Food Security Dbq

From the late 1700’s, documented evidence has existed about the concerning subject of food security; an issue still discussed worldwide today. Food security refers to a country’s ability to access the amount of nutritious food necessary to feed their population. An area with high food security means the population has access to nutritious food at all times, whereas a county with low food security faces the opposite effect. In 1798, Thomas Robert Malthus defined the current issue of food security by referencing the variance between the world’s rapid population growth and the agricultural output needed to maintain the growing population. Malthus believed to solve this issue the rate of population growth would need to be maintained by controlling

While Malthus believed this would increase the population, it contributed to a noticeable decrease as families did not have to conceive as many children to guarantee survival. Additionally, before modernization most adults worked in an agricultural sector and conceived children as a form of labor. As countries modernized and people transferred from agriculture to industry less children were needed for labor purposes. According to the CDC, this modernization decreased family size between 1800 and 1900 from seven to three and a half children per family. Modernization also brought about a variety of opportunity costs for women. As women gradually moved into the workforce, they received the opportunity cost of focusing on and developing their careers instead of staying at home tending to children, decreasing the birth rate significantly. The later creation of birth control further promoted the alternative of having children for women. Initially, when mortality declined significantly, and birth rate remained constant in phase two, people realized the need for innovations in birth control. As the birth control movement gained momentum in 1912, birth rates significantly declined as people began using various forms of contraceptives. According to the CDC, by 1933 average family size decreased to around two children per household. Despite what Malthus originally predicted, modernization seemed

This proves pieces of Malthus’s model can still be relevant when analyzing economic growth trends. For example, Malthus focused on factors of wealth and development in terms of fertility, which still apply largely today when investigating population growth. While interpretations of these factors have transformed over time as technology and the world develops, Malthus was able to provide basic factors to help begin the investigation of population growth and its possible effects on food security in the world. As the world population continues to increase, current generations are looking toward other “modern” factors that could be contributing or will contribute towards food insecurity. Since Malthus’s theory only applied to a portion of history and two of the five phases of the Demographic Transition Model, current theories people now believe could also change as the world transforms. Because of this and the slowing of population growth, researchers are looking ahead to other factors besides population growth rates that could be affecting food