Reducing our reliance on the meat industry, especially for the U.S., would certainly help in the long run, provided we switch our resources to producing foods which are more ecologically and nutritionally efficient, like grains and vegetables.

Interesting article. Tuesday is soylent green day.

Neal, Seattle, WA, USA

How can you say the US doesn't give, andrew?? We give more than anyone. You only look at what the gov. gives in dollars and cents, but you forget that the people also give, usually more than the gov.. Then we have our businesses who also make huge donations in both cash and supplies.

tom Kiel, mesa, usa

I find it surprising people blaming arabs, opec, organisations, etc.
You all fail to grasp the basic points here, oil and commodities are being pushed up by speculaters pouring cash into commodities, as other asset classes are plummeting!!

Zak, London, UK

The maths is simple. It is the politics that is the problem. I f the world population continues to rise as it has been doing, relatively highest in the less developed areas, the food supply will eventually be insufficient. As PH Salus says Malthus is right in principle. Since there is no move to formally curtail population, except in China, one is left to draw fairly simple conclusions as to what is likely to be the outcome; something which Kissinger must have been able to see easily enough even 30 years ago.

Henry Percy, London, UK

To Andrew from Cape Town, the US gives more and has done so consistently for decades, in foreign aid to help the poor but no more. The Arab world does nothing. Remember Kofi Anan his son was ripping off the oil for food program, what has the father done to make up for his son stealing from the poor?

Jenny, Grand Rapids, MI, US

I simply could not believe that in Princess Haya's article there was no mention of the frightening growth in world population. Is the World Food Programme not aware of that?

Elizabeth Woodhouse, Reigate, UK

Andrew from CapeTown, perhaps you can cite some actual numbers to back up your statement.

Todd, silver spring,

Perhaps farmers in 3rd World Countries have a chance now to escape from poverty instead of being undercut by subsidised 1st World produce given as aid or dump at give away prices.

M. Sheridan, Oldham,

Tom Welsh,

I agree with you: but it's not merely fertilizers and genetic varieties, but mechanisation that have bumped Malthus'
math about. The machine plow and harrow to the present
seeders, reapers, etc., are a major factor. But, this is a finite planet. Population growth lies at the base.

P.H. Salus, Toronto, Canada

Maybe Dubai could do something to help...they have enough money after all. Princess Haya speaks of a situation she likes to pretend she knows much about but she remains ignorant as she sits in one of her many palaces. Again, this will fall to the West to help.

Claire , London, UK

Increase the suply of oil and use corn for food.

I Anderson, Knutsford, UK

Jenny from Grand Rapids, you are misinformed since when does the US "pony up" for the poor? Your country gives more money in subsidies to US farmers than you "give" to the developing world.

andrew , cape town,

How much do the fabulously wealthy oil sheiks contribute to alleviating poverty around the world?

Bill, Vancouver, Canada

OPEC's criminal price fixing is a major factor in food prices.
If drug companies colluded like, there would be screams of outrage at the UN
Oil costs very little to pump - the Arab profits are OBSCENE!!!
The UN must force a realistic oil price now!!!

Dennis, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Population growth will outstrip any "development" solution eventually.

We should connect population control and aid or reinforce the upwards pressures on limited resurces. Someone tell the Pope that condoms will save the planet and we are off to the races.

Dave St Peters, London,

The article just reflects what the world papers are saying this moment that food crisis is amongst us and it is staying put here. We in India are also worried that food prices are the new headlines daily. I think in rural India, the tendency to stock pile your yearly quota of grains is worth gold.

Pritam Sinha, New Delhi, India

A good article, that lists signs that our leaders and media have ignored.

However, the picture has too small a frame. No mention of overpopulation (feed one mouth and soon there will be two) or biofuels (the new Western fetish).

Trouble is, the longer we delay, the more will starve in the end.

Ian Tinn, Slough, England

Once again the Yanks are to blame. I'm sure if the bloody moon dropped on the Earth they would get the blame. Isn't it about time problems in the world were laid at a correct door for a change?

Kenneth Wheatley, St Pée sur Nivelle, France

P H Salus, I don't think Malthus was wrong in any way. Technical advances such as fertilisers and GE crops can increase the maximum carrying level of the environment, but it still has a limit. Population growth however is exponential.

Tom Welsh, Basingstoke,

Many countries are declining. Countries with rising populations should be punished. They create misery for themselves, and export that misery.

ged, manchester,

A bad article, stating a US promise made in a world crisis, then saying 30yrs later it's not fixed?! It wasn't a 30yr fix!!
She then neglects to mention inherent corruption, mismanagement & unsustainable overpopulation of most countries, then presumes it's always US's 'job' to bail out the world!!

PF, UK,

"Inflation is always produced by Central Bankers ". So there is no food shortage - there is monetary production in excess. Simple.

Dan Berlinski, Geneva, Switzerland

Our "goverments" responce is to make its first priority to build three MILLION houses, two MILLION of which are for its immigration "policys" when it is known this country can only self sustain 30 million people.

robert, ashford, U.K

This will problem will continue whilst the number of humans continues to rise. The aid agencies are partly to blame, they should be providing contraception not just feeding people who go on to produce 10+ children with no of hope of feeding themselves or their offspring.

H Horse, jersey,

Excellent article - accurate analysis

The difficulty is that there are now no personal left to help. ODA (DFID) scrapped it's relevant resources-based division 10 years ago and closed it's world-famous research agency. It's current staff are not qualified to deal with this.

Chevalier, Church Stretton,

A French world food supply expert says that there is NO FOOD SHORTAGE. He claims that the Hedge Funds, getting out of real estate at high speed, purchased commodity futures instead and cornered the market on food, and are raising the price to the sky.
They are mass murderers.

victor compton, Cherbourg, France

No mention of population growth in the entire article!

We have 6.5 billion to feed now, growing to up to 9 billion in a couple of decades (unless nature culls us first). It doesn't help that several major religions fight tooth and nail against contraception and attempts to control family sizes.

paul newbold, sheffield, UK

Part of the food crisis is generated by our inability to turn raw materials into food, the great reliance on processed commodities. But the main problem for Europe is the suppression of farming initiatives allied to the monopolisation of food outlets. Alternative supply routes are being lost.

Malcolm Turner, Alsager, England

"The world's poorest live in farming areas: new seeds, small-scale irrigation and educational services will help them to turn their lives around." - Princess, why don't the Arabs use part of their oil revenues to help the poor, instead of building islands(!) for villas in the Persian Gulf?

Peter, Brussels, Europe

"The poor are always with you." In any society, a small increase in nutrition probably results in an increase in fertility up to the point where child mortality returns to its previous, accepted, norm.

It's been said that the only way out of the cycle is universal literacy, a much bigger problem.

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

Perhaps it is for the best in the long run that the Malthusian limits to growth manifest themselves now. Ther are simply too many people relative to a faltering "green" revolution.

Arnold Ward, Weybridge, Surrey, UK

Governments everywhere seem to have become so far removed from the basic cycles of farming and agriculture that they sleep walk into these situations. Miss a planting, whatever your crop, and you lose a year. In the poorest countries that is hard to recover and sometimes it never does.

Fiona Bonney, Oxford, Unitd Kingdom

Is there a deliberate policy to starve the poor so their land can be turned over to bio-fuels? Is this final and undeniable proof of the power that a handful of extremely rich and extremely influential people possess in todays world?

kevin, Lincoln, UK

Globalization has failed. The impovrishment it created in the form of skyrocketing food and fuel coss could ignite cataclymic global political unrest which could destroy democracy, protection of human rights, and what little remains of stable family life.

MARK KLEIN, M.D., Oakland, California, USA

Princess Haya might consider the fact that her family's vast, obscene wealth has come at the expense of the poorest, and she should feel obliged to pay to solve such problems.

The US can no longer afford to pony up to pay for the poor in the third world we need to take care of our own people.

Jenny, Grand Rapids, MI, US

The situation with rising food prices could ameliorate as suppliers react to firm and growing demand. North American agricultural productive capacity is severely repressed in reaction to the previous lack of markets. As eager suppliers get into the market, quantities should rise and prices fall.

Linda Dial, Calgary, Canada

The fundamental problem the world faces is the continual population growth in many developing countries. Investing more in agriculture now and producing more food just postpones the day of reckoning. Good news yesterday. India will have bumper harvest in rice and wheat this year.

B S Goh, Sydney, Australia

Other countries supplying food is no solution, though in the short term that may be necessary. In the long term, an improving economy, healthcare, and education (particularly of girls) are needed, to increase people's ability to feed themselves, and more importantly to reduce population growth rates

Mike, Sydney, Australia

It is 210 years since Malthus published his "Essay." He may have been wrong in his predictions, but I would claim that it was only the slope of the curve that was wrong. Perhaps we should think of this as "Malthus' Revenge."

P.H. Salus, Toronto, Canada

The developing world will just have to go on a liquid diet. Ethanol

Bruce Northwood, Washington, D.C., USA