The present severe economic and financial crisis has resulted in the collapse of banks, insurance and industrial companies, shrinking world trade that trigger protectionist trends leading to rising unemployment. Developing countries may again pay the highest burden due to lacking financial resources for job creation, credits and food imports. This is affecting rural communities and the urban poor, who are unable to obtain the resources for survival. Since 2007, the massive food price increases due to speculation and decline of food reserves have resulted in violent food riots in 2008 that caused at least 200 deaths. According to FAO another 40 million people have been pushed into hunger in 2008 and the number of undernourished people in the world reached 963 million. More than 24,000 people die of hunger-related causes daily and the financial and economic crisis could push even more people into hunger and poverty. Thus, food security has moved to the top of the international agenda.
As a result of population growth, demand for food will increase further, primarily in developing countries. In a business as usual scenario of climate change the food supply will decline especially in drylands as crop yields are expected to fall, but also due to drops in exports from major grain producing countries (USA, Canada, Australia). With the projected decline in fish stock due to overfishing and climate change impacts the demand for food grown on scarce fertile land will increase. Additional pressures include changes in the diet by growing meat consumption and the competition between the production of food and biomass for electricity generation and biofuels as substitutes for fossil energy sources