A new research paper has found a link between famine and the increasing popularity of staple foods like rice and soybeans.



Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings revealed how local staple crops like cereals and roots have been superseded by "energy-dense foods" like palm oil.

If the world depends on a few staple crops for nourishment, the health of those crops become synonymous with world food security.  Being to dependent on just one or two kinds of staple crops is dangerous, especially when disasters like drought or pests occur.

A good example of this is the Irish potato famine, when a potato disease robbed Ireland of its export crops and food supply in the mid-nineteenth century. For more on this study, click here