Suddenly the UN, which has spent years warning world leaders that we would reach Peak Food early this century, are being listened to. The UN has accurately described how, where and who would be hit by famine.

I recently wrote a piece in The Organic Gardener about this topic because home food gardeners have role to play in food security as oil prices rocket and harvests become less reliable. Since 2000, the last six out of seven global harvests have failed to feed our rising global population.

A few months after writing this, Australia is a lot less Food Secure. We’ve lost 40% of our supply of fresh fruit and vegetables with the ecological disaster, formerly known as the Murray Darling Basin. Australia’s food bowl is now the Murray Darling Dustbowl.

Driving to the grocery store brings famine to your neighbour – and it’s killing our oceans. Growing corn for agrifuel in the USA is responsible for the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The Dead Zone is spreading and it’s caused by the leaching of vast quantities of petrochemicals used to grow corn.

And the more agrifuel growing land we have, the less food growing land will remain. Do you need to take the car (and use the fuel) to get to shops or will a bike suffice? Can you grow some of your own food, so surplus harvests (food aid) can be more widely shared?

See what one expert thinks…