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The cost of food will soar by 50% over the next few decades as the global population swells and the world becomes racked by famine, mass migrations and riots, according to a shocking new report.

The increase will be partly triggered by the exploding world population, which is on course to hit 9 billion by 2050. However, rising fuel costs and increased competition for water will also have an impact, the influential think-tank behind the report said.

Across the world, hundreds of millions of people are expected to face hunger as a result of spiralling food prices, which also look likely to trigger mass migration and spark civil unrest.Meanwhile, in the UK, the price of basics such as bread, rice and milk will shoot up to inflation-busting record levels within the next 30 or 40 years.

That's the view of Foresight, a think-tank set up to predict future crises, which has called for "urgent action" now to prevent future food shortages. It warns that even a "modest" rise in food prices could push 100 million people into hunger, and believes that use of genetically modified crops may be the only means of preventing famines in this situation.

Record prices
The organisation's research comes at a time when global food prices are already at a record high. Last month alone, the price of cereals, sugar and meat soared due to a series of crop failures caused by bad weather.

Even more worryingly, Foresight expects the world's population to grow from 6.9 billion today to around 9 billion by the middle of the century. And as the world gets wealthier and more crowded, demand for food, water and energy will doubtless soar. At the same time, climate change will increase the risk of droughts, floods and crop failures – creating a "perfect storm" of food shortages and hefty price hikes.

Future rises
Professor Sherman Robinson of Sussex University, one of the report's authors, said food prices could go up by 50% over the next few decades. "The robust conclusion is that the long run decline in food prices is over," he said. Professor Charles Godfray of Oxford University, who co-wrote the report, added: "There is a very large risk of a quite substantial increase in prices over the next 30 or 40 years. We are going to have to produce considerably more food. So, inescapably, we are going to have to produce more food from the same amount of land without wrecking the environment."

Along with the other 39 scientists involved in the study, they are therefore calling for a "green revolution" to boost production using traditional, organic and genetically modified crops – designed to be resistant to drought or salt water – and better training and education for farmers in developing countries.

British families, meanwhile, should do their bit by cracking down on the amount of food they waste. Figures show that a typical British household wastes £500 to £700 a year on food that is thrown away because it has passed its sell-by date or is surplus to requirements.

And Professor John Beddington, the Government's chief scientific adviser, believes that this is one of the reasons the food system is failing. "Firstly, it is unsustainable, with resources being used faster than they can be naturally replenished," he said."Secondly, a billion people are going hungry, while another billion people are over-consuming."