With the emergence of a middle class in China, India, and other emerging economies, price pressure on food will increase. I clearly remember that before Dad realized he could not send his kids to school off of subsistence farming and got a factory job, our normal supper was pinto beans, corn bread, milk, and a slice of raw onion. (I still enjoy that as a meal, by the way, just not every night.) Oh, once or twice a week we might have a piece of meat, fish, or chicken, but at least 5 and usually 6 night s a week, that was our basic supper. We did sometimes have green beans or other vegetables we canned from the garden, but not every night. My main point is that we did not have meat very often and certainly not much variety, although we raised our own chickens and pigs and canned our own vegetables.
After Dad took that factory job, we still ate a lot of pinto beans, corn bread, milk, and onions, but there was usually some type of meat to go with it. Instead of Sunday being the day we had meat with supper, it became the day we had cake or banana pudding for dessert.
With more people that can afford a variety of food worldwide, there will be pressure on the price of food, not necessarily because there is less of it, but because the form that people want to eat it will change. I think one result of the emergence of the middle class is that the people still stuck in poverty are going to find it even harder to afford basic food, let alone an occasional piece of meat or dessert.
