cyu
19th September 2009, 02:12
Excerpts from http://enpassant.com.au/?p=4873
There is a “common sense” belief that has been at the heart of much discussion on the environment for many years – that there are simply too many people on the planet.
The argument echoes the ideas of the 18th century writer Thomas Malthus, who believed that growth in population would inevitably outstrip available food supply.
Malthus’ ideas have no basis in science. Britain for instance comfortably contains a population far in excess of that which Malthus believed would lead to mass starvation.
Improved science and agriculture have enabled us to produce far more food than ever before.
the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation points out that there is 15 percent more food today per person than there was 20 years ago.
Recently it has shown that the total amount of land for crops in the world could be more than doubled.
When the great revolutionary Frederick Engels criticised Malthus, he turned the argument on its head. Rather than asking why people are hungry, he wondered why there isn’t enough food produced.
“The limits of production are determined not by the number of hungry bellies but by the number of purses able to buy and to pay,” he wrote.
The moneyless bellies, the labour which cannot be utilised for profit and therefore cannot buy is left to the death-rate.”
There are more than enough resources to meet the needs of everyone on the planet
The priorities of the system stand in the way of doing this, not a growth in population.
There is a “common sense” belief that has been at the heart of much discussion on the environment for many years – that there are simply too many people on the planet.
The argument echoes the ideas of the 18th century writer Thomas Malthus, who believed that growth in population would inevitably outstrip available food supply.
Malthus’ ideas have no basis in science. Britain for instance comfortably contains a population far in excess of that which Malthus believed would lead to mass starvation.
Improved science and agriculture have enabled us to produce far more food than ever before.
the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation points out that there is 15 percent more food today per person than there was 20 years ago.
Recently it has shown that the total amount of land for crops in the world could be more than doubled.
When the great revolutionary Frederick Engels criticised Malthus, he turned the argument on its head. Rather than asking why people are hungry, he wondered why there isn’t enough food produced.
“The limits of production are determined not by the number of hungry bellies but by the number of purses able to buy and to pay,” he wrote.
The moneyless bellies, the labour which cannot be utilised for profit and therefore cannot buy is left to the death-rate.”
There are more than enough resources to meet the needs of everyone on the planet
The priorities of the system stand in the way of doing this, not a growth in population.