WORLD food security has slumped to its lowest since records began in 1960, with a marked decline in grain stocks.
Just 50 days of grain supplies are available compared with 115 in 2000.
Julian Cribb, from Sydney's University of Technology, said the oil and credit crises rattling world economies were nothing compared to the threat from emerging global food shortages.
Food prices have risen steeply over the past two years and farmers last week warned the cost of basic items such as bread, milk and meat would jump again this year, mainly due to soaring commodity prices. "Year on year, humanity now eats more than it produces," he said.
And the need for protein, especially from China and India, was growing faster still with demand expected to more than double by 2050.
"Cities are now taking much of the water that was used to grow food, while ground water levels are falling in every country where it is used for food," he said.
"We are losing land. We are building on it, eroding and degrading it or locking it in conservation reserves.
"By 2050 we will have to feed the equivalent of 13 billion people at today's level of nutrition," he said.
