Distribution is more important than production of food – inequitable access is the conflict driver, not shortages

Food scarcity, however, is only one aspect of food security. Whether people have easy access to food resources is also important. So even in countries where plenty of food is available, a large share of the population might still go hungry.

As Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen notes, “Starvation is the characteristic of some people not having enough food to eat. It is not the characteristic of there being not enough food to eat.”

Grievances over food and the necessity to secure access to food resources can motivate marginalized groups to participate in rebellions and wars. A number of scholars are researching how inequitable access to food affects violence within the state. As Ben Bagozzi and I show in a recent paper, armed actors worldwide are motivated to fight over local food resources.

Here’s why these conflicts tend to happen in regions with more food crops, not less. For rebel groups, securing — and controlling — food resources is vital for the insurgency to advance. And when the government is slow or unable to supply combat rations, state forces also may be forced to extract food supplies from the local population,

So scarce food resources in a region locked in conflict act as both fuel and reward for hungry combatants. Access to more local food resources, especially in the case of rebel groups, can also be used to attract recruits, as happened in Sierra Leone and Somalia. Regions where wheat and barley are grown are also an important source of support for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.