Main points to Thomas Malthus' “An Essay on the Principle of Population”

Sedentary agricolture ( 20 thousand years ago) -> food: plantable

Since then -> population has grown esponentially (now: more than 7 billion people)

FOOD:

-          Essencial

-          Substenes life

-          Provides energy

-          Promottes growth

Effects of food on human population -> Thomas Malthus (18th century):

-          Food constrains population growth

-          Earth population will always persist => SUBSISTENCE LEVEL

More food -> more population => not for Malthus

EXAMPLE: school of fish

-          The fish population is constant because there is an ideal ration of food

-          Extra algae (food) -> more fish

-          linear increasing of food (food is finite) -> exponential increasing of school population

-          => food supply will not support the demand of food of the school => many fish die of hunger

-          => school returns to an EQUAL LEVEL with food

Land avaliability is outside human (and fish) control

FAMINE and DESEASE: POSITIVE CHECKS

=> Elizabethan poor loss -> social welfare and food restrebution would unravel

 BUT Fish: no Preventitive checks ( no immigration, no marriage, …)