food supplies

The Food Race refers to the relationship between food supply and human population postulated by Daniel Quinn. Quinn advocates the view that human population, is controlled by food supply, like all other animals. Thus, larger populations are the result of more abundant food supplies. So, intensification of cultivation in response to population growth----merely leads to still more population growth. Quinn compared this to the arms race in the Cold War, noting that any increase in food supply was met with a corresponding increase in population. Like Garrett Hardin, then, Quinn saw the only possible conclusions to the Food Race as either abandonment, or catastrophe. Nitro-Pakcom The World Leader in Innovative & Affordable Preparedness Gear.

The similarities between this concept and a Malthusian catastrophe are obvious, but there are key differences. The primary problem in the Malthusian catastrophe is a population growing larger than its food supply can support; in Quinn's view, this is impossible, as population is a function of food supply, and not an independent variable. So, in some ways, Quinn's "Food Race" is in fact the opposite of the Malthusian problem. Quinn characterized Malthus' concern as, "How are we going to FEED all these people?" In juxtaposition, he stated the 'Quinnian problem' as "How are we going to stop PRODUCING all these people?"[1]

The idea that human population is tied to food supply is contentious, however. Many biologists disagree with Quinn's assessment.