Food sources and the growing middle class population of China will be a pressing global concern in the future.

At the first day of the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Sydney, JP Morgan managing director of China equities and commodities Jing Ulrich emphasized the rapid emergence of China's middle class was causing a rise in the demand for agricultural products.

Ulrich said, “'In China, you have an emerging middle class population that is now able to afford a higher quality diet. They're eating no longer a bowl of rice, but they're eating a steak. And that steak comes from seven pounds of grain.”

The director of the global investment bank also pointed at the gross domestic products (GDP) of Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC countries) were growing at an average of 6.9 percent compared to the global average of 3.6 percent. Even the U.S. and Europe, she said, were growing at an average of less than two percent.

Fortescue Metals chief Andrew Forrest also highlighted the relationship between food and energy prices. In effect, Forrest said the mining tax would cause a ''ripple effect'' by restricting Australia's coal supply to the world. Restrictions would then result in higher carbon emissions overall due to lower quality coal mined from other parts of the world.