Paper 2 · population and food supply
In Malthusian theory, food supply is said to increase only at what type of rate, in contrast to population's geometric growth?
Model answer
arithmetic
Also accepted: arithmetic rate, arithmetically, linear rate
Explanation: Malthus held that food supply could only be increased arithmetically, by adding a roughly constant amount each period, such as bringing a fixed area of new land into cultivation, which is a linear rate of increase rather than the compounding, geometric rate at which he believed population grew.
Derived from ZIMSEC Geography Paper 2, November 2004, Q3
