The Future of Food

As a result of the Industrial Revolution, urbanization became a trend and people relied on others growing their food. It was then directly purchased from the farmers or indirectly purchased through manufacturers. Since then food has continued to develop and food production has advanced due to factories and machines speeding up the processing of raw materials. More people moved to the city where farming was scarce and therefore had to rely on farmers for their food. Since then food has been genetically modified in order to preserve it and guarantee the quality of the product. It has gotten to the point where we no longer truly know what we are eating and where the food came from. So what does the future of food look like? In 2004. A film entitled ‘The Future of Food’ was released to highlight the gravity of the situation at hand and investigate the food that ends up in our shops. The film has been used as a key tool in the American and international anti-GMO movement. Genetically modifying the food we eat has always been controversial and remains so today, as many of the large agricultural corporations use the technology of it to lead us to believe they are the answer to the world food crisis. The film exposes the cost of a globalised food industry on human lives around the world, and highlights how international companies are gradually driving farmers off the land and into poverty and famine in many countries. It discusses the rising issue of a global dependence on a limited number of global food corporations which is would be an ecological disaster. This would happen as a result of the loss of biological diversity due to corporate monoculture farming. As the world’s population continues to grow we begin to realise just how finite the resources we have are. At this rate we will not be able to sustain the upcoming rise in population. After World War II, the ‘Green Revolution’ averted worldwide famine. Half a century on, the world needs to be thinking deeper about the situation but we are not. Instead we rely on science to sustain the increase in population, which is impossible without compromising the integrity of the landscape we live in. Agriculture in the future must be environmentally sensitive and above all, sustainable.

The Future of Food trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9Y_QH_c70s&feature=player_embedded

http://www.nature.com/nature/food/