Britain’s hunger and malnutrition crisis could be easily solved – yet politicians choose not | Michael Marmot to

We have more than enough to go round, yet large proportions of the population lack the basic necessities of life

What causes a famine? It isn't a lack of food. Nor does lack of food cause the kind of food insecurity, just short of a famine, that Britain is facing. In analyses of specific famines, the economist and philosopher Amartya Sen showed that social organisation and a lack of access to food for socially deprived people were the real causes of starvation.

As 2023 ends, Britain may not be facing a famine, as people are in north-eastern Nigeria, South Sudan, Yemen or Somalia, but that is a low bar. The UK's current levels of food insecurity will damage physical and mental health and increase health inequalities for years to come.

Michael Marmot is professor of epidemiology at University College London, director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity, and past president of the World Medical Association