Do you think food is a big issue if you are resourceful? I have read some books on past famines and it seems people with lots of social capital, money and/or firepower always manage to get enough food, even in really bad famines. Famines seem to almost always strike the poor/younger/older much harder. So conditional on one having resources, do you think one should weigh heavily the local production of food?
I think the kinds of famine that would happen in the scenarios that I describe would be quite different to the ones of the past when it comes to the scale. If there is just no food locally where you are, it does not really matter how resourceful you are. Also, I think that cooperation is quite important in such events. My own research, as well as the conclusions I took from reading a lot on this is that when cooperation breaks down, things will get much much worse. Therefore, I think the main thing you should be concerned about is not trying to get as many resources as possible, but work on maintaining cooperation. If you fail at that, the overall food security will drop so hard, it just become unlikely that you will be one of the few “lucky” people who still find something.
Do you think food is a big issue if you are resourceful? I have read some books on past famines and it seems people with lots of social capital, money and/or firepower always manage to get enough food, even in really bad famines. Famines seem to almost always strike the poor/younger/older much harder. So conditional on one having resources, do you think one should weigh heavily the local production of food?
I think the kinds of famine that would happen in the scenarios that I describe would be quite different to the ones of the past when it comes to the scale. If there is just no food locally where you are, it does not really matter how resourceful you are. Also, I think that cooperation is quite important in such events. My own research, as well as the conclusions I took from reading a lot on this is that when cooperation breaks down, things will get much much worse. Therefore, I think the main thing you should be concerned about is not trying to get as many resources as possible, but work on maintaining cooperation. If you fail at that, the overall food security will drop so hard, it just become unlikely that you will be one of the few “lucky” people who still find something.