Becina, Chrisiah Mayce I.

2016

Aug 31,

AECO 140 G

MALTHUSIAN THEORY
Thomas Malthus is famous for formulating the Malthusian Theory. Malthus
(1978) wrote in his essay on Principle of Population that human populations grow
geometrically while food production grows at an arithmetic rate. His theory implies
that population increases faster than food production and at some point in the near
future, the resources wont be able to sustain and supply the growing needs and
demands of the people due to the rapid increase of the population. He also stated
that if preventive measures like avoidance of marriage, later marriage or less
children per marriage are not practiced, then war, famine, and disease will soon
occur. This paper aims to prove that Malthus forecast is wrong by explaining
important factors that he forgot to anticipate. These factors are the rapid
development and advancement of technology and the sudden availability of certain
resources that are used to increase food production.
According to Tverberg (2012), Malthus wrote his essay before fossil fuel use
started to increase. He elaborated that the use of fossil fuels ramped up the rapid
uptake of new technology, such as the sale of cars and trucks. Another is the
availability of coal which allowed more and better metal products (i.e. metal plows,
barbed wire fences, and trains for long distance transport) to be made. Because of
this inventions, food produced by farmers rose. Trevberg (2012) also further
explained when the oil consumption boomed:
when oil consumption mushroomed, and when oil enabled better transport
of crops to market, use of tractors and other farm equipment, and medical
advances such as antibiotics. The Green Revolution allowed agricultural
production to expand greatly during this period. It used fossil fuels
(particularly oil and natural gas) to enable the synthetic fertilizers, irrigation,
hybrid seed, herbicides and pesticides, allowing increased food production.
Another reason on why Malthus forecast may be wrong is the increase of the
population. Population has not increased as rapidly as Malthus predicted while food
production has increased tremendously because of the rapid development of
technology. Examples of innovations invented were fertilizers, pesticides and
insecticides, high-grade seeds, tractors and other agricultural machineries. Because
of these innovations, food production have increased greatly.
According to IFIC Foundation (2014), new technologies like biotechnology
can help us produce more food on the same amount of land without having to
compromise the wildlife habitats. The foundation stated that the roles of
biotechnology is are

Ensuring the sufficient food supply for a growing global population

Producing more food with fewer natural resources

Conserving the natural habitat
Reducing carbon footprint
Enhanced food security through reduced fluctuations in yields caused
by insect invasions, droughts or floods.

Furthermore, the foundation explained through a study that 7 out of 10

consumers came to an agreement that modern agriculture can be sustainable and
produce high-quality, nutritious foods.
Malthus theory seems logical if we do not account the technological
advancements that happened in the last few centuries. But in our world now,
everything is incorporated with technology. It helps us in our daily lives in many
ways and it has certainly and greatly helped the world with food production and our
growing demands. The advancement of technology became an avenue to perform
better in providing the growing demands of the world.

References:
https://ourfiniteworld.com/2012/12/12/why-malthus-got-his-forecast-wrong/
http://www.economicsdiscussion.net/articles/malthusian-theory-of-populationexplained-with-its-criticism/1521
http://www.forbes.com/sites/larahoffmans/2011/10/31/7-billion-reasonsmalthus-was-wrong/#3a12637e560b
http://www.foodinsight.org/articles/modern-farming-technology-helps-keepfood-table
http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/y3557e/y3557e09.htm