Population, food and nutrition during the remainder of this century: Part I. World prospects

People mainly depend on food that can be produced on arable land. However, the amount of this land is strictly limited and is less than is generally assumed. Particularly in the developing countries it is usually very fully exploited, but the crop yields obtained are poor and all too often the productive capacity is steadily decreasing. Efforts to improve conditions were often successful, but they have been largely arrested by the rapid rise in the cost of energy. These improvements were partly responsible for a slight rise in the standard of living, sufficient to cause a corresponding slight reduction in the awesome rate at which the population was increasing. For the same reason this encouraging tendency can no longer be expected; indeed it will be reversed. Other adverse effects must be expected from this new factor which will increase the gravity of a situation already so very serious. More and more people cannot be nourished by land that is becoming less and less productive. But how can the nations be awakened from their mutual suspicions and fears? From their preoccupation with creating ever more deadly tools of destruction? How can they be made to see the magnitude of the danger which will affect them all? Is there not an urgent need for them to draw on their immense resources and engage in a concerted effort, on an adequate scale, to win what is becoming a war for survival?