A Modest Proposal

The Need: The global population has increased from about 1 billion in the year 1800 to over 7.5 billion today and is currently growing at a rate of about 1.1% per year.[] This exponential growth is troubling for a multitude of reasons, but perhaps the most urgent cause for concern is how we, as a civilization, are going to be able to continue providing enough sustenance for everyone. There is certainly enough food to keep a world population from becoming famished, if future generations adapt their diets to accommodate the consumption of one of the most abundant sources of protein on this planet—insects—but if the thought of a grasshopper sundae doesn’t make you start salivating, the other options available involve genetically altering the crops which are commonly find on our plates today, or make room for much more agriculture, which could entail further destroying our natural ecological systems in the form of mass deforestation. Each of these strategies

By allocating the food which is already available to all of those that need it, and by increasing the yield of plants and animals which are produced for consumption via genetic engineering technologies, it is likely that this problem will not lead to high levels of famine or war for resources. However, if steps are not taken to ensure that we are continuously increasing our food supply at the same rate the global population is increasing, then there may be very devastating consequences. Humans of all cultures need to embrace genetic engineering as a great potential resource and alter their diets to accommodate others in order to facilitate the rapid population growth which is inevitably going to