What is the most likely future diet for a more-crowded planet ?

Here are some excerpts from an interesting article, on the impacts of changing diets on food scarcity.

A growing world population has more buying power. The newly affluent eat more meat. A rising share of the world’s agricultural output goes to animals. While grain supplies are more than adequate to feed everyone now, say experts, the current price spike shows that even an adequate supply doesn’t preclude hunger for the world’s poor. And in the future, a day may come when there isn’t enough grain for both humans and livestock – at least not at the US consumption rate. Add to this the environmental impacts of modern industrial-scale meat production, and many wonder: With a predicted world population of 9.5 billion by midcentury, are we all destined to be vegetarians?

Most of us are not aware of the inefficiency of converting grain to meat. A pound of beef takes 7 pounds of feed to produce. For pork, the ratio is 1 to 3; and for chicken, 1 to 2. (Cold-blooded fish, which don’t need energy to maintain body temperature, are farmed more efficiently.)

So, let's look what will happen to the way if the world start doing what we in America does :

An average American consumes about 275 pounds of meat per year, which translates to 1,765 pounds of grain. So If everyone consumed grain at this rate..... today’s 2 billion-ton world grain harvest would feed only 2.5 billion people – only 40% of the world population.

If the world ate the way Italians do – 882 pounds of grain per person yearly – we’d feed 5 billion people.

And if we all ate the way largely vegetarian India does (11-1/2 pounds of meat per person yearly, or 440 pounds of grain), our grain supply could feed 10 billion...

not sure what will happen to McDonald's ... may be Maharaja Veggie Burgers !

Check the full article here :
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/07/18/diet-for-a-more-crowded-planet-plants/