lean year

The Emissary(written by Yoko Tawada) は年寄りが元気で長生きし、若者は病弱で元気がないという、最近の傾向を極端に描いた様なＳＦでした。
When he was young, tall men had still been favored in Japanese society. This prejudice had obviously been imported from abroad, through foreign movies and magazines. Then, at the end of the Heisei Era, with society changing at the speed of pebbles rolling down a steep hill, memories of the Edo period rose up from dilapidated graveyards to dispel the notion that tall men had the advantage, for back then, in lean years the tallest were always the first to sicken and die.
この小説は２０１４年に発表され、英訳版は２０１８年に刊行されたとウィキペディアに書かれていました。英語を読んでいると元の日本語は言葉遊びのような表現だったと思われる個所が度々出て来るので翻訳者は大変だったろうなと推測します。
さて、"lean years" の意味を調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Offering little reward, substance, or nourishment; meagre.: the lean winter months; keep a small reserve to tide you over the lean years

・Collins Dictionary: If you describe periods of time as lean, you mean that people have less of something such as money or are less successful than they used to be. With fewer tourists in town, the taxi trade is going through its leanest patch for 30 years.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: If a period of time is lean, there is not enough of something, especially money or food, at that time: It has been a particularly lean year for the education department.
なるほど、"lean" は痩せているだけではなく、こんな使い方があるのですね。