Smithsonian.com

Photo: Takver

Fast forward 20 years. How will we get our food? What delicacies will stock our fridges and appear on restaurant menus? Will our diets be significantly different, or will we have simply found new things to stuff in yet-undiscovered pockets of our pizzas?

Andrew Purvis of Green Futures Magazine ponders the question, with an optimistic slant:

If world leaders, policy-makers and the private sector make the right commitments, the world will be better fed, the planet won’t be toast and there will be no unsustainable products on shelves. A whole host of initiatives – some by business, some by government – will have combined to get us there.

Companies will abide by sustainable targets devised by scientists and the stakeholders who produce food. Board directors will be remunerated based on how well they meet those sustainability goals. Logos like Fairtrade or Bird Friendly certification will no longer exist since patrons will take for granted that all the products lining grocery store shelves meet such criteria.

In the developing world, extension services will address the knowledge gaps and infrastructure challenges that are holding poor farmers back, and they in turn will share knowledge with the North about nutrition. In the developed world, we will find ourselves eating more fruit and vegetables, more pulses but less red meat and dairy produce, influenced not only by the South but by consistent messages and price incentives from the industry and the Government.