Famines and Severe Food Insecurity (NUTR-ON340)

Spring 2026 · NUTR ON340 · Tufts University · 1.5 credits · Undergraduate

Asynchronous: Famines have a lasting effect on people who experience them, changing societal norms, relationships between nations, between a people and its government. Though we now have the technical capacity and resources to prevent famines and severe food insecurity, famines are becoming increasingly common, even in well-developed economies where hunger is unfamiliar. Famines are unique among catastrophes, involving, in one way or another, everyone in that society as a large part of the population struggles day to day just to stay alive, sometimes across multiple years, and many are not successful. This class will examine famines and severe food insecurity not as events, but as man-made processes and systems leading to the collapse of food security for large sectors of the population. We will examine these systems from high conceptual, theoretical levels down to experiences of individuals simply trying to get enough food to keep their families and themselves alive.

Course codes: NUTR-ON340

Course Discovery