One jump ahead of Malthus by Michael Allaby

As the world population relentlessly expands, it becomes ever more urgent to ensure adequate food supplies for the millions of extra hungry mouths. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), a specialized agency of the U.N., has published its own scheme to boost food production—the Indicative World Plan. Michael Allaby examines i t here and declares i t doomed to failure even before i t is operational.

The trouble with Thomas Malthus is that he was right. Human populations especially disordered ones, whose cul­ tural controls are no longer operative, tend to increase to use up available re24