Source: Bongaarts, John. 1993. Working papers. p. 1-9. In Population growth and the food supply: conflicting perspectives. The Population Council, New York.

John Bongaarts, the Vice President of the Population Council, reports on the two very different perspectives of population and the food supply. With the population estimated at 10 billion in 2050, many people are pessimistic about the future. Mr. Bongaarts summarizes the prospects of feeding the world's hungry in the future. The author claims there is no consensus in the scientific arena, and he believes the scientific optimists and pessimists need to exchange views. This is something he considers to be lacking. He shows the disparity of food consumption levels in different parts of the world. For example, Africa only consumes 2328 calories per day per person. Of that, 2328 calories, there are only 56.9 grams of protein included. In contrast, developed countries take in too much fat, and that becomes unhealthy. Mr. Bongaarts defines the most malnourished areas as Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Africa has an estimated 168 million undernourished, about 33% of the total population. Future demand for food, he argues, is a severe problem. If we persist in growing most of our food on just 0.7 billion hectares of farm land, then by 2050 we will need to raise our present yields by 112% in the developing world. This will just keep the undernourished world at its present inadequate diet. In summary, he feels that "the actual course of events will depend crucially on ... governments' ability to design and implement effective policies. ... Whatever the outcome, the task ahead will be made more difficult if population growth rates cannot be reduced."

Abstract Author: Adam Rundell, 3 October 1995.

SUSAG Abstracts: Go back to the SUSAG Abstracts search page.