Believing that continued food aid would allow the births of more children, who would inevitably die in later hunger catastrophes, Ehrlich advocated that humanity’s most hopeful scenario was to cut off food aid to Vietnam, Thailand, Egypt, and India—and sit back and watch while famine and food riots killed half a billion people. It is horrific to consider the human suffering that would have resulted, had we not instead followed the advice of Norman Borlaug and the green revolution and pursued a pathway of innovation and improving agricultural productivity. Ehrlich’s approach is possibly the
...more
