Grocery stores may still be stocked with food and most Americans are still able to keep their family’s fed, but with 50 million Americans requiring government assistance to do so and prices on a seemingly never ending rise, how long will it be before the situation becomes unmanageable?

The global food crisis you need to prepare for is now imminent.

For the past six years the world has consumed more food than it has produced. As a result, global food reserves are at the lowest level since 1974, when the world had 4 billion people. Today we have 7 billion.

Like a person living paycheck-to-paycheck, the world is now living year-to-year when it comes to food supplies.

According to the U.N., world grain reserves are so dangerously low that severe weather in the U.S. or other food exporting countries could trigger a major hunger crisis next year. The U.N. also warns that supplies are so tight and reserves are so low that we literally have no room for an unexpected event in 2013.

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We are already seeing prices rise significantly this year, with corn rising 31%, soy beans rising 28%, and red meat rising 20%.

In the west higher food prices are a manageable burden for now.

Americans spend about 10% of their after tax incomes on food… But in the developing world some households are spending up to 50% of their income on food, which is usually the basic essentials like bread.

An increase in food prices can mean riots, revolutions and chaos.

Video excerpts via PeakResources.org

Watch: The Global Food Crisis & Bernanke’s Recipe for Disaster: Three Major Disasters That Could Lead to a Food Crisis Around the World

Any number of disasters, natural or man-made, can cause food prices to skyrocket to such levels that the most basic essentials like corn, rice, wheat, and soy beans become almost impossible to acquire for the majority of the population.

Another prolonged drought, a war with Iran that restricts the flow of oil, or a rapid collapse in the US dollar’s purchasing power could all lead to unprecedented worldwide pressure almost immediately.

We’ve seen what happens in countries where the populace is forced to spend 50% or more of their earned income on food. Despite how the media portrays it, the riots we’ve seen in the middle east, Greece and Spain have been largely fueled by cost increases in food and the inability of individuals to provide the basic essentials for their families.

Americans have been, for the most part, immune from these pressures thus far. But the social safety nets are very quickly becoming overburdened and prices at grocery stores are rising consistently and without pause.

With the consumer economy coming to a standstill, continued central bank monetary easing, job losses and wage reductions, and the urbanization of millions of people, it is only a matter of time before Americans are forced to spend 50% or more of their paychecks just to stay alive.

When that happens, look out, because what comes next is something that, up until now, we’ve only experienced on television feeds from the comfort of our living room couches.