Fungal protein for food and feeds. I. Introduction

Abstract

When Malthus predicted in 1798 that man would create tremendous problems for himself because of his high reproductive capacity, few people were ready to accept what appeared to be a very new and distasteful idea. However, the idea of man increasing his species to very great numbers was expressed many centuries before Malthus by the author(s) of Genesis with the statement, "The angel of the Lord also said to her: I will so greatly multiply your descendents that they cannot be numiibered for multitude" (Genesis 16: 11). Malthus' views were not generally accepted, especially in England, and the nonacceptance can be attributed, in general, to two facts: (1) world population at that time was so small that, on the average, there were thirty-five acres of agricultural land per person; and (2) the dire events-the only possible outcome if Malthus was correct-did not materialize (primarily because of the Industrial Revolution and England's great colonial expansion of the 19th Century). The Malthusian Doctrine has always aroused controversy, and usually in-