food shortage vs. food shortageS

[peteryoung]

'food shortageS' yields about 458,000 results in Google, nearly three times as many results as 'food shortage', which is 173,000. But I can see little difference between their uses. Here's a news title from BBC: North Korea food shortages mount. And Here's one from Guardian: One in six countries facing food shortage. How are they different?
Thanks!

[Tdol]

I'd say 'shortages' are repeated or bigger.