A proof copy of Cormac Ó Gráda’s [amazon_link id=”0691165351″ target=”_blank” ]Eating People is Wrong (& other essays on famine, its past and its future)[/amazon_link] has arrived in the post, and it all looks terrific. I’ve skimmed the title essay, the point being that not all famines result in cannibalism, raising the question – why not? What cultural shifts or social norms might account for the different experiences concerning “one of the human race’s darkest secrets.”

[amazon_image id=”0691165351″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Eating People Is Wrong, and Other Essays on Famine, Its Past, and Its Future[/amazon_image]

The book ends with a reflection on Amartya Sen’s observation in his famous book [amazon_link id=”0198284632″ target=”_blank” ]Poverty and Famines[/amazon_link] (and again in [amazon_link id=”0192893300″ target=”_blank” ]Development as Freedom[/amazon_link]) that eliminating famine is ‘easy’, but eliminating hunger is not, and we shouldn’t pretend it is so. The task is “constrained by vested interests, by power politics, by poverty, by ignorance, by cynicism and by false analysis.”

Can’t wait to read the bits in the middle. Probably not right after our Christmas lunch.