ABSTRACT
It is generally accepted that world food production is not increasing at the same rate as population growth. Population control activists routinely argue that the world cannot continue to support an ever-increasing population. In 1798, Thomas Malthus wrote one of the most widely cited articles advocating population control “An Essay on the Principle of Population.” He recognized that population growth is dependent on the current population; hence, the more the population at any given time, the more the population growth will be. This idea led to the concept of “exponential growth” for the population. The population would increase by 50% every 20 years. This would mean more than doubling the population every 40 years. Figure 1.1 shows a population chart compiled by the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), which, in fact, shows much more than a linear increase in population with time.
