[McLynnan]

Some families now eat grasses almost every day. They have nothing else.

During the last famine North Koreans stripped the landscape near their homes bare of grass and roots. Already weak, they had to venture further and further from home to scrape vegetation from the ground in order to survive. Their entire days were taken up with foraging and eating things we would never consider putting in our mouths. Apparently it is happening again. They have been dehumanized. No human being should have to live like this.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

One of Mao's “Great Leap Forward” campaigns was directed at songbirds which were said to be eating too much of the peoples’ grain. Nests were destroyed and live birds were netted and killed.
The result was large losses to insects.