Famines have devastated entire regions throughout human history. We are inclined to think that they usually occur as a consequence of armed conflicts that are especially frequent in the poorer areas of the world, but a long-term analysis conducted by Guido Alfani (professor of Economic History at Bocconi University) and Cormac Ó Gráda (professor emeritus of Economics at University College Dublin) for the Centre for Economic Policy Research shows that before the industrial age, famines were caused by demographic pressure combined with abnormal atmospheric events. These factors, combined with the ongoing war in Ukraine and the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, are still at work today.

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