ES101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: The Communist Manifesto, Agricultural Productivity, Food Storage
Continued from last lecture
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
● Born in Germany, did most of his research and writing in France, England
● In North America, known for being the author of the Communist Manifesto
Marx and Historical Materialism
● Marx is still influential in academic research not because of his political ideas, but for his
political-economic theory
● He argued that human social behaviour can be understood in the context of the capitalist
economy, which creates social classes that compete with one another for resources
● Das Kapital remains widely studied today
● Point is that if you want to understand population crisis, have to understand fact that
global wealth is not equally distributed
Marxist Interpretation of Human Population Growth
● If you want to control population growth, you must first remove the root causes
● Root causes include poverty and exploitation
Malthusian and Marxist Influences on Today’s Population Science
● Neo-Malthusians believe we are approaching or have already surpassed the Earth’s
carrying capacity → we should make population control our first priority
● Neo-Marxists believe eliminating oppression and poverty through social change is the
only solution to the population program → wealth and resource distribution issues must
be our first priority
Cornucopists
● Term coined to describe those who believe all major economic, social, and
environmental problems can be fixed
● Typically envisages technology as a solution
● Eg. would focus on developing new food system technology that will feed everyone
GREEN REVOLUTION → conscious effort to address global food supply
Example: Food Supply
● Using the agricultural technologies of the 18th century with which Malthus was familiar, a
global population of 7 billion would be difficult to achieve or sustain
● Malthus could not foresee the technological change to come
Examples of Improvements in Food Production Technology
● Hybridization of crops
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