Thomas Malthus published his famous Essay on Population in 1798 predicting that humanity was doomed to poverty and famine because the human population was growing exponentially, while mankind�s ability to produce food could only increase at a linear rate.

He wrote at a time when the famous curve of human population growth was way down here. The ensuing science-based increases in agricultural production supported a tripling of the human population*. But around the middle of the 20^th century, there was a resurgence of Malthusian predictions of mass famines in the populous countries of Asia that had not yet benefitted from scientific advances in agriculture.