Norman Borlaug, 1914-2009

[Occhidiangela]

What Norman Borlaug did was to prevent, or at least long delay, a Malthusian crisis that would have killed tens, of not hundreds, of millions of people.

If the theory of demographic transition is correct, such a disaster might not have to happen at all, as birth rates drop in developing countries. But if Mr. Borlaug had not increased yields, we'd already have massive starvation in India and Africa.

-Jester

So what? Famine is as old a problem as the human race, yet somehow the human race is still around.

You seem to assume that an infinitely growing human population has inherent virtue, from what you wrote there.

Why?

I understand the theory of demographic transition, there seem to be strong correlations in Europe, and the Chinese model of population restraint is an interesting problem/solution strategy to mull over.

Breeding in excess of the land's capacity to bear the population remains a common human problem. Starvation is one symptom of that problem, conflict over scarce resources another. Thanks to our good Mr B, some nations or other warring groups can feed their troops ... perhaps better than others.