Mao's Great Famine • Ad-Free

: The famine was exacerbated by the diverted labor of millions from farming to industrial projects like "backyard steel furnaces," which produced useless metal while crops rotted in fields.

: Local officials, desperate to meet impossible state targets, inflated production figures. This led the central government to over-procure grain, leaving the rural population with nothing to eat. Impact and Legacy Mao's Great Famine

: A public health initiative that targeted sparrows, among other "pests". The mass killing of sparrows caused a locust population explosion that decimated grain crops. : The famine was exacerbated by the diverted