We can get an idea about this question looking at the planet's bio-mass. google wikipedia Biomass Ecology.The link is faulty.

For every tonne of humans there are 16,000 tonnes of plants and animals excluding bacteria on this planet.

Scroll down to Global Rate of production per year.( Biomass billions of tonnes)
Cultivated Lands - 11 BT.
Oceans - 39 BT
Total Forests - 40 BT

Allowing for ample food of 0.5 tonnes per person pa the world needs only 3.5 Billion Tonnnes of food to survive. The world produces 4 BT but half of this is thrown away while a billion people suffer mal-nutrition. Cultivated land presently produces over 3 times our needs.The oceans if looked after can produce 10 times our present needs and fish farming is in it's infancy.

New techniques in intentsive glass house farming can increase food production many fold.

The world can easily support twice the present number with proper management/production of food.

The population alarmists are making our Govts more oppressive by threatening global anarchy will ensue because of food shortages and it is a total lie.

The Green movement originated out to the latte sipping socialists who want the planet for the few.They are quite happy to consume cheap products off the sweat of cheap Chinese workers and at the same time condemn them for too much pollution and using too much energy + resources.They are quite happy to enjoy their priviliged positions of middle class welfare achieved off the back of the taxes paid by workers here.Also they are delighted to put bio-fuels in their tanks which reduces food production in poor countries and call this progress.

Arjay,

"The Green movement originated out to the latte sipping socialists who want the planet for the few. They are quite happy to consume products off the sweat of Chinese workers and at the same time condemn them for too much pollution and consuming too much energy + resources....."

Crap!...you're more likely to hear a Green supporter questioning rampant consumerism in the West and the connection with Chinese pollution than not.

Get a load of this...here are the purveyors of junk science and their financial supporters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZdCfoDiMDg

Is the Planet Over Populated ?
Not by people but by morons, yes !

Poirot, The science is not settled and never will be.

We've gone from Global Warming,ocean acidification,drastic sea level rises,climate change and now extreme weather.Well which is it? Sydney had it's hottest day on record but it was only 0.44 deg hotter than the record set in 1930's.Note we also have the heat island effect in the cities with cars,concrete and bitumin.The rest of our summer has been quite mild as the last 2 summers have been.The northern hemisphere is suffering extreme cold.This is not evidence of warming.

I'm arguing that the planet is not over populated in terms of food production and that the alarmists are causing unnecessary angst and pain.We need to clean the planet up in many ways and save forests and the oceans.The doom sayers need to pull their heads in because the elites on this planet are using over population to justify more wars and cause a scarcity of food.

Yes individual,most of those morons are incapable of entering debate.They just have to parrot someone else's ideas as their own.They are incapable of analysising facts or reaching their own conclusions.

It's one thing to make food available to the masses, but it's another to make it accessible and more importantly, affordable.

Here in Oz, Food production costs are out of control to such a point that many small family farmers are being swallowed up by larger, more production efficient ones, in fact, the numbers are something like 300 farmers leaving the land PER MONTH.

If anyone hasn't viewed a doco called 'Food Inc' , I suggest they do so, as we here are headed in the same direction as America, whereby large conglomerates are taking over the entire food production, transportation and distribution chain, including retailing.

Now while I don't mean to involve politics in every thread, here we have a typical situation of incompetence, from a PM who is sitting there saying we here are poised to become a food super supplier, with out of control IR, limited prime farm land and most importantly, limited water.

As for being over populated I'm not sure, however it does appear that the majority of food stuffs is grown in countries where populations are small.

All this means is that in order to get food to the masses, will mean more costs in this already cost burdoned industry.

Good luck is all I can say.