1. Introduction
1.1. Our focus
1.2. Chapter outline
Study questions
2. The demand side : how population growth and higher incomes affect food consumption
2.1. Classic malthusianism, its modern variants, and its critiques
2.2. Demographic transition
2.3. Trends in human numbers, past and present
2.4. Food consumption and income
2.5. Demand trends and projections
2.6. Summary and conclusions
Study questions
Appendix. The fundamental economics of demand
3. The supply side : agricultural production and its determinants
3.1. The nature of agriculture
3.2. Increases in agricultural supply
3.3. Has intensification run its course?
3.4. Trends in per-capita production
Study questions
Appendix. The fundamental economics of supply
4. Aligning the consumption and production of food over time
4.1. The desirability of competitive equilibrium
4.2. The market impacts of commodity programs
4.3. Historical trends in the scarcity of agricultural products
4.4. Outlook for the twenty-first century
Study questions
Appendix. The coordination of decentralized decision-making
5. Agriculture and the environment
5.1. Environmental trade-offs
5.2. Market failure
5.3. Environmental deterioration in the absence of agricultural intensification
5.4. Agricultural development and the environment
Study questions


6. Globalization and agriculture
6.1. The theory of comparative advantage
6.2. The net costs of trade distortions
6.3. The debate over globalization
6.4. Agricultural trade : recent trends and the current debate
6.5. Why not more trade?
Study questions
Appendix. A two-country illustration of comparative advantage
7. Agriculture and economic development
7.1. Growth and economic structure
7.2. Agriculture's role in economic development
7.3. Trying to develop at agriculture's expense
7.4. Agricultural development for the sake of economic growth and diversification
7.5. Summary and conclusions
Study questions
8. Striving for food security
8.1. What is food security?
8.2. Who and where are the food insecure?
8.3. Achieving food security
8.4. The food security synthesis and economic development
8.5. The standard model, communitarian values, and economic equity
Study questions
9. A synopsis of regional trends in the global food economy
9.1. Economic growth and income distribution
9.2. Population dynamics
9.3. Agriculture's response to demand growth
9.4. Summary
Study questions
10. Affluent nations
10.1. Standards of living
10.2. Population dynamics
10.3. The food economy
10.4. Dietary change and consumption trends
10.5. Summary
Study questions


11. Asia
11.1. Trends in GDP per capita
11.2. Population dynamics
11.3. Agricultural development
11.4. Dietary change, consumption trends, and food security
11.5. Summary
Study questions
12. Latin America and the Caribbean
12.1. Trends in GDP per capita
12.2. Population dynamics
12.3. Agricultural development
12.4. Dietary change, consumption trends, and food security
12.5. Summary
Study questions
13. The Middle East and North Africa
13.1. Trends in GDP per capita
13.2. Population dynamics
13.3. Agricultural development
13.4. Dietary change, consumption trends, and food security
13.5. Summary
Study questions
14. Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union
14.1 Patterns of economic growth since the fall of communism
14.2. Demographic trends
14.3. The agricultural sector
14.4. Dietary change, consumption trends, and food security
14.5. Summary
Study questions
15. Sub-Saharan Africa
15.1. Trends in GDP per capita
15.2. Demographic trends
15.3. Agricultural development
15.4. Consumption trends and food security
15.5. Summary
Study questions
16. The global food economy in the twenty-first century
16.1. Victims of our own success?
16.2. The new food economy
16.3. The changing role of government
Study questions
Abbreviations and acronyms
Map annex.