What is the future of food?

What is the future of food?We never know what the future will bring, but we do know that we will need food. The authors in this section weigh in on what they think will influence the future of food. They identify problems that will remain at the forefront—climate change, global hunger, and labor injustice, to name a few. They also discuss potential changes that might lessen the negative impact of food production on the environment and that might bring food production to the urban centers where food is in short supply. Still, even as we think of solutions to existing concerns, new problems will inevitably emerge. In fact, the authors we have read suggest as many questions as they answer.

Here are some to consider: Is the future of food going to be organic? Will it rely on conventional, industrial approaches? Or will we adopt hybrid approaches? What ethical principles will guide food policy in the future? What kinds of moral choices will individuals make? Will they see food choices as moral choices more or less than they do now? What roles will innovative approaches and new technologies play in feeding the population? Should we focus on futuristic, potentially expensive, inventions or return to the basics? What roles will corporations and industrial farming play in the future of food? What roles will small-scale farming and local businesses play? Will worker justice and the impacts of food production on historically oppressed groups be considered? Will democracy emerge as a positive force in bringing about food equity? Will people care more or less about global hunger in the future than they do now? Will the global hunger crisis ever become a thing of the past?