Pissing off the people with food won't help you get any more of it.
Food shortages were the #1 reason why D'Hara always pursued a policy of "let's try to be friends with as many people as possible", until the lurian betrayal, at least.
Food shortages don't create conflict, they create peace. Interdependence.
War has never been profitable food-wise as those trying to get food are usually being idiots. The last war I know of that they claimed they needed food, all they ever did was do brutal takeovers and loot the regions to the ground. Don't expect a region to be productive after burning it to the ground. War not being profitable food-wise, I have only ever seen being the one needing the foods fault for it not being profitable. If you have several cities, let one starve and keep the others going. If you have one city, let it starve for 3 days, then bring in the food as if you only one city you can support it somewhat and you will get roughly 5-6 days of starvation reducing the pop to a sustainable amount. If you have been at peace, you should have plenty of gold so max out your entire army to get takeovers done quickly then you have food to keep the city. Be extremely agressive, looting your enemies core regions as much as possible, not the border regions and go for peace. Done.
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