Global IssuesAuthor and Page information
- This page: http://www.globalissues.org/article/200/population-and-feeding-the-world.
- To print all information e.g. expanded side notes, shows alternative links, use the print version:
"World hunger is extensive in spite of sufficient global food resources. Therefore increased food production is no solution. The problem is that many people are too poor to buy readily available food. Therefore measures solving the poverty problem is what is required to solve the world hunger problem"
The food scarcity part of the argument in the population debate is an interesting one -- people are hungry not because the population is growing so fast that food is becoming scarce, but because people cannot afford it.
It is international trade and economic policies that have lead to immense poverty and hunger, not food scarcity due to over population. (For more about this, see the genetically engineered food section of this web site that looks into the argument of helping feed the world and more links to articles that discuss the fact that this is a political problem, not a shortage problem.)
Oftentimes, people make the argument about population increases and lack of food or ability to provide enough food to sustain such growth. However, this has been counter-argued by pointing out that currently food production more than keeps up with population growth. In fact, when weighing the impacts on demands by populations versus the way large checmical companies and industrial agricultural businesses promote certain types of agricultural practices, and the serious threat of top soil loss (which will affect yeilds in the future, where large populations could feel an additional burden), it is less certain that populations and "over" population is the main cause.
Land Rights
One important aspect about the causes of hunger is often ignored; that is, land ownership and who controls the land. Throughout history, this has been an important part of power struggles and one of the major causes of poverty (and therefore, hunger). Find out more.
Myth: Too Many Mouths to Feed 
With kind permission from Peter Rosset of the Institute for Food and Development Policy (or FoodFirst.org as it is also known), chapter 3 of World Hunger: 12 Myths, 2nd Edition, by Frances Moore Lappé, Joseph Collins and Peter Rosset, with Luis Esparza (fully revised and updated, Grove/Atlantic and Food First Books, Oct. 1998) has been posted here. It describes in details the issue of population and hunger. Find out more.
More Information
This issue is related to many others presented on this web site, such as poverty and hunger, the disastrous effects of food aid in non-emergency scenarios and the promise of benefits to solving hunger via genetically engineered food. See related links.
Where next?
This article has the following parts:
- Population and Feeding the World
- Land Rights
- Myth: Too Many Mouths to Feed
- Is population growth out of control?
- The demographic transition
- Does "Overpopulation" cause hunger?
- Poverty and population growth: lessons from our own past
- Good and bad fertility decline
- But we don’t have time
- Upping the ante
- China’s Solution?
- The challenge ahead
- Notes and sources for “Myth: Too Many Mouths to Feed”
- Links for More Information on Feeding the World
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Anup Shah, Population and Feeding the World, GlobalIssues.org, Last updated: Monday, July 09, 2001
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Author and Page Information
- Created: Tuesday, December 01, 1998
- Last Updated: Monday, July 09, 2001