Words like "famine" do exist on the periphery of our vocabularies, but they apply only to news reports on Somalia or Ethiopia, not us.

But the First World is in for a change and both the availability and the cost of food will be changing with it. A question as absurd as the one above may within a year become a reality for many people.

In a previous article in International Man, we dealt with the likelihood of food shortages in North America and Europe and how that situation was likely to manifest itself. These are likely to occur as a bi-product of existing unmanageable industry debt, plus hyperinflation.

To make matters worse, the First World will soon face other factors that may diminish availability and increase the cost of food generally, both at the same time.