This work is a comprehensive analysis of the post-war fear of scarcity. It charts perceptions of and prescriptions for crises of population growth and resource shortage, which have had profound influence on agricultural, population and security policies from the Second World War to the present. Linner traces the development of an international discourse of crisis through the influence of such thinkers as William Vogt, Fairfield Osborn and Georg Borgstrom, labelled "neo-Malthusians" for their emphasis on an impending clash between population growth and resource limits, after the manner of the 19th century father of scarcity economics. The book analyses the role of science and technology in securing food supply, the transmutation of older ideas about preserving nature into a new conservation ideology based on sustainable use, and the preoccupation of the industrialised nations with forestalling communism and controlling power relations. The study comes right up to date with the latest in neo-Malthusian argument, from the proponents of genetically modified crops as the only way to feed the future world.
- ISBN10 1874267510
- ISBN13 9781874267515
- Publish Date 1 September 2003
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 6 April 2009
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint White Horse Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 320
- Language English