19700121_MJ

Source: The Milwaukee Journal

URL: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rn4hAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RIsFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6662,307216&dq

Date: 21/01/1970

Event: Milwaukee Journal: World Faces Big Famine, Expert Says

Credit: The Milwaukee Journal

THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL - JAN 21, 1970

World Faces Big Famine, Expert Says

Population growth is so far beyond control that the world will sooner or later face periods of great famine, a consultant to private agricultural industries predicted here Tuesday.

William C. Paddock, a consultant and author, told the Rotary Club of Milwaukee "The famines will come sooner or later. They are absolutely inevitable."

Paddock said that the world's food producing capabilities were now sufficient to care for its population, but not for much longer.

He pointed out that the populations of Africa and Latin America, for example, were doubling every 26 years, but added that the world could not double its agricultural output in the same period.

The population of the United States is increasing so rapidly - 1% a year - that a city the size of Milwaukee must be built every four months just for housing, he said.

Paddock said there were two choices.

"We can increase the death rate. We can take money from health programs, close down medical schools... or have a war," he said. "Or we can reduce the birth rate and this will be difficult because Americans like children."