Each plant and animal requires space to grow, albeit at the expense of others, but as homo spaiens taking over most of the space they use ever increasing resources to control and mange it. Moreover arguably an increasing amount of the resources are used just to administer the resources and thereby control other peoples, who effectively become the resource for the stronger, just as a gazelle is to a lion.

For the limited space on this planet it is essential that if less resources are used to administer then each person must do more for themselves.

Having a share of land to build a shelter and grow food is the beginning in the reduction of harvesting each others weaknesses.

An example of the ludicrousy of administration is that the UK is know as a centre for services, as are most towns and cities. The money the government earns is by taxes, which is of course a service. Most people work to buy services from others, the grower, the builder etc. and in the course of their work are in turn service providers, bankers, retailer and transporters. These services require minimal physical activity and will no doubt soon be automated, yet the people who do this dubious yet currently essential activities require more resources than the actual farmer who's basic output is food.

Most populations do not grow exponentially, rather they follow a logistic model. Once the population has reached its carrying capacity, it will stabilize and the exponential curve will level off towards the carrying capacity, which is usually when a population has depleted most its natural resources.[14]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_growth