if you look at the numbers on planet wide food production you will quickly see that any shortfall in the availability of food isn't going to be coming from the production end. the world's 3 largest grain crops (corn, wheat, rice) currently produce more than a kilo per person per day which is already more than most people need to eat. that a large portion of that goes to alcohol and fuel production and animal feed rather than entering the food supply directly is an economic matter. this planet can sustain many more billions of people than it already does. 500 billion is a good estimate for maximum capacity.

You know, Karl Marx may have been a nutter, but even he didn't believe modern civilisation faced a problem with food shortages.

The developed world, especially the USA, eats more than they really need. If it really got bad, we'd simply just have less options.

Haber-Bosch process.

If population is the issue, just unleash viruses in Africa, the Middle East and India.

>>464
You forgot People's Republic of China, which has the most population of the Earth (and probably pollute the most as well).

And bio-warfare is too boring, I traditional war would be more fun.

>>465
Nah, China is for getting nuked. All of it. Including Hong Kong.

There are ways to combat the overpopulation crisis without comitting crimes against humanity.

Bangladesh and India incentivize sterilization procedure among the worst-off segments of their population. The programs are expensive, but the poorest of the poor get money just for not continuing the cycle.

Numerous charities assist with developing agriculture in the Third World, getting small farms going and experimenting with maximizing the caloric output of arable and semi-arable land. Heifer Project, Trees That Feed Foundation, etc.

And of course, the LGBT rights movement has made strides worldwide, we cannot know the actual percentage of the population that is queer people but if we get them all out and proud they won't be shitting out babies in lavender marriages and similar fuckups. Queer families are planned families.

Other contributing factors are more difficult to fix. Cash crop agriculture like soybeans, cocaine, and chocolate are taking up vital land that could be used for staple foods such as yams, rice, and breadfruit.

Racist and fundamentalist movements still prioritize excessive reproduction in order to maximize demographic strength (see: Quiverfull) the result of which are financially and psychologically overwhelmed parents that fail to pass on their ideology despite the long term human cost of unwanted children.

Warfare has slowed to a crawl, reducing body count without reducing human suffering. More buildings get smashed, more civilians go hungry, more refugees wander the Earth to much controversy, only for campaigns to be smaller and less bloody, removing the only upsides to war: solidarity in national identity and the check of population growth.

I think the biggest problem is going to be the spread of "the western diet" with the increasing wealth in poorer countries, which means an increase in consumption of meat. We're already seeing it with China, but if projections are correct then it is going to spread to places like India(possibly, religion may effect it there), South-east Asia, and Africa in the coming decades. Meat is far less efficient than crops and vegetables, not to mention that livestock are major producers of greenhouse gasses.

>>503
Indians mostly eat chicken, and SEA Asians are freaking out about their health and only eating fish.
Meat is just as efficient as vegetables, otherwise we would not be evolutionarily inclined to eat it. That is, it provides much more calories the body needs per gram than vegetables.

Read the book Can Life Prevail? by Pentti Linkola for more info about deep ecology and overpopulation. Technological Slavery by Ted Kaczynski is another good book which critiques modern industrialism and cultural issues. The Collapse of Western Civilization by Erik M. Conway and Naomi Oreskes is also okay (it's about climate change), though it has an annoyingly liberal slant to it. Linkola's brand of right-wing ecology and advocacy for small and sustainable communities is nicer, in my opinion.

Capitalism and democracy will be the death of humanity. We will continue to consume unsustainably and increase our numbers if we don't make drastic changes to society.

The issue as I see it will not be a lack of food but the type of food. Meat takes much more to produce than rice or wheat does, if it ever came to such that we were facing food shortages the answer would be to stop producing meat in as large amounts.

The populations of many advanced countries are now at a point where they have stopped growing and are even declining. This tends to be what happens when a nation becomes overpopulated, housing prices go up meaning it is much harder to get a large house to raise children in or even a house at all so by the time you do get it your wife is over 30 years old and will only have maybe one child.

But it doesn't happen so much like that in developing nations and the other worry is while there is food now these nations are not the most stable or developed so there are many events that could trigger catastrophic food shortages leading to mass famine and unrest. Nigeria would be a good example of that but even Egypt falls into this, if the Nile dries up they are done.

>>461
By your own calculations that would give us 14 grams of rice a day... I don't think that is happening. This doesn't include the impact that 500 billion people would have on the land required to produce this either(or the impact it would have on the world as whole for that matter). Even so, 1Kg isn't really that much and probably does not take into account waste or poor quality crops that get given to animals because they are not really fit for people(and the fact that animals themselves produce food).

>>464
If only Covid was more contagious, we might at least rid our selves of all the old people(which would be good for the economy as well).

>>503
True but most meat is produced in areas where crops do not grow(think central Australia) and also livestock isn't that bad for the environment, Methane has a short lifespan compared to other green house gases and much doesn't reach the atmosphere.