Open AccessEconomists are not dismal, the world is not a P etri dish and other reasons for optimism
Author(s) -
Tiffin Richard
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
food and energy security
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.253
H-Index - 25
ISSN - 2048-3694
DOI - 10.1002/fes3.7
Subject(s) - population growth , population , economics , optimism , food security , development economics , natural resource economics , economic growth , business , market economy , agriculture , biology , medicine , psychology , ecology , social psychology , environmental health
One of the recurrent themes in the debate around how to ensure global food security concerns the capacity of the planet to support its growing population. Neo‐Malthusian thinking suggests that we are in a situation in which further expansion of the population cannot be supported and that the population checks, with their dismal consequences envisaged by M althus, will lead to a new era of stagnant incomes and population. More sophisticated models of the link between population and income are less gloomy, however. They see population growth as an integral component of the economic growth which is necessary to ensure that the poorest achieve food security. An undue focus on the difficulties of meeting the demands of the increasing population risks damaging this growth. Instead, attention should be focused on ensuring that the conditions to ensure that economic growth accompanies population growth are in place.