SCARCE water, good land, energy, nutrients, technology, fish and stable climates are at a "dangerous confluence" as the Earth's population heads towards 10 billion, requiring the world's farmers to double global food production.
Author Julian Cribb's vivid picture of impending planetary crisis - detailed in his new book The Coming Famine - points to the threat of major food shortages mid-century.
Describing the book as a positive call to action, he said it was written in the light of the false sense of security posed by the abundance of food available to past generations.
Mr Cribb was speaking at a dinner in Toowoomba. Organised by the Queensland Murray Darling committee, he drew attention to today's "culture of waste" at a time when there was a pressing need to feed our vast populations sustainably.
The Coming Famine says humanity must reinvent both how it produces food and the world diet if it is to successfully navigate the peak in human numbers and demand in the 2050-60s.
* Visit www.publish.csiro
