1833 



Dr. Nanes also points out that as important as the relationship 

 between food and population is, and whatever solutions may be found 

 to the many-sided problem of the food-population imbalance, this 

 problem cannot be separated from the total process of development. 

 Development is a "seamless web." ^"^ 



FindiBg a solution to the food/population dilemma is the central problem of 

 international development. It is interwoven with every other aspect of develop- 

 ment. . . . for the new agricultural revolution to make its most forceful impact, 

 there must be ... a market economy. 



. . . domestic production helps establish sufficient purchasing power ... so 

 that the additional food produced by the new methods can be bought at prices 

 high enough to make it worthwhile for the farmer to utilize the new technology. 

 This process requires economic growth on a broad scale; "The tremendous inter- 

 action and interdependency which exists between agriculture and other sectors on 

 both the demand and supply sides makes it impossible to separate the problem of 

 food production as such from that of overall economic development." [Quoted 

 from the summary report of the National Academy of Engineering's "Symposium 

 on the Food-People Balance," Panel on Interactions between World Food and 

 World Population, Washington, D.C., April 29, 1970, p. 4.]"^ 



Among the factors which complicate the process of achieving overall 

 economic development are the dangers of ecological overstress on 

 food-producing systems ^"^ and limitations or imbalances in the supply 

 of energy for motive power and fertilizer production. Recognition of 

 the importance and pervasiveness of these factors has increased 

 markedly in the 6 years since the study was prepared. They call 

 attention to another meaning of interdependence: the interrelation- 

 ship and interaction among global problem areas as such. Population 

 growth is dependent on food production ; that is dependent on market 

 forces which include an adequate supply of fertihzer, which in turn 

 requires energy; food production is also subject to growing ecological 

 constraints. The population explosion in turn multipUes and aggra- 

 vates the other problems upon whose solution it depends, and in the 

 process adds further complexities and uncertainties to the manage- 

 ment of interdependence amon^ peoples. 



Reference was made earlier in this essay to the growth-no growth 

 dilemma of the future. Of all the factors which might combine to 

 speed the day when that dilemma must be faced, expanding popula- 

 tion is the most potent. The study is expHcit on the growth-no growth 

 problem : 



Rationally, men can already perceive the adverse human consequences of over- 

 population. But there is a countervailing recognition that there are also adverse 

 consequences of a stable population. Population growth in some instances is a 

 powerful engine of economic growth and expansion. The developed countries have 

 not yet accepted the consequences of a steady state either in the numbers of 

 their population or in their industrial productivity. The alternatives that face 

 mankind today are growth or no growth, and either one presents its problems. 

 The logic of the situation is that soon or late mankind must accept the limits of 

 the physical world. In a finite world, infinitely continued expansion is an impossi- 

 bility. The next question is whether there is at any given time an optimum size of 

 global population. (And indeed, also, an optimum level of affluence!) If growth in 

 numbers must stop, then when would be the best time to stop it? By what criteria 

 is this decision to be made? Is it the same decision for all countries? Is the final 

 result the same for aU time? And, how is the decision to be reached and then 

 given practical effect? s"* 



s* Ibid., p. 770. 

 5W Ibid., pp. 819-820. 



5* For a discussion of this subject see: Lester R. Brown, By Bread Alone, published for the Overseas 

 Development Council, New York, Praeger Publishers, 1974, pp. 45-57. 

 5M Nanes, Beyond Malthus: The Food/People Equation, p. 861. 



