Full House

After decades of steady growth, the world's food supply is no longer keeping up with population increases. Production of fish and grains per person has slowed to the point where the earth may have reached its "carrying capacity," with the result that one billion people (nearly one in five) are malnourished. These are the findings in this important book from the Worldwatch Institute published just in time for the World Conference on Population and Development to be held in Cairo in September 1994.

"Constraints imposed by the earth's natural systems, the environmental degradation of land and water resources, and the diminishing backlog of yield-raising agricultural technologies are slowing the growth in world food production, raising questions about the earth's population carrying capacity," says Lester Brown. At the same time, record additions to population are projected. Between 1950 and 1990, the world added an average of 70 million people per year. Between 1990 and 2030, the world is projected to add 90 million per year. The question now is how many people can the earth feed. And at what level of consumption.

The bottom line, according to Brown, is that the world's farmers can no longer be counted on to feed the projected additions to our numbers. Achieving a humane balance between food and people now depends more on family planners than on farmers. This issue will increasingly preoccupy national leaders, reorder national priorities, and dominate international affairs.

1994 / Paper / ISBN 0-393-31220-8 / Charts, figures / 200 pages / ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES/CURRENT EVENTS

• All 17 of the world's major fishing areas have either reached or exceeded their natural limits and 9 are in decline.
• Between 1950 and 1984, grain and wheat production grew dramatically. Since 1984 there has been a steady decline.
• Rice yields have dropped in the last three years, resulting in a doubling of the world price of rice in a three-month period in 1993.
• A title in the Worldwatch Environmental Alert series.