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Alternative Lives R Available's avatar

Famine is the inability to afford food, not in itself a shortage of food. If the money is there to buy the food in any particular place, then traders will usually find ways of getting the food to that market.

So when there are food shortages, then the prices rise and so the food is diverted to those that can still afford it.

Some will remember the famous Bob Geldof Live Aid concert in 1985 to raise money for the massive famine in Ethiopia. What most don't realise is throughout that famine, Ethiopia continued to be a net exporter of food. But local people couldn't afford to buy it and foreigners could.

The same can happen, and probably already happens in America. If you live in a poor neighbourhood, your local supermarket won't have as much selection as in a richer neighbourhood. If there are food shortages and prices rise, and your locals can't afford so much, then your supermarket chain will redirect produce to those supermarkets that can sell it for the higher price! Obviously!

So it is easy to see a situation where local supermarkets in poor places will have empty shelves first, and chains may even close them because they can't sell enough to make a profit. Once the box supermarket goes, then many American towns have no food supplier. What then?

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