by Lester R. Brown

About the author: Lester R. Brown is president of the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research group.

As the nineties unfold, the world is facing a day of reckoning. Many knew that this time would eventually come, that at some point the cumulative effects of environmental degradation and the limits of the earth’s natural systems would start to restrict economic expansion. But no one knew exactly when or how these
effects would show up. Now we can see that they are slowing growth in food production—the most basic of economic activities and the one on which all
others depend.

A Loss of Momentum

After nearly four decades of unprecedented expansion in both land-based and oceanic food supplies, the world is experiencing a massive loss of momentum...