“A Warming Planet Struggles to Feed Itself” (“Temperature Rising” series, front page, June 5) noted that the challenge to food security presented by water shortages and climate change will be made worse by a projected three billion increase in world population to 10 billion by 2100.
The United Nations has also made projections ranging between 5.5 billion and 14 billion. Many women and men in developing countries want smaller families, but lagging implementation of family planning and related reproductive health services suggests that limiting population growth to three billion by the end of the century will be difficult.
The father of the Green Revolution, Norman E. Borlaug, warned on the occasion of his receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize, “There can be no permanent progress in the battle against hunger until the agencies that fight for increased food production and those that fight for population control unite in a common effort.” Improvements in agricultural technology are needed, but attaining food security also depends on strengthening voluntary family planning services.
J. JOSEPH SPEIDEL
San Francisco, June 5, 2011
The writer is a professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.
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