Development and assistance. 1. The social roots of hunger and overpopulation

The problem of overpopulation and hunger has been misstated. The dramatic photographs of children with swollen bellies indicate institutional blocks that impede or prevent the distribution of food rather than a shortage of food worldwide. In the larger context neither a greater supply of foodstuffs nor more effective family planning programs will solve "the population problem." Rapid population growth needs to be interpreted as an added burden to societies just barely managing to hold together. Governments spend much of their scant resources of skill and intelligence merely staying in power with their social and economic bungling aggravated by the growth in population who are affected. That is the worlds "population problem" at this time and that is what this discussion outlines. A brief detour is taken to discount the people resources argument that continues to dominate conventional policy making. The worlds population is estimated to be about 4.5 billion and to be growing at about 1.7% per year. Many people in Asia Africa and Latin America and elsewhere are hungry and a large number are starving. What could be simpler than concluding that people must eat and if there are more people providing them with sustenance is more of a problem. Neither the number of the worlds inhabitants nor its food supply is known with even moderate accuracy. It is not possible to draw an accurate balance for any 1 year between the worlds people and the food they eat and anyone who extrapolates a precarious estimate into the future should admit to fallibility. If the yields obtained by Iowa farmers (which are good but not the highest) are applied to all arable land the number of people who could be well fed is several times the worlds current population and larger than any plausible projections over the next century or so. This relative optimism pertains to a worldwide "crunch" that does not exist and may never develop for excessive population growth is not characteristic of developing countries. No longer does anyone believe that the less developed countries will follow with the same time scale the historical path set by the demographic transition in the West. Efforts to bring people and food into balance comprise 3 more or less independent series of program: to develop the economies toward an ultimate goal of making the countries self sufficient to feed those in direct need during the supposedly finite interim and to cut fertility through birth control programs. The fact that all 3 generally operate through the state is crucial for the typical government in less developed countries is not sufficiently efficient to accomplish any of these tasks. The fact of food shortages characteristic only of nonindustrial countries is due in large part to the sociopolitical inefficiency of these countries rather than solely or even mainly to the paucity of advanced technology. Little has been done to mitigate the effects of bureaucratic control.