text: MSNBC is not wrong about the rising global demand for food, but they?re crying ?wolf? before the wolf cubs are born. It?s true the world must double its food production in the short space of 40 years, to feed a human population that will peak at perhaps 9 billion people. Seven billion of them will be ?rich? by today?s standards. After 2050, our declining birth rate will start the first-ever long term shrinkage in human numbers. It was lower death rates that caused the ?population explosion,? by the way, and not farmers ?producing too much food.?