1639 



Among other behavioral matters in which additional data would be helpful 

 are the following: the sociopsychological aspects of male-female interaction; 

 socioeconomic factors affecting human behavior relative to marriage, fertility, and 

 migration; and social processes leading to cnltural change. Human behavior is, 

 after all, the most critical factor in maintaining a balance between population 

 and available food resources, and indeed in the whole development process.^" 



For the United States alone, or under bilateral arrangements, to 

 embark on studies of tbis sort would seem less appropriate than for 

 this country to give vigorous encouragement to their pursuit by 

 agencies of the United Nations. The reasons given above by Dr. 

 Nanes for the virtues of multilateral programs appear almost uniquely 

 apphcable to this area. On the other hand, U.S. skills in agricultural 

 technology might well be suited to transfer under bilateral arrange- 

 ments. The technology appropriate to the U.S. cUmate, soils, economy, 

 and other factors might not generally be suited to developing countries. 

 But U.S. research methods and the remarkably successful U.S. 

 methods of transfering technology from the research station to the 

 individual farmer could be widely useful abroad."' 



Author\s Reassessment 



The main theme of the study is the interrelationships among food 

 supply, population growth, and the entire process of development. 

 Subsidiary themes concern food requirements and the technology of 

 food production, the technology of birth limitation, and the problem 

 of motivating people in the developing countries to adopt available 

 birth control techniques. The study is further concerned with the 

 organizational concepts, plans, programs, and international arrange- 

 ments designed to operate on these- variables. The enormous human 

 complexity of the food/population problem — social, cultural, economic, 

 religious, administrative, political, diplomatic — ia suggested aa an 

 overlying theme. 



RELEVANCE OF THE STUDY 6 YEARS LATER 



These themes seem unquestionably as relevant today as at the 

 time the study was written. The importance of the food problem has 

 been pointed up again in recent months by the famine in the Sahel 

 and elsewhere, and by the World Food Conference, proposed by the 

 United States and held in Rome in November 1974. Population 

 growth continues essentially unabated, while a key effort to control 

 such growth, namely, the program in India, appears to have failed. 

 The solution of the food/population dilemma remains crucial if the 

 poverty of the underdeveloped countries is to be substantially 

 alleviated. 



In this connection it may be noted that there hasr been some change 

 in the philosophy of development, with a number of experts now con- 

 tending that first priority should go to the upgrading of agriculture, 

 not only for the purpose of increasing the indigenous food supply, but 

 also as a means of providing emplo3rment. It is sug^sted that the 

 latter objective be achieved by the use of labor-intensive, rather than 



1" Ibid., p. 779. 



1^ On this point see U.S. Congress, House, Committee on Science and Technology, AgrlcultUTe Reitarch 

 and Derdopment: Background Papers, prepared for the Subcommittee on Science, Research, and TechnoK ,iy 

 and the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Scientific Planning and Analysis. September 1975, 

 pp. 25-26. (Committee print.) 



