Headline Misleading About Acreage, Food

“Expanding Cities Have Helped Cut Acreage Per Person Used for Food” (July 29) reads like good news: We are able to support more people on less land.

Unfortunately, many, perhaps most, people read only the headlines. If one actually reads the article, it is bad news. Expanding cities devour crop lands: “If we fail to halt heavy losses of cropland, it is unlikely that we will be able to feed a world population that will increase by more than 400 million people in just five years,” the article reports.

It appears to me that you are not careful enough with your headlines, which are sometimes ambiguous, and that you don’t emphasize enough the major problem facing humanity in our times: overpopulation. It should have been part of your headline!

Dr. LEONARDO CHAIT

Pacific Palisades