UN Food Chief Disputes Malthusian Overpopulation Theory at African Synod

Political and juridical reform, not population control will solve Africa's food problems

The head of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) told a gathering of African bishops in Rome on Monday that the theories of Thomas Malthus, equating increased population with food shortages, are incorrect. In response to a question from the floor at the African Synod, Dr. Jacques Diouf said that "food security" is possible in Africa now without the reduction of population, if there is the political will to achieve it.

The solution to Africa's "yoke of hunger and malnutrition" is the reform of her political systems, said Diouf. "Transparency... the application of law by an independent justice" and peace will create an environment where food production and distribution can be increased, he said.

Diouf says he disputes the gloomy Malthusian economic model that predicts that worldwide famines will necessarily follow unregulated growth of the human population. Malthus, he said, "had no consideration for science and technology."

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