The earth can be seen as an ecological system which includes the birth/death rates, water/air management, minerals/energy, and plant/animal life. When there is an imbalance in one of these systems, problems can arise. The plant/animal subsystem has four components: Food and population, minerals and energy, excretory, and biotechnology. The food and population system is the ratio between the calories of the living and human behavior. Currently, 1 trillion calories of food are needed per day. The energy and mineral system is comprised of the use of fuels, metal and resources that humans need to survive. The excretory system is the waste and pollution produced from the other subsystems. For example, the agriculture industry impacts the soil and climate of the environments. Pesticides seep into the ground water and linger in foods causing precious resources to be lost. In order to sustain the ecological system, water, soil and sunlight are needed to produce food. The ways to increase the production of food are to increase the acres under cultivation or to increase the yield of current crops. To do this, the fourth system of biotechnology is necessary to ease the strain on the other three systems because it conserves resources and produces higher crop yields. Although there may be draw back and potential dangers of biotechnology, countries that have problems with population and food such as China, need to use this and other technology to increase their food supply.
             The problem of overpopulation with not having enough food has always existed worldwide, but primarily in China. In 46 years, the world's population has increased from two billion to six billion people. China has tried family planning in order to combat its population problems. Each family is allowed to have only one child and special permission is needed to have that one child. Failure to follow the one child rule results in economic hardships for the family. These reper...