LONDON (AlertNet) - Every food crisis is different - both its causes and how it develops.
But no famine arises completely out of the blue, and by the time images of dying children reach people's television screens in the West, vulnerable comunities will often have experienced months of trying to cope with food shortages.
To understand the dynamics that turn a food crisis into a famine, click on Life-cycle of a famine for a stage-by-stage explanation based on Médecins Sans Frontières guidelines.
Western Sahara independence campaigner Aminatou Haidar speaks to reporters as she leaves hospital in a wheelchair in Lanzarote, Spain's Canary Islands December 17, 2009. Haidar, who has been on a hunger ...
