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Reducing farmers’ dependence on oil will be key to feeding the world’s rapidly expanding population in the face of climate change and rising fuel prices, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on food said Tuesday.

In an interview to coincide with the release of his report on feeding the world in the 21st century, Olivier De Schutter said promoting natural production techniques is the only sustainable way to guard against future crises and stop food prices increasing in-line with oil.

“We set up our farming techniques in the 1920s when we thought there would be a never-ending supply of cheap oil,” he said. “Now we are facing a situation where expensive oil and gas and the influence of climate change on yields are scaring us.

“Developing farming in a way which makes it less addicted to fossil energy is much more promising. In developing countries, we may have to leapfrog the stage of industrial agriculture and find ways to produce that are less addicted to fossil fuels.”

Developing new ways to feed the world has become increasingly pressing in the past year as record-high global food prices have pushed an extra 44 million people into poverty, according to World Bank estimates.

Fears of a crisis similar to the widespread unrest of 2007-08 have grown since the price of oil surged to highs seen 29 months ago due to violence in the Middle East.