A Fair World?

The average
American consumes
300 times as much
energy as the
average
Bangladeshi

In m
scar any LE
a tes D
N s t amo city of Cs,
The U od n
o part g the food
that f might be p
es une ly due oor is
suppli e to feed v t
at of l en dist o an
adequ ld’s a r
or peo nd own ibution
the w ion if they p
Afr le pow rship
e
t
popula stributed i e
is o ca, 47 r: S.
&
di
were w %
the ned by of la
!
evenly pop
ulat 2% of d
n
io n !
Prophet of Doom?
Thomas Malthus 1798
Thomas Malthus: An Essay on
the Principle of Population
1798. Predicted a pessimistic
view on the dangers of
overpopulation & claimed that
food supply was the main limit to
population growth

Malthus believed the

popn increases
geometrically
(2,4,8,16,32etc)
whereas food supply
ca only grow
arithmetically
(2,4,6,8etc) being
limited by available
new land
Esther Boserup – optimistic?
 Esther Boserup, a Danish economist, asserted that an increase in population would stimulate technologists and scientists to increase food
production:

 ie. Any increase in population would increase the demand for food & so act as an incentive to change agrarian (farming) technology &
produce more food.

‘Necessity is the mother of invention’

Since 1798 there have been many ways in which food production has increased:
 Draining marshlands bringing them into agricultural productivity
 Land reclamation from the sea
 Cross breeding cattle
 Developing high yield varieties of plants (especially rice)
 Terracing of steep slopes
 Creating artificial environments – greenhouses
 Using more sophisticated irrigation techniques
 Creation of new foods such a s soya
 Creation and extensive use of fertilisers and pesticides (agro-chemical)
 Farming native species of crops and animals
 Fish farming