Slow and Steady Growth - Essay Example

From these projections, we can see that the future population growth seems to slow down as compared to the past growth which accounted for most of the increase in food demand. However, although the population growth in developing countries shows a promising reduction rate, it will still be slightly higher than that of developed countries. This could be mainly because of higher fertility rates in developing countries than the developed countries.

There is always the threat of a society overtaxing the available agricultural resources thus returning to a subsistence level of existence. This is the Malthusian catastrophe which depends on the fact of exponential human population growth and arithmetic growth of agricultural resources. To prevent the possibility of a growing human population with demands that surpass agricultural capability, there should be a way to avert radical social changes such as a decline in population. One such solution is the reduction of fertility rates by promoting the use of birth control methods, especially in developing countries. This is because they have higher fertility rates and thus higher population growth rates. This method would substantially reduce the growing difference between the developing and developed nations thus averting the Malthusian catastrophe.