The invisible poor die in invisible numbers

The invisible poor die in invisible numbers.

As most people visualize it, famine is the aftershock of some calamity that has left thousands of the starving flocked together, emergency food kept from their mouths by the perils of war or the callousness of despots or the impassibility of washed-away roads.

But more often, in the developing world, famine is both less obvious and more complicated.

Even small jolts to the regular food supply can jar open the trapdoor between what is normal, which is chronic malnutrition, and what is exceptional, which is outright starvation. Hunger and disease then feed off each other, leaving the invisible poor to die in invisible numbers.

[Excerpt from article written by Barry Bearak, NY Times Magazine]