“Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometric ratio, subsistence increases only in an arithmetic ratio,” wrote the famous 18th century British cleric and scholar Thomas Malthus in his Essay On the Principle of Population in 1798. In a more modern English he might have said – population grows exponentially but food production grows in a linear fashion, or in constant increments. Malthus highlighted that, “a slight acquaintance with numbers will show the immensity of the first power in comparison to the second.” And he concluded that, “the race of plants and the race of animals shrink under this great restrictive law. And the race of man cannot, by any efforts of reason, escape from it.” In the 183 years since Malthus’ death the human population of the world has grown by an estimated 750% or more. The rate of food production has also increased to match the human populations it serves. In those 183 years […]