"Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine" is a related book, which covers this phenomenon in 1950s China.
It's not a pleasant topic. Some people ate their children to survive. It's interesting though how very well meaning utopian policies can lead to this result. Planting the seed 5 ft beneath the ground will result in great crops because the seed will have to struggle and thus only the best seed will make it to harvest. And of course all that seed buried that far down didn't make it at all. But that is your fault, traitor, not infallible Great Leader's.
It's not a pleasant topic. Some people ate their children to survive. It's interesting though how very well meaning utopian policies can lead to this result. Planting the seed 5 ft beneath the ground will result in great crops because the seed will have to struggle and thus only the best seed will make it to harvest. And of course all that seed buried that far down didn't make it at all. But that is your fault, traitor, not infallible Great Leader's.