[lutusp]

>> Food growth rate increases arithmetically, based on available land. Population growth increases exponentially,

> Sources?

It's called "mathematics." Fields of corn don't spawn little offspring fields of corn on adjacent plots of land, but people do spawn little offspring people. The first is an arithmetic increase (as long as there is still arable land), but the second is exponential.

> Malthus made the same mistake, if I remember right.

Nonsense. He predicted something that hasn't happened yet. If a geologist predicts an earthquake with a probability of 50% within 30 years, and 35 years pass without an earthquake, does that make him wrong?