How strange to hear people saying there's too many on the planet. Perhaps they think God is in the wrong here?

Sean, Manchester,

Thank goodness for this piece that successfully highlights the scale of the food crisis facing us. I foresee a time in the not-too-distant future when British farmers will be directed, rather in the manner that they were directed by the War Agricultural Executive Committees in World War II, to ensure that land is farmed properly and not laid waste. That will need a change of mind-set for my area of the Cambridgeshire Fens where the National Trust is planning to buy up and partially to flood some 15,000 acres (up now from a previously reported total of 13,500 acres) of the finest food-growing land in the country. The Trust is receiving tax-payer and Lottery funding for its crazy and out-dated ideas: this should be stopped forthwith. With wheat at 200GBP per tonne, fine farmland is for food-growing, not flooding!

Geoffrey Woollard, Cambridge, England

When you mention the conversion of American maize produce to biofuels, I notice you forget to place blame where it really belongs: on American politicians who direct subsidies to hopelessly energy-inefficient maize-based biofuels rather than permitting the import of efficient Brazilian biofuels derived from sugar.

Rowan, Oxford,

Funny that the people who've commented below about over-population never seem to consider suicide, thereby doing us all a favour.

Mike M., boston,

First of all l think you are misleading a lot of people when you say "as the maize farmers of America switch from producing their standard crops to growing biofuels as an alternative source of energy"...you do not grow biofuels, the famers are still planting the same crops, and much more, just now these crops are being used in the production of biofuels and not into animal feed, as the biofuels producers, aided by Government subsidies are able to pay higher prices for the raw materials than animal producers.
The problem in the UK is after years of the major supermarkets squeezing the margins of UK producers hiding behind the safety net of supplying cheap food for the public, many have been forced out of the business and is a major reason why we have the problems we do in the UK today.
Yet at the same time they welcomed with open arms cheap foreign imports where standards are way behind those of the UK.
The supermarkets hold the key, share some of the profit.....

S.Wellcome, Hornchurch, UK

The only one to mention helping our farmers instead of subsidising the EU farmers in recent times was David Cameron.
I just hope he can swing the vote for a referendum, the sooner we are out of the EU and in charge of our own future the better. When things go wrong and David Cameron is proved right,
I hope Gordon Brown will feel a deep shame for what he has done to our country since he has been in power.

ES, Kingston

E Simmons, Kingston Upon Thames, England

Stafford County Council recently stated an intention to sell off some farms it owned to commercial development as that would produce more revenue! Well there you have it. The State developed this theory that food could be got from abroad and that our lands, as defined by SCC, would be best covered in houses and storage facilities. Unfortunately, events have got ahead of such planning and once more Labour have put the country into danger. Labour never did understand farming, the countryside. It appears that their thinking is that yes, we may lose thousands of acres to building development but we can make up the short-fall with GM. So that's alright, we can ignore the benefits that organic offers in better husbandry and variety of supply for there will be an adequacy of protein pills to eat. The energy crisis shows how losing control of supply puts us into danger and food is another facet of the same reality. Those seemingly empty acres are food and not the fiefdoms of class enemies.

Malcolm Turner, Alsager, England

So the real problem is not that there isn't enough food, but that all the food is being fed to the pigs and cows and hens and sheep and....

Stop eating meat, and there will be food enough for everyone.

PK, Bangalore,

Since New Labour has let in more than one and a half million immigrants ijn the last ten years, it is hardly surprising that the country is even less able to feed itself than before. Thanks for nothing, New Labour.

RB, Aberdeen,

Eat less meat AND only travel when necessary.

H Grant, Germany,

Scaremongering?

How often do I read that sort of response to articles on climate change and resource depletion?

People are entitled to believe the moon's made of green cheese if they wish, but when self-delusion becomes mass delusion its time to get worried.

Ian is right of course - we could go back to the diet of of 1950 to become a much healthier people, and there would be enough to go round everyone on the planet.

Like the man said: there's enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed.

Tom MacFarlane, Thornton, UK

Quite right Magnus, but it's only half the story. Because not only is the available land for foodproduction under threat from the switch to bio fuels and, in Europe, to much less efficient organic farming, the Earth has now entered a period of cooling (in spite of what we are being told by politicians and environmentalists) which will make the growing of grain that much harder.

On the bright side, however, we can be confident that the obesity epidemic will soon be over.

Ed Zuiderwijk, Cambridge, UK

I'm assuming that those calling for population control will be the first to fall upon their swords, so as to provide an example for the rest of us. Or is population control for other, bigger, less civilised countries and people? 'The Surplus Population' was a concept written about by Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, as the Ghost of Christmas present pointed out, has anybody sought the views of the 'surplus population'?

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

And in places like sub-Saharan Africa where Mugabe has already just about destroyed Zimbabwe's food production, and South Africa is in the same process by driving white farmers off their lands, Will we listen to "ageing pop-stars" desperate for self-promotion who ask for cash to feed the starving masses in the near future? I hope they are told to go to blazes for the condition there is going to be self-inflicted and they must live with the results. Should reduce the over population though in addition the the HIV/AIDS and the new un-treatable tuberculosis.

We are so glad we escaped in 1999.

B J Deller, Marbella, Spain

If you have a garden, please grow your own food, Spring is coming here is the chance.

Don't rely on the food chain be independent.

Look after you family. It is not going to get any easier out there.

anne, eastbourne, east sussex

How Malthusian is the prospect of widespread starvation for populations who can no longer afford to eat because agricultural land, including that in their own countries is being deliberately turned over to the production of crops to burn rather than to eat? No doubt the very sorts of people who are responsible for the creation of this obscene market will be the first to organise pop concerts and other events when the problems begin.

figurewizard, Hampshire, UK

Its so simple.....................Overpopulation, Overpopulation, Overpopulation.

How many times must it said ?

doris, Southeast, of England

I fully agree with the comments on population growth,
THAT IS THE PROBLEM, NOT RESOURCES.
Large sections of the worlds population will never reach their full potential, physically or mentally because their are not getting enough protein of any form. We should be growing grain to feed people not cows.

LJS, EDINBURGH,

So far so predictable. We now grow maize to turn into cow food and more maize to turn into car food. Of course we're low on cereals when we grow crops to feed ecomomies instead of ourselves. The land can sustain more than the current population if we eat less meat and drive or fly fewer miles. We don't have to become full-time vegetarian cyclists, just part time, or it's dust bowls, death and starvation for the lot of us!

Charles Berger, Epsom, Surrey

There's plenty of food in the world. Much of it is fed to pigs and cows for beefburgers and bacon. If we at a lot less meat, we'd have grain to feed millions.

I once read a statistic that said we could feed three times the number of people we have now - if only food were more evenly distributed and people had a vegetarian diet.

This article is only scaremongering.

Martina, Duesseldorf, Germany

Slightly inaccurate reporting I fear.
"Enter Sir Richard, heralding a new era of carbon-free aviation travel by sending one of his passenger jets across the North Sea, its tanks brimming with biofuels"

Actually ONE engine was running on 25% biofuel from a special tank - and we don't even know if it was used at normal power levels!

Branson however has shown his of mastery of public realtions yet again - you fell for it!

Mike Bibby, St Albans, England -not EU

So the UK is only 60% self-sufficient? And we apparently throw half of our food away according to other articles? And 70% of UK adults are overweight? All sounds like problems that'll sort themselves to be honest. We'll have to eat less and throw away less.

Ian, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire

Heard this Doom's Day pitch before during the oil crisis of the early 1970s. Since then we've had the global obesity epidemic which indicates almost no one in the developed world misses a meal. The very unlikely worst outcome is the processed food manufacturers and fast food operators will develop very nutritious and tasty "Soylent Green" foods which will keep everyone even fatter than they are today.

MARK KLEIN, M.D., OAKLAND, CA

Give Richard Branson his due. The recent flight was to establish the technical feasibility of biofuel at high altitude, low pressure and low temperature. He has made it plain, repeatedly, that he knows as well as anyone that ultimately bio-kerosene must be derived from a non-food source such as algae.

As for the rest of us - well, we're human beings. That's what we do. Once upon a time Easter Island was covered with lush forest and the inhabitants had more food than they could eat. Then they chose to starve themselves into extinction.

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

Congratulations on an excellent article.

Surely, the underlying cause of all this is overpopulation. The production of biofuels is just making the existing problem of agricultural land shortage worse, faster.

Our efforts should be concentrated on halving the population of the world within 30 years (it will double if we do nothing). Ask yourself; which religion bans contraception?

Greg Palmer, Düsseldorf, Germany

My biggest fear is the impact on the diverse ecosystems we have in the UK and around the world. Mother Nature has produced beautiful things, but the parasite that is man is slowly destroying thousands of years of nature. A balance needs to be found, and that balance is population control. There will come a point where the 'human right' of having many children will be quashed for the sake of survival of mankind.

Alternatively, a good bout of deadly world flu would come in handy.

Martin, Maidenhead, UK

Just who is going to get the POP-STOP foundation up and running? Target: global population reduced by 10% every ten years or less, and gross national product (each country has a sub-target) down by 5% - which still leaves everyone 5.55% better off...for those that must have economic growth.

Doug, Basel, Switzerland

Biofuels need killing off before they can get established, because once they are established, and if the price of oil continues to rise, airlines will use huge amounts to fly people on holiday to countries where people are starving, because they can't afford to compete with the airlines for agricultural produce.

andrew, cirencester, uk

The previous contributors' comments summarise the situation nicely.

Oh dear! The global economic model is worn out. Just look at one of the world population counters on the internet, and watch it climbing!

It appears that moderating world population and (UK) immigration is beyond the will/grasp of the politicians, economists and religious leaders. How to reduce the number of consumers, and consumer demand, without a global depression? I feel sorry for the trees and fields, and people.

Glyn, Hereford, UK

Before a famine breaks out we should think about whether we need to fly between New York and London for shopping trips.
Biofuels = starvation.

Mark, Epping, Essex

The Victory Garden had a lot going for it. We need to get more back yard gardens going. Even a window box can grow something. As a collective thing, we can help out this way. Also, there is a good feeling to be able to grow smething that contributes to food on the table, with perhaps some produce over to give away.

margie, victoria, australia

Perhaps we should promote contraception to head off population growth, as well as reducing our excessive consumption. The real problem is there are far too many people on this planet.

Max, drogheda, ireland

When will politicians start to talk about the real problem the world is facing: over population. Malthus is often derided but I think his time has come. There are now too many people in the world, and in Britain, for it to be a pleasant place to live. Maybe the world in 2050 will be able to feed 9 billion people (although I fear famine will be an everyday occurance in the less fertile regions), but if this is only achieved by clearing all the forests and farming every scrap of land, fishing every fish in the sea and turning the planet into nothing more than our life support system, that is too high a price.

Sam, Cambridge,