In 1798, the English economist Thomas Malthus argued that population increases geometrically, outstripping the arithmetic growth of the food supply. He promised "famine... the last, the most dreadful resource of nature." It took another 125 years for world population to double, but only 5 o more for it to redouble. By the 1940s, Mexico, China, India, Russia, and Europe were hungry. Franklin D. Roosevelt's far-sighted vice president-elect, former secretary of agriculture Henry A. Wallace, believed the solution lay with technology. He was right: the Malthusian tragedy never happened, chiefly because Norman E. Borlaug transformed the breeding of wheat, which feeds more people than any other crop.
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机译：1798年，英国经济学家托马斯·马尔萨斯（Thomas Malthus）提出，人口的几何增长，超过了食品供应的算术增长。他答应“饥荒……自然的最后，最可怕的资源”。世界人口又花了125年才翻了一番，但翻了一番只花了5 o多的时间。到1940年代，墨西哥，中国，印度，俄罗斯和欧洲已经饥饿。富兰克林·罗斯福当选具有远见的副总统，前农业部长亨利·华莱士（Henry A. Wallace）认为，解决方案取决于技术。他是对的：马尔萨斯的悲剧从未发生，主要是因为诺曼·E·博洛格（Norman E. Borlaug）改变了小麦的育种方式，这种方式养活了比其他任何作物都要多的人。
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