Errr... you need to read up on history. Starvation was a huge killer in the dark ages, and generals back to biblical times regularily put entire towns to the sword.
Oh, yes... but I said 'local' hunger... one region, or two...for big hungers there is no way out!... and yes, often a town or a city was destroyed and all the population killed... but a whole region? ... even the worst plagues, (as the Plague of Justinian or the Black Death) only killed half of the population.
Well... Maybe BM regions are smaller than I supposed...
