Doomsayers are long-term, and realise that life was once better, and that life now is not good at all. Life is as was predicted, with the population nearly doubled, crime rampant, pollution unchecked, and species disappearing at an alarming rate. Soothsayers look at the immediate future that will affect them, but fail to see beyond that. Any improvements to the quality of life are temporary. One such improvement is the ability to produce more food in a smaller amount of land.
More food equals more people invariably.
The type of agriculture which is currently practiced in the world is set upon outpacing the growth of population. This is impossible. The numbers will always fluctuate but will have an average which the food amount can support. Humans cannot import goods from space, cannot expand to the heavens, and certainly cannot receive more food from other planets. So this improvement, this innovation of agricultural technology, has led only to the increase in population, as it has every single year throughout history.