Freeze-Dried Filet Mignon from Space Is the Future of Food

Only kidding, but it might be as revolutionary. 

50 years ago it was the fall of 1962 in America.  The thin wartime days of rationing were but a distant memory, and the consumption of meats, fats, fruits, all forms of calories really, were on the rise.  Back then it was in vogue to host dinner parties, barbeques, potlucks, cocktail parties as a display of affluence and luxury.  Foreign dishes and imported foods bespoke the globalization of food culture and the increasing ease of long distance transportation; and junk food was beginning to be the calorie of choice for a herd of young baby boomers.  While it may seem mundane to us, the food culture of the 1960's was indicative of a time of change and the availability of cheap and plentiful energy.

You can see the roots of our current American food system even back in the 60's, so perhaps through some reflection on today we can discover the roots of a future food system. 

The crucial decision for the future of the American food will be whether we opt, as a society, to reduce our energy use through a slew of energy policies, or whether we wait for the price of energy to rise due to dwindling resources and increasing demand.  Either way, it is inevitable that the fossil fuel economy will not be able to support our current patterns of consumption indefinitely.  Transportation, packaging, processing, growing, harvesting, fertilizing, and storing food all rely on cheap energy, without which prices would greatly exceed demand. 

This will mean big change for the way a large majority of Americans get their food.  Fruits, vegetables, meats, and grains will begin to occupy a limited space and time, meaning we won't be able to get whatever we want, whenever we want.  All of the fossil fuels that went into making the grocery store a veritable cornucopia will no longer be available, requiring a bit more thought when it comes to self-provisioning. 

I'm optimistic.  I believe that our creativity will allow us to start making food a more purposeful and planned experience integrated into more aspects of our daily lives.  We'll involve more people in the process of getting food from the seed to the plate.  The milkman and the mailman might team up in an effort to cut costs and energy use; or perhaps we will make full use of neighborhood groups that encourage and teach food preparation of more processed goods like butter, beer, and other crucial items. 

A lack of cheap energy will also limit where and when we can grow our food, and, as a corollary,  what we can grow.  Small farms and gardens will be encouraged and facilitated as a way to supplement what comes into urban areas from medium-sized, family farms on the periphery.  Without cheap transportation and farms based on economies of scale we're going to have to eat winter squash in the winter, and summer squash in the summer with fewer non-seasonal exceptions.  Perhaps there is still a role for groceries 50 years from now, but if so they'll have to be based on a co-op model - owned and operated by the people that supply them - rather than the Krogers, Giants, and Woolworths of the world. 

To me, this sounds fun.  I'm excited to take on the challenge of being more purposeful in my eating habits, and of working with others to provision myself and those I love.  It's not all doom and gloom in a post-Carbon world.