ABSTRACT
New information on the carrying capacity of both land and oceanic food systems argues for a basic rethinking of national population policies, an accelerated international response to fill unmet family planning needs, and a recasting of development strategies to address the underlying causes of high fertility. At the US consumption level of 800 kilograms per person per year, it would sustain roughly 2.5 billion people. It is also designed to reduce infant mortality in developing countries from 69 deaths for every 1,000 births to 12, the current rate in the industrial world. Even as the family planning gap is being filled, there is a need to deal with the underlying social causes of high fertility. Improved literacy plays an important role, for example, not only because among females it correlates closely with reducing fertility, but also because for farmers it is often the key to the adoption of more sophisticated agricultural management practices.
