The World Bank Blames African Famine on Bad Policy

Drought has led to food shortages in Africa, definitely contributing to the famine ravaging Somalia, but sadly, the current disaster is a result of bad policy, explains World Bank economist Kenya Wolfgang Fengler, according to Reuters. "The famine in the Horn of Africa is manmade -- the result of artificially high prices for food and civil conflict." While climate change may have made this season's summer particularly harsh, it's nothing Africa hasn't seen continues Fengler: "droughts have occurred over and again, but you need bad policymaking for that to lead to a famine." A small number of farmers controlling corn prices keep them artificially high; now they're 60 to 70 percent higher than the world market average.