They did in Chile.
When Pinochet took over he opened the warehouses and there was food to eat again. Expensive food but still, food.
Starving people into submission is a very old tactic.
Starving people is a dangerous tactic; the French and Russian revolutions were born of starvation, and those that would rule were often executed. Starvation led in no small part to the collapse of Imperial Germany; that made Hitler’s rise to power quite easy.
I believe our food stamp program, which has led to a “poor” population riddled with obesity and diabetes, is to prevent the desperation of men trying to feed starving families.