Era of Grain Shortage

Re “Report Warns of Grain Shortage as Harvests Fall, Population Soars,” Nov. 2:

After reading this short article on the urgency of addressing food depletion and overpopulation, I had to wonder why, among the recommended solutions, there wasn’t listed a viable program for population growth control. It is well-known that the severest food shortages are, or will be, found in those poorer countries with the highest birthrates.

To stem these birthrates should be as high a priority as increasing food production. It won’t be easy, considering both the paucity of adequate information on contraceptive programs and the strong cultural and religious resistance to birth control in many regions of the world.

Additionally, in many Third World cultures the status of women is downright deplorable, and this alone can be a grievous hindrance to any population control program. But it must be done, because the alternative would be nature stepping in, for example via famine, and this nobody wants to see happen.

J. ALAN ROSENSTEIN

Laguna Beach