New word for me. (The Germans do have some interesting terms, don't they?) I'll quote at a bit of length, from the chairman of Nestlé, speaking in today's Wall Street Journal.

[Title] Biofuels Are Indefensible in Our Hungry World

The world's agriculture and water crisis is only going to get worse. As China and India grow, … competition for arable land is intensifying. Food prices are rising, … agriculture suppliers can barely keep up with today's demand. So what is the world doing? Reorienting land away from food production and toward plants cultivated for energy needs.

This could be the single most destructive set of policy mistakes made in a generation. From time immemorial, mankind has struggled to produce enough food. Wars have been fought over arable land. Whole populations have been forced to migrate, and untold millions of human beings have died because circumstances, climate, war or political ineptitude have deprived them of what the German language describes as "Lebensmittel," or a "means for survival." … So why introduce a new competitor for this scarce resource?

I thought Lebensmittel usually just meant "food". Lebensmittelgeschäft is a grocery store.

I agree. The only meaning I've ever heard is "groceries".

If you wish to translate the two words literally into English Leben 'life, living' and Mittel 'medium; mean'. (The two words are cognate with English live and middle.) Some synonyms in English foodstuff, victual (regional term vittles), and viand, the latter two being similar in literal meaning Latin victus 'means of livelihood' vivendum 'living' (gerund of vivere). (The first citaiton in Grimm's dictionary is the middle of the 13th century, a bit before grocery stores or greengrocer's apostrophes.)

I'm reminded of that nasty little guy from Austria who used " lebensraum " as a reson for doing all sorts of nasty things. If i'm not mistaken are they not similar terms?

lebensraum

Yes, the terms are related in that they share the first word, leben 'living', so Lebensraum is literally 'living room'. It can be translated as 'habitat' or 'space for living' or left in its German form (in history books).