"Is the issue of food security now converging with issues to do with security tensions between nations at a high level of defence and security worry?" Mr McKay put to fellow delegates at the Food in Health Security in the Asia-Pacific Region (FIHS) conference in Taiwan this week.

He took the left-of-field approach to the definition of security with the intention of showing how soft security (human security, equity, well-being) could translate into hard security (military defence, weaponry).

Mr McKay is one of Australia's leading authorities on the economic, political and strategic situation in Asia.

At the basic level, Mr McKay said the public protests in Asian countries such as Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia against deteriorating living standards could be the tip of the iceberg in terms of food prompting physical action.

"As nations become more desperate in the current economic situation, they will compete with each other much more vigorously and ruthlessly and we will have a threat to security," he said.

In line with this, he spoke on what he labelled "new forms of colonial exploitation", or a land grab.

"What we have are some very large-scale deals being done by the rich countries to buy up land in poor countries - poor countries which are already having enough trouble feeding their own populations," Mr McKay said.

Large parts of Cambodia and Laos being bought by outside interests were given as examples, as were the likes of countries such as China and the Gulf states buying up parts of Africa.

"One of the most recent estimates I saw suggested there may be 30 million hectares in Africa which have now been bought up by outside rich countries to provide food for their own people," he said.

Countries may be forcing their own hands to a degree, with farming land turning to fuel production.

Malaysia is reportedly producing very large amounts of palm oil, not for food but for energy needs.

Mr McKay said core security tensions arising from competition for food were happening already.

He used the ousting of the government in Madagascar as an example.

"One of the key elements in the lead up to that coup was the deal that the old government had done to sell large amounts of agricultural land to overseas governments and companies," he said.