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Norman Borlaug: How to Continue the Fight Against Hunger

• Tichy 18y ago
  Not saying the starving masses don't need to be fed, but is enhanced food production really a long-term solution? Seems to me no matter how much food production is raised, population growth will eventually catch up. That's assuming that there is a natural limit to the amount of food that can be produced on the planet. Also, do we really want to reach that limit, or maybe we all live more comfortable if we can stop population growth before that?
  • mhb 18y ago
    Seems to me no matter how much food production is raised, population growth will eventually catch up. How do you reconcile this assertion with the negligible population growth in many of the developed countries?
    • Tichy 18y ago
      Well if you assume that population stops growing, there is no need to raise the food production. Of course in theory population growth can be stopped. I just meant that ever growing food production can not be the solution. Instead, it would probably make more sense to focus on stopping population growth.
      • mhb 18y ago
        It works the other way, though. People in less developed countries have kids because they need them to produce food. When they know that they won't starve without having many offspring, they have fewer. Another way to look at it is that having a child in a less developed country is closer to a net gain in terms of payback to the parent over the life of the child. In developed countries, children are a big investment on which no one expects to come close to breaking even.