The Stork and the Plow : The Equity Answer to the Human Dilemma [Paperback]

Professor Paul R. Ehrlich (Author), Anne H. Ehrlich (Author), Gretchen C. Daily (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 23, 1997

In this provocative book, the authors look at the interaction between population and food supply and offer a powerful and radical strategy for balancing human numbers with nutritional needs. Their proposals include improving the status of women, reducing racism and religious prejudice, reforming the agricultural system, and shrinking the growing gap between rich and poor.

"This ambitious, enlightened handbook is a cornucopia of strategies and ideas for concerned citizens and policymakers". -- Publishers Weekly

"Give equal education and power to women throughout the world, argue the authors: when that happens, birth rates fall and food supplies go up". -- San Francisco Chronicle (Best Bets of 1995)

"(The book) can help us understand the past and possible future of the meals most Westerners take for granted". -- Bill McKibben, New York Review of Books

"A well-reasoned account of how poverty forces unsustainable use of natural resources ... a careful and balanced treatment of developments in agriculture ... that may help food production to stay ahead of population growth". -- Basia Zaba, Nature

"This generation faces a set of challenges unprecedented in their scope and severity and in the shortness of time left to resolve them.... The Stork and the Plow sets these out thoughtfully (and) accurately.... We can all hope this urgent message is carefully heeded". -- Henry W. Kendall, Nobel laureate and Julius A. Stratton Professor of Physics, MIT

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Global population growth ("the stork") is overtaking agricultural production ("the plow") and jeopardizing Earth's ecosystems, according to the Ehrlichs (The Population Explosion) and Daily, a Stanford Univ. policy analyst. To create a sustainable economy with greater equality between rich and poor, they urge, developed nations should sharply curtail consumption to alleviate pressures on resources and the environment. In the author's blueprint, couples should have a maximum of two children, preferably one; diets should shift toward vegetarianism, away from intensive grain-feeding of animals; wasteful military spending should be reallocated to social needs. Surveying countries from Haiti to China, the authors prescribe "globalization from below" through citizens' movements that would provide employment, give people control over local resources and return power to the grass roots. They also advocate worldwide educational campaigns, readily available contraception and overhaul of world trade to increase equity between industrialized and developing nations. This ambitious, enlightened handbook is a cornucopia of strategies and ideas for concerned citizens and policymakers.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Ehrlich (The Population Bomb, 1968) and his wife, Anne, have long been known for their work on global population growth and its environmental consequences. In this study they admit past mistakes and broaden their argument in an effective way. By focusing on the issue of equity?between nations, classes, and gender groups?the authors confront the nexus of population, environmental decline, and global resource control. They present a convincing array of information and analysis, including examples of successful change promoted by grass-roots groups throughout the Third World. However, when it comes to addressing how structural change can be brought about to promote equity, the conclusions are weak and likely to be ineffectual. Recommended for larger public and most academic libraries.?Bill Rau, Takoma Park, Md.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (September 23, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300071248
• ISBN-13: 978-0300071245
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 2.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,228,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An important reminder to complacent over consumers., November 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Stork and the Plow (Hardcover)

A rising stock market easily distracts me from the realities lived by world neighbors. This book slowly, but inexorably brings the real world into sharper focus. I'm encouraged that someone is brave enough to take on so large an issue as global sustainability. The authors have responsibly reported their world view as it relates to sustaining the growing population with a precarious food supply / environment. It is a human view, marked with both optimism and pessimism. At times some points are belabored, but most are important to make. I forget, too soon, how destructive my impact is on this limited planet. I recommend this book as a refesher course in population and environmental issues in the modern world. It motivated me to increase my activities toward a more sustainable use of the planet's resources.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sept. 25 reviewer must not have read this book, February 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Stork and the Plow : The Equity Answer to the Human Dilemma (Paperback)

This book is a fascinating look at the race between agricultural production and population growth. To claim that Ehrlich and his co-authors are misanthropes (haters of mankind) is clearly bogus. The authors have a deep and abiding love of both mankind and the natural world that supports us. This came through to me on every page of the book. Clearly the authors don't love human behaviors that are unsustainable and destructive. No thinking person does.

The authors admit to mistakes that Ehrlich made in books he wrote thirty years ago, and look at why things have played out differently than he predicted. They have learned from their mistakes, and we can too by reading this book with an open mind.

The Sept. 25 reviewer calls this a "miserable gloom-and-doom tract. There is some truth to this. No thinking person can take a hard look at the current human situation without admitting to some scary trends. But this book looks for answers and finds them. Anyone unable to admit to the problems facing us will not be part of the solution.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Increasing population, finite resources, possible solutions., August 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Stork and the Plow (Hardcover)

Paul Ehrlich looks at the prospects of feeding the growing world population. The content is a sobering wakeup call. Continued population growth and finite resources of the earth present a bleak picture. Although the overall picture is somewhat depressing, Ehrlich describes some points for optimism including the trend in several areas for reduced or reversed population growth. This book provides a warning of what will occur if steps are not taken reduce population growth and prevent environmental degredation. Previous predictions of the doom of humankind have not come to pass, but attention should be given to the projections of this book and ideas that are presented as possible means to avert future disaster.