Malthus 1959 - Farmer and Biochemist versus Engineer and Doctor

Hunger depends on the ratio of People to Food. It has always been with us but our attitude towards it has altered during the last few centuries as we become more quickly aware of famines, more conscious of the possibility of doing something about them, and more conversant with the factors that control them. Doctors and Civil Engineers tend to preserve life whereas Farmers and Biochemists tends to increase or improve food. In relation to hunger their activities are therefore contrasting. There should be no curtailment of the activities of the first pair but compensatingly increased effort should be put into those of the second pair. Improvements in the extent and character of farming operations need only be listed because they are already well recognised parts of the programs of many organisations. Much less attention is paid to various aspects of research that may, broadly, be called biochemical. First there is the use to which crops are put; this involves a discussion of the processes of conversion and separation. As populations grow their diets will, of necessity, alter; there is often a strong prejudice in favour of the older, so called "natural", diet so that another important biochemical theme is the comparison of different types of diet to see what foundation there is for the prejudices. Finally there is much biochemical work to be done before contraceptive techniques are developed that are satisfactory enough to bring birth rates under conscious control.