Full House : Reassessing the Earth's Population Carrying Capacity (Routledge Library Editions: Demography)

Originally published in 1995, after decades of steady growth, this book was written at a time when the world’s food supply was no longer keeping up with population increases. This book examines the causes of the imbalance in the food/population equation and suggests ways in which Malthusian checks can be countered. It calls for an international strategy to restore global security, and a budget to implement it, with a massive redirection of the world’s financial resources. On one side of the argument the authors advocate increased expenditure on family planning services, education, and women’s rights. On the other, they stress the environmental importance of reforestation and soil conservation schemes to halt the deterioration of the agricultural resource base.