Most of the increase in food prices can be tied to fuel costs. Compare those graph to oil prices. Relative food prices have been falling for decades.
I would be surprised if there is not a correlation between the relative price of food to world GDP and the increased pace of the 6th Mass Extinction.
Modern agro-industry improves food productivity in the short to medium-term and also relies on expanding into new areas and ever-increasing doses of herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers.
Malthus got 3 things wrong (in my most un-humble opinion)....
- being unaware of the massive areas as yet unexploited for agriculture (e.g. North America),
- saying it is the poor who are the major drain on resources,
- underestimating how long systems manage to stagger on before collapsing (very common in eco-systems).
If food production continues without major problems for the next 20 to 30 years, losing 1 million species from the biosphere will seen as a gross underestimate. (e.g. The Amazon will be a place without forest as it is required for agro-industry).