The Future of Food

In chapter six of Food: The Key Concepts, Warren Belasco discusses the major complications of the world's food production and consumption, and offers a few scenarios of possible future outcomes. No one can be certain of what the future holds for mankind. While some believe that global population growth will eventually overtake food production and the world will fall into a state of starvation, others believe that the world will be rid of starvation and everyone will be happily well-fed. Belasco asserts that the three main problems with the food production system lie in fuel, water, and soil. These three resources are being depleted at an enormous rate yet the world population continues to increase. This means that we will soon face some extremely difficult problems that will require drastic measures in order to fix.

Belasco describes two different fixes for our dilemma: the technological fix and the anthropological fix. The technological fix predicts that through engineering and research, we will continue to increase efficiency and production output to keep feeding the ever increasing population. Such things as genetic engineering and nanotechnology will likely play a major role in this fix. The anthropological fix goes in the complete opposite direction and redesigns people's values, not their technologies. It would mean the reverse of industrialization and moving back to relying on local farming and seasonal eating. Belasco notes that both fixes are extreme scenarios and the future will probably entail a mix of the two fixes.

Questions:

Is an anthropological fix even viable considering human nature, our desire to move forward, and our love of new technologies?

Who is to blame for all of these problems we face now?

How much longer do we have until these problems start to significantly affect our lives and we have to drastically change the way we live?