,440 --> 00:44:43,840 Speaker 1: UM is. I believe Ethiopia is on the verge of 724 00:44:43,880 --> 00:44:47,360 Speaker 1: another one again right now. And part of the problem 725 00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:51,200 Speaker 1: is the government denied that this was that this was happening, 726 00:44:51,200 --> 00:44:52,719 Speaker 1: that there was going to be a famine. They said, 727 00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:56,239 Speaker 1: we have food security and they said the author of 728 00:44:56,280 --> 00:44:59,040 Speaker 1: that huff Po article pointed out, no, there's plenty of food, 729 00:44:59,080 --> 00:45:01,799 Speaker 1: but it's too expensive in a lot of places, so 730 00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:04,560 Speaker 1: that's not food security. And they didn't do enough, Like 731 00:45:04,640 --> 00:45:08,480 Speaker 1: they didn't tell um cattle herders to move their their 732 00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:13,120 Speaker 1: um herds closer to like reliable water sources. They didn't. 733 00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:16,800 Speaker 1: There's steps and actions that governments that care about their people, 734 00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:20,680 Speaker 1: or care at least about the food supply um can take. 735 00:45:21,440 --> 00:45:24,160 Speaker 1: And there are early warning signs and apparently they are 736 00:45:24,239 --> 00:45:29,280 Speaker 1: born out of famine codes from nineteenth century India. India 737 00:45:29,360 --> 00:45:31,640 Speaker 1: had a string of famines in the nineteenth century that 738 00:45:31,680 --> 00:45:34,759 Speaker 1: killed like seventeen million people, so they really started to 739 00:45:34,760 --> 00:45:37,560 Speaker 1: pay attention to what made up the warning signs or 740 00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:40,560 Speaker 1: fam of famine. Well, there's something it was created in 741 00:45:40,640 --> 00:45:42,440 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five and it may have been based on 742 00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:45,360 Speaker 1: what you're talking about, called the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, 743 00:45:45,960 --> 00:45:50,160 Speaker 1: and they monitor these trends and food prices, UH, food 744 00:45:50,160 --> 00:45:53,080 Speaker 1: security and basically you can compare it to other years, 745 00:45:53,160 --> 00:45:56,080 Speaker 1: other areas and right now because I want to see 746 00:45:56,120 --> 00:45:58,360 Speaker 1: like kind of what the current state of the world was, 747 00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:03,959 Speaker 1: there is a global alert UM emergency food assistant needs 748 00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:10,320 Speaker 1: ON needs are unprecedented. And these four areas right now, Nigeria, Yemen, 749 00:46:10,800 --> 00:46:14,680 Speaker 1: South Sudan and Somalia are the most of the areas 750 00:46:14,680 --> 00:46:19,160 Speaker 1: of the highest concern and has the reasons of concern 751 00:46:19,320 --> 00:46:24,719 Speaker 1: right here Nigeria the Boco Harem conflict. So there you 752 00:46:24,760 --> 00:46:26,440 Speaker 1: have it right, Yeah, it doesn't have to be a 753 00:46:27,040 --> 00:46:30,080 Speaker 1: dictatorship being lazy. You can be in the middle of 754 00:46:30,080 --> 00:46:33,880 Speaker 1: a war torn country and people aren't growing crops like 755 00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:36,560 Speaker 1: they normally do when a wars not on. So there's one. 756 00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:40,160 Speaker 1: In Yemen, extensive conflict has reduced incomes and food prices 757 00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:46,680 Speaker 1: remain elevated. Uh South Sudan conflict severely disrupted trade, humanitarian 758 00:46:46,719 --> 00:46:51,319 Speaker 1: access in livelihoods. And finally Somalia. Somalia was the only 759 00:46:51,320 --> 00:46:55,440 Speaker 1: one of the four that seemed like it was weather 760 00:46:55,480 --> 00:46:59,319 Speaker 1: related and it said that UM the December on aus 761 00:46:59,320 --> 00:47:02,759 Speaker 1: pronounced the y r season. There two rainy seasons, the 762 00:47:03,200 --> 00:47:06,320 Speaker 1: goose season and the day are or dear der season, 763 00:47:07,000 --> 00:47:10,359 Speaker 1: and apparently they've both been below average. So it looks 764 00:47:10,400 --> 00:47:14,000 Speaker 1: like in Somalia it's due to rainfall, but elsewhere it's 765 00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:16,759 Speaker 1: you know, conflict, conflict, conflict. So if you care, if 766 00:47:16,800 --> 00:47:19,920 Speaker 1: you want to help, if you want to make a difference, 767 00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:23,600 Speaker 1: look around, do your research, find an aid group that 768 00:47:23,719 --> 00:47:27,480 Speaker 1: you feel good about, and uh, give money, give time, 769 00:47:27,560 --> 00:47:30,959 Speaker 1: do something. Don't just sit back and eat your big 770 00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:33,600 Speaker 1: mac and forget about the whole thing. I agreed. If 771 00:47:33,640 --> 00:47:35,440 Speaker 1: you want to know more about famine, you can type 772 00:47:35,440 --> 00:47:37,799 Speaker 1: that word into the search part how stuff works dot com. 773 00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:40,359 Speaker 1: Since I said search parts time for a listener mail. 774 00:47:42,360 --> 00:47:45,400 Speaker 1: I think this one Trump's homelessness. Surely we won't get 775 00:47:45,440 --> 00:47:49,360 Speaker 1: an email saying that people deserve children, does deserve to 776 00:47:49,400 --> 00:47:51,719 Speaker 1: die every four seconds? I don't know if we do, 777 00:47:51,800 --> 00:47:53,840 Speaker 1: we'll get they'll all start with I believe in a 778 00:47:53,960 --> 00:47:58,920 Speaker 1: vengeful God. Alright, I'm gonna call this one. Uh. Whatever 779 00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:04,000 Speaker 1: happened to super fan Sarah? Remember that? Remember Sarah Sparrow, 780 00:48:04,080 --> 00:48:06,440 Speaker 1: the amazing twelve year old fan? Right? Yeah, so I 781 00:48:06,520 --> 00:48:10,040 Speaker 1: listened to several podcasts per day, guys, Uh, to learn 782 00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:12,160 Speaker 1: something and to drown out the buzz of the office. 783 00:48:12,160 --> 00:48:14,279 Speaker 1: I work in I was going through so many that 784 00:48:14,360 --> 00:48:16,480 Speaker 1: I had caught up to the President forcing me to 785 00:48:16,480 --> 00:48:19,719 Speaker 1: dig way back to the archive instead of waiting for 786 00:48:19,760 --> 00:48:22,600 Speaker 1: the newest one. So he's sandwiching, right, That's fine, it's 787 00:48:22,640 --> 00:48:24,160 Speaker 1: the way to do it. At the end of the 788 00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:28,200 Speaker 1: podcast in two thousand and ten about grandfather's diets shortening 789 00:48:28,200 --> 00:48:31,919 Speaker 1: our lives, um fascinating. By the way, this is June 790 00:48:31,920 --> 00:48:34,520 Speaker 1: two ten. You've got the email from Sarah who had 791 00:48:34,560 --> 00:48:37,560 Speaker 1: been listening to the show, uh since she was eleven. 792 00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:40,799 Speaker 1: At the time she was thirteen. You mentioned you should 793 00:48:40,800 --> 00:48:43,000 Speaker 1: go to a high school graduation and be the keynote speaker. 794 00:48:43,320 --> 00:48:48,640 Speaker 1: You were still doing this. Well, my math is right then. Uh, 795 00:48:48,719 --> 00:48:53,160 Speaker 1: Sarah is twenty years old and halfway through college. So 796 00:48:54,360 --> 00:48:56,759 Speaker 1: I hope you guys don't feel too old. But I 797 00:48:56,800 --> 00:48:59,640 Speaker 1: think is an exceptional accomplishment. You're still doing the show. 798 00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:01,959 Speaker 1: You're more popular than ever. Keep up the good work, 799 00:49:02,080 --> 00:49:05,160 Speaker 1: Josh Taylor and Josh you know he asked about Sarah. 800 00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:08,239 Speaker 1: Sadly we haven't heard from Sarah in years. Were like 801 00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:11,680 Speaker 1: the giving tree, we got ditched, she ditched us and 802 00:49:11,840 --> 00:49:14,840 Speaker 1: um or she just you know, still listens and doesn't 803 00:49:14,920 --> 00:49:18,440 Speaker 1: right in it's playing it cool. Maybe so well she is. 804 00:49:18,520 --> 00:49:20,920 Speaker 1: You know, it's twenty years old. It's not super cool 805 00:49:21,600 --> 00:49:24,080 Speaker 1: to still be the Sarah the amazing seven year old 806 00:49:24,160 --> 00:49:27,480 Speaker 1: for eleven year old band. You're smelly old pseudo uncles. 807 00:49:27,520 --> 00:49:31,839 Speaker 1: But Sarah, if you were out there, hit us up, yeah, 808 00:49:31,880 --> 00:49:34,440 Speaker 1: say hi, send us an email. We would love, love, 809 00:49:34,640 --> 00:49:37,600 Speaker 1: love to hear from you. Yeah, well even guaranteed read 810 00:49:37,640 --> 00:49:39,160 Speaker 1: it on the on the air, and you know what 811 00:49:39,239 --> 00:49:42,400 Speaker 1: that goes for you too, Sam who is in college 812 00:49:42,560 --> 00:49:47,360 Speaker 1: Summer of Sam Sam. So all of our younger listeners, like, 813 00:49:47,440 --> 00:49:50,080 Speaker 1: they girl up and they forget about us. It's so sad, 814 00:49:50,440 --> 00:49:54,120 Speaker 1: but then they turned like and they'll come back. They'll 815 00:49:54,160 --> 00:49:57,200 Speaker 1: be back. Well, if you want to get in touch 816 00:49:57,200 --> 00:49:59,080 Speaker 1: of this for a while, make us feel pretty good 817 00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:01,960 Speaker 1: and then forget about us, you can start by tweeting 818 00:50:02,040 --> 00:50:04,480 Speaker 1: to us at s Y s K podcast. You can 819 00:50:04,600 --> 00:50:06,920 Speaker 1: join us on Facebook dot com, slash Stuff you Should Know. 820 00:50:07,200 --> 00:50:09,399 Speaker 1: You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at 821 00:50:09,400 --> 00:50:12,000 Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com and has always joined uswitter 822 00:50:12,080 --> 00:50:19,000 Speaker 1: home on the web Stuff you Should Know dot com 823 00:50:19,000 --> 00:50:21,440 Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics. Is 824 00:50:21,480 --> 00:50:33,239 Speaker 1: it how stuff Works dot com