Today we will talk about food in the future, more specifically the year 2050. According to the United Nations, food production must grow two-thirds faster than it has in recent decades to feed a global population of 9 billion people by 2050. With more people using fewer resources, environmental impact is the name of the game. Without fail, there are many mentions on how food may look different in the future because of food technology and innovations that could be used for that very purpose.
However, you only need to take a look around you right now to see that this isn't true. People and animals alike are still very much dependent on the food that is grown and produced on a scale that is not available for everyone.
First, let's go over some of the ways in which technology has impacted our food supply. For starters, genetically modified crops have been made possible through biotechnology, as well as gene-editing techniques such as CRISPR/Cas9. This has led to a rise in pesticides and herbicide use, which in turn has contributed to the downfall of monarch butterflies and bee populations.
The biotechnology industry has expanded tremendously, to the point that there is actually a whole market devoted to it. This means that some foods such as corn, soybeans and cotton can be altered to be pest-resistant, more nutritious, or easier to grow.
Along with genetically modified crops, there are also synthetic pesticides and herbicides that are used. With the new ways to produce food, there is new equipment used as well. For example, tractors today use GPS maps to help them navigate fields better than they could in the past. Some foods use precision-guided technology, which helps in selecting which plants to harvest and when in a field to avoid crop loss.
In the future, even more tools will be developed for farming in a completely automated way. Automated machine tools have been in existence for many years now but at a slow pace so far. If these developments continue, growing food will be a process that will become cheaper and faster but, I wonder... Will it be healthier too?
By Paula Garcia
7th Grader
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