Agriculture

The nuisances of extensive agriculture are now obvious. No one would deny it. His supporters have no other recourse than to invoke the need to increase yields in order to feed an increasingly large humanity. That is to say to go further into the impasse where the world has already committed itself…

The proponents of environmentally friendly agriculture call exactly the opposite. The vicious circle of chemical fertilizers and pesticides needs to be removed as quickly as possible to return to cultivation methods that preserve what remains of the environment. Also avoid over-mechanization in order to break the impasse of oil for the day when there will be more, and the bottomless well of bank borrowing for bankruptcy and economic crises.

Between the two clans, the current does not pass. The huge interests at stake make exchanges difficult. There is little reliance on each other’s claims regarding yields. Would the complete transition to bio really bring down world agricultural production below the figures needed to feed humanity? As the argument is at the centre of litigation, we don’t know who to believe.

The issue we are interested in here is in fact independants of these considerations. Regardless of the cultivation methods adopted, there will be a certain limit to global agricultural yield. This maximum yield will feed a given number of individuals, regardless of the type of diet chosen. If the demographic curve continues to fly, this threshold will be exceeded one day or another. Mathematically.

Soil erosion, the rampant pumping of groundwater, pollution, salinization and land depletion only accelerate this fatal moment. Organic crops move away from land degradation, but bring them closer if their yields are lower.

Whatever happens, we immediately see that limiting the world’s population is an unstoppable condition for the survival of humanity. All that could improve the situation must be undertaken, but it would be a serious mistake to neglect the demographic problem. And it will only be settled if all the springs are known, including the implications of common sexual behaviour and its root causes.