Food Shortage Rises With Prices

…Food security is not a precise concept but is an extremely powerful one. It can be defined as “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life.” On this definition, large parts of the developing world are, and long have been, suffering from food insecurity, as shown by the existence of chronic malnutrition.

Until the late 18th century, Western countries were in a similar situation. This led economist Thomas Malthus to argue that population growth pressure would hold down food consumption per person to the level of bare subsistence. Three factors allowed Western countries to escape this Malthusian trap while they industrialized, namely:



● the availability of huge areas of good uncultivated land in the Americas and Antipodes;

● mass emigration of surplus European population to these areas; and

● falling transport costs that made international trade in food profitable.

Forbes