Technological advances have had an enormous influence on the way we produce and consume food over the last century. The 1950s, for example, was a period in the United States of great technological innovation focused on making food preparation more convenient. Consumers demanded faster, more convenient alternatives to traditional cooking methods and companies were eager to apply new technologies to meet that demand. Pre-cooked and pre-prepared food, such as one-minute rice, boxed cake mixes, and frozen meals, could all be easily bought at the grocery store thanks to these new technologies. These innovations, which seemed futuristic at the time, have become a staple of our food consumption today.

Recently there have been many technological advances that we quickly take for granted. Through the Internet, we can not only access infinite amounts of information about the origins of our food, but we can also access our food directly. By using applications like Uber Eats and Grubhub, we can order food almost instantly with the click of a button. We can even customize our food in order to accommodate specific allergies and intolerances. Even ten years ago, before the invention of the smartphone, the idea of using an application on your mobile device to order a gluten free meal delivery directly to your door would have been inconceivable.

GMOs

These relatively new technological services are just the tip of the iceberg. As the world’s population continues to grow, efficient food production will become exponentially more important. If we are going to find a way to feed 9.8 billion people by the year 2050, scientists and farmers must work together to invent new ways of producing more food with increasingly limited natural resources. One solution is the use of GMOs. While the first GMO was approved by the FDA in 1993, they now are so prevalent that unless you eat strictly organic food, it would be almost impossible to avoid them. GMOs offer numerous benefits to farmers as they can protect crops from pests and diseases, increase efficiency as well as grow in non-native habitats. Since they are a relatively new technology, however, many people are worried about the unintended effects they could have on both our health and the ecosystem. One of the main concerns is pest and weed resistant evolution, a phenomenon in which insects and weeds become resistant to the pesticides and herbicides we currently use to control them. These chemical-resistant pests and weeds could wreak untold havoc on food production in the future.

Scarcity of resources

So how can we continue to increase our food production when the natural resources we depend on are becoming increasingly limited? Overpopulation and climate change pose a serious threat to the resources needed to grow food. Two of the most threatened resources are nutrient-rich farmland and water. Scientists, however, have developed a truly ingenious way of circumventing this problem. Instead of trying to grow crops the traditional way with extremely limited farmland available, they decided to try growing them indoors and even underground. These underground farms use advanced LED light technology and hydroponic systems to grow crops without soil in nutrient-rich water. Hydroponic farms use 70% less water than traditional farms and can be grown year-round in pesticide-free environments that are unaffected by the weather or seasons. Seeing as how our current food production system accounts for the use of 70% of the world’s fresh water supply, converting to a system that drastically reduces that consumption offers multifold benefits for the future.

Food Waste

Even if we find a way to implement new technologies and increase food production, there is another essential issue we must first address: food waste. World hunger is a severe threat to our existence. One out of every nine people on Earth lives in hunger. Despite that alarming figure, we currently produce enough food to feed every single person on this planet. As it is, food waste accounts for one-third of the total food produced worldwide. Fortunately, there are new ways that social media and crowdfunding can be used to combat this waste. Because it’s often more expensive for farmers to collect the entire harvest, instead of just the aesthetically perfect portion, a lot of produce never even makes it to the public. Cropmobster is one example of a platform used by farmers to salvage crops that would otherwise be wasted and get them into the hands of the community. Another similar platform is LeftoverSwap, an application for smartphones that allows people to trade or give away unwanted food to people who are willing to eat someone else's leftovers. It’s an innovative way to reduce food waste while getting food into the hands of the hungry.

The influence of technology on food is inevitable and in most cases, something to be celebrated. We are still a long way away from an entirely automated system in which drones are used not only during the production of food but also to transport it to consumers. Maybe one day every home will have a 3D printer for a chef and home-cooking will become obsolete. While some of these innovations may remain science fiction, it is possible that future generations will not be able to envision a time before they existed.