The Causes of Famine?

The Ethiopian crisis stimulated interesting questions about the demographic causes and consequences of the famine and how best to address the tragedy through policy. The tragedy enables students of geography to apply population theories to a particular place and time and to better understand the real world implications of policy recommendations.

Would the task of sending Western aid in the form of money and food to Ethiopia sink the lifeboat portrayed in Hardin's metaphor?  Or, following Barry Commoner's view, might Ethiopian relief efforts be more accurately viewed as "the return of resources" to a formerly wealthy nation made poor through colonialism? (Ethiopia, at the height of the Kingdom of Axum, boasted a mix of urban architecture, extensive trade networks, and mineral extraction, while in 1984 its GDP per capita was $283).

With a total fertility rate of 6.7 in 1984, the Ehrlich camp might identify Ethiopia's large population as the major culprit behind the crisis (US Census Bureau, International Database).  Left uncontrolled, population pressure ultimately increased stress on the nation's environmental resources; exacerbated by drought, these factors caused a crisis of Malthusian proportions.  Viewed from Julian Simon's standpoint, however, the Ethiopian people were not the problem but the solution.  What sorts of technologies might Ethiopians employ to increase crop yields and prevent future famines?   

In sum, the theories of Malthus, Marx, Ehrlich, Simon, Hardin and Commoner enable us to apply general demographic principles to real world geographic problems such as the Ethiopian famine. Yet the African famine cannot be separated from the particular economic, social, cultural and environmental context of that region. Indeed, there are differences in the world that call for consideration.  Not every location on earth is the same.  Because of geographic differences – whether in economies, population growth, or natural resource availability - we can see different outcomes resulting from population changes and resulting interactions with natural resources.  Geography therefore provides us with a lens for understanding the complex spatial dimensions of population issues.