Global Food Supplies Are Not Becoming Scarcer

Bjorn Lomborg is an associate professor of statistics in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. In the following viewpoint, Lomborg asserts that despite enormous population growth, farmers are feeding a higher percentage of people worldwide than ever before. According to Lomborg, the Green Revolution--during which scientists developed fertilizers and pesticides, high-yield crops, and better irrigation methods--enabled farmers to produce more food more cheaply. Inhabitants in both the developed and developing world have benefited as food production has tripled, calorie intake per capita increased, and the number of starving people fallen. As you read, consider the following questions: • Describe Malthus's theory of population growth, as related by the author. • According to Lomborg, how much has meat per person increased since 1950? • How have Norwegian farmers increased the productivity of salmon, as explained by the author?