Throughout history, famine has been linked to many of the most severe crises of humanity. Even with millenary of collective experience, the reaction of the world community to the an intense food crises fails to address the long-term impacts of famine. As governments and populations strive to cope with famine, many long-term changes take place in those nations suffering from famine. The scale of these changes ranges from microeconomic to macroeconomic changes and include social and political changes in the state and in the dependency status of the nation. Studies have shown changes in land ownership (Chambers and Pacey, ed., 1981), relative gain in wealth by the wealthy (Crawford, 1980), herd reduction, and migration of the population in search of wages and food. Macroeconomic changes such as internal improvements within the nation take place as governments try to secure the nation from future episodes of famine. Many famines have followed civil wars or threats from invasion, and some governments have been weakened during periods of famine. Dependency status results when developing nations serve the interests of more powerful nations, resulting in less economic development. Since no large population in today's world is dependent on local natural resources to the extent that a failure of nature must lead to famine, numerous observers (O'Brien, 1985; Shindo, 1985) say the increase of famines in today's world is due to social focus. (SM)