A serious debate on the issue of whether the earth can actually sustain a population of ten billion people has begun with works by John Bongaarts (1994), Lester Brown (1994), and Joel Cohen (1995). In 1994, the United Nations revised its 1992 projections on the global population of 2050 to 9.8 billion from ten billion. On the other hand, ?UASA projected the global population for 2050 at 11.3 billion as they anticipate difficulties in reducing the fertility rates in developing countries (1994). This figure is closer to the high variant of the UN projections of 11.9 billion. In any case, this is the magnitude of the global population that is considered as the most probable total within half a century.
Expanded food production is the first priority if we are to consider the possibility of ten billion people surviving on earth. No definite conclusions have been drawn yet as opposing pessimistic and optimistic theories coexist, involving complicated positive and negative factors, such as the possibility of expanding the available cultivated land for food production, discovery of many varieties of high yielding crops, use of chemical fertilizer for increased productivity, and unprecedented food production increases through biotechnology. However, many experts point out that the increase in global food production has begun to slow down or even decrease, while on the other hand, the global population will continue to increase for at least the next half century, and if it is going to reach ten billion, the serious issue of the food problem cannot be avoided.
The green revolution enabled the rapid increase in food production, but it was only a temporary solution. 'Limits to Growth' by the Club of Rome(1972) predicted a food shortage which would occur despite the development of new agricultural technology, and we would face a 'Malthusian Solution' through an abnormal increase in the mortality rate and because of the deteriorating environment.
The world's population increased at a rate of approximately 2% annually for a fifteen year period from the early sixties to the mid seventies, which was
