Sir Thomas Malthus predicted in 1798 that population would continually increase faster than the food supply, causing chronic food shortages. Today, in much of Asia, Africa and Latin America the Malthusian specter still stalks the land. The prospect of world famine is held before us with hundreds of millions of people starving. Yet, it was not always so. A decade ago food production was increasing in many of these areas which today appear hopeless.
Conventional wisdom holds that the world food crisis is caused by a population explosion.
But this is not the case. World food production has increased twice as fast as world population during the past 25 years. Numerous reasons have been cited - war, droughts, floods, earthquakes, and the like. Examples probably can be found to support each of these reasons. Yet, there is a more fundamental reason for the recent worsening of the food problem.