Both Adam Smith and Karl Marx, among many other observers, recognized
that the first fundamental need is food.
It was Malthus who wrote about the limits of food and other resources. He
was a contemporary of Adam Smith. Neither knew the Industrial revolution
was about to significantly change the way the world behaves and the
resources we had available.
It was Ricardo a few years later who explained to the new industrialists
that the cost of labor was directly related to the cost of food, just as the
cost of running a steam engine was related to the cost of coal. At the time
there was a battle between the land owners who had the power in parliament
and the industrialists. Land owners kept the price of grain and their
incomes high by the Corn Laws which placed very high duties on imported
grain. It took several years before the industrialists gained sufficient
power to repeal the corn laws.