DutchmenSport wrote:
I was in college 40 years ago. I took a sociology class. I don't remember a whole lot about that class (let alone anything from my college days. :B But this one thing I do remember and it stuck with me all these years, and I'll probably never forget.
The professor told us about an experiment that was conducted where 2 mice were put into a confined space. More than adequate and spacious for the 2 mice. They were given constantly the same amount of food, more than enough to last several lifetimes.
They let the 2 mice live in this confined space and they began to multiply. But the space remained the same, and the quantity of food remained the same.
After several generations of reproducing, the confined space began to get crowded, but the quantity of food never changed.
Eventually, the space became over populated. The food remained the same. Eventually, there wasn't enough food for all of them as the supply remained the same. The mice turned on each other, started killing each other. Kill their young, and literally killed themselves off until there was only 1 mouse left.
Sad story but true.
We talked about world population and what could possibly happen. Of course 40 years ago, everyone in the class thought this concept was impossible. That our society would never revert to barbarism, that we were too cultured.
Here we are 40 years later, and the population has mushroomed beyond belief. I've watch corn field and bean fields turn into apartment complexes and shopping malls, replacing a patch of ground that once produced food, now gone, and a building sitting there. I miss the days of my childhood when we could roam the field for hours and never see another living person.
Makes me wonder where we're headed?
The big difference is that modern farming efficiency and crop genetic improvements have drastically increased the per acre yield. Less growing space, yes, but higher output more than makes up for it. In 1936 for example, the average yield was 26 bushels of corn per acre. Today it's in excess of 160 bushels per acre and still increasing.