The Effects of Population on Nutrition and Economic Well-Being

Mechanisms & trends are described that point in an optimistic direction with respect to humankind's ability to feed itself, even despite -- or more likely because of -- population growth. People can expand the arable land, plant more intensively, work harder, & invent or adopt new food-producing techniques in response to perceived need & opportunity. Roads, communications, & other infrastructures result from higher income & sufficiently dense population settlements. From these mechanisms flow long-run increases in productivity that overcome short-run scarcities & produce historical trends toward cheaper food, with less famine & higher consumption per capita worldwide. In developed countries, increased food for more people is produced by smaller numbers of farmers; the same may be expected in the now poor countries as they develop. 9 Figures. AA.