Has a famine ever taken place in a functioning democracy?

Question

Nobel winning economist, Amartya Sen has said:

"No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy," he wrote in "Democracy as Freedom" (Anchor, 1999)

Source: Does Democracy Avert Famine?

My question: Is there any documented evidence for this statement? A study proving that no functioning democracy has ever faced a famine would be an ideal proof.

Definition of famine:

While there are various definitions of famine, many experts say that there must be evidence of three specific outcomes before a famine can be declared:

1. At least 20 percent of households face extreme food shortages with limited ability to cope.
2. The prevalence of global acute malnutrition must exceed 30 percent.
3. Death rates must exceed 2 deaths per 10,000 people per day.

Source: Hunger

Answer 1

This is a "No true Scotsman" argument.

For example there was the great famine in Ireland in the 1850s when it was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland which was clearly a democracy.

Of course, this is explicitly excluded because it was not a "functioning" democracy.

Another example would be the home fronts during World War II. Although many countries were not democratic, a few were, and famine and malnutrition was endemic in Europe.

Of course, this was during a war, so it could be called a different case yet again.

Wikipedia's list of famines clearly shows that famines have happened in many democratic countries, including the United States.

My speculation is that this has much more to do with functioning economies than functioning democracies. Single-party states such as China, Vietnam or Eritrea have functioning economies but lack democracy, and as far as I know seem not to be having famines recently.

So, a functioning democracy is not needed to have a functioning economy.

Wikipedia has a section on the causes of famine: sure enough, government policy is a possible cause, but so are natural causes

Many famines are caused by imbalance of food production compared to the large populations of countries whose population exceeds the regional carrying capacity

This makes it clear why a functioning economy helps on both counts: a functioning economy is only possible if the government does not make economic policy mistakes (first cause), and a functioning economy generates, in all likelihood, a stronger agriculture and food abundance.