Thinking of the future usually means bringing up the ideas of the Reverend Thomas Malthus, who in 1798 predicted doom and gloom for the future of the human race. He predicted that the population of humans would grow so much, that food would be extremely scarce and that drought and starvation would plague humanity. As in the past, then, food will be one of the most important issues in our future.

It's been two hundred years since Malthus wrote, however, and the population has soared to over six billion. It's true that many people still starve, but it is certainly not to the scale that Malthus predicted. At the start of the industrial revolution, when mass production was applied to food, the population began its exponential rise. It will take less than ten years to reach the next milestone: seven billion. But what is the maximum? UN experts predict that the world's population cannot increase beyond 13 billion. They cite slowing birth rates in developing countries, and, sadly, the AIDS crisis in Africa.

Malthus claimed that a huge increase in population would cause a reduction in food resources. We are already seeing this effect. Many restrictions exist to limit overfishing and destruction of the environment. Additionally, the developed countries' fixation on meat may cause problems in the future: for example, to make one hamburger, it takes 0.79 kilograms of feed, 795 liters of water, 5.4 kilograms of pollution, and more than five meters squared of rain forest destruction (TIME Magazine, Nov. 99).

However, that the amount of food resources might increase would also be plausible. As Farming efficiency increases, so does the output. We are also finding new sources of food. For example, we are currently investigating ocean botany as a source for future food. One type of seaweed can grow a meter a day, a very efficient food source. Farms could be moved into outer space, where solar power could be easily harnessed to grow food on soil or even human waste products.

The future of meat as food is uncertain. The current consumption of meat is clearly quite wasteful, and although our ancestors might have had the "hunting instinct," the future certainly holds many more vegetables than meat. Think of all of the people that we could feed if we used grains on ourselves instead of on livestock! Additionally, protein is available in plant sources: one type of algae contains 40 percent more protein than meat does. Nuts, soybeans, and tofu are already used as ersatz meat for vegetarians.

The most important question for the future will be one of conserve vs. consume. Already, the fat are getting fatter and the starving are getting hungrier. Food and food distribution will be, as it always has been throughout history, the deciding factor of how well a civilization works.

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