With the sharp increase in food prices in 1973 and 1974, the world food-population ratio began to receive increasing attention. Writers in both professional journals and more widely read magazines have pointed to the prospect of rising world food costs and starvation in the years ahead. The recent predictions, that per capita food production will decline, are consistent with the basic classical argument of the early 1800’s that the growth rate of the world population tends to exceed that of food production.