Feeding the Ten Billion
Plants and Population Growth

A unique and accessible account of the interaction between population growth and agricultural innovation.

Lloyd T. Evans (Author)

9780521646857, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 5 November 1998

264 pages, 32 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.39 kg

'Most plant biologists should come away from reading this book with a better sense of world agriculture in terms of where we are today, how we got there, and the constraints that will drive its development over the next 50 years.' James N. Siedow, Plant Physiology

At the current rate of increase, the world's population is likely to reach ten billion by the middle of the 21st century. What will be the challenges posed by feeding this population and how can they be addressed? Written to mark the 200th anniversary of the publication of Malthus' seminal Essay on the Principles of Population, this fascinating book looks at the intimate links between population growth and agricultural innovation over the past 10,000 years, illustrating how the evolution of agriculture has both shaped and been shaped by the course of world population growth. This historical context serves to illuminate our present position and to aid understanding of possible future paths to food security for the planet. A unique and accessible account which will be of interest to a wide audience concerned with global population, food supply, agricultural development, environmental degradation and resource depletion.

Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction: timebomb or treadmill?
2. Reaching five million (to 8000 BC)
3. Towards fifty million (8000 BC–2000 BC)
4. The first half billion (2000 BC–1500 AD)
5. The first billion (1500–1825)
6. The second billion (1825–1927)
7. The third billion (1927–1960)
8. The fourth billion (1960–1975)
9. The fifth billion (1975–1986)
10. The sixth billion (1986–1998)
11. What the world eats now
12. Feeding the ten billion
Epilogue
References
Acronyms and abbreviations
Index.

Subject Areas: Agriculture & farming [TV], Famine [JFFC1]