Meals to Come: A History of the Future of Food

The ways in which "the future of food" has been addressed in the past are myriad, as detailed by University of Maryland American Studies professor Belasco. In this heavily annotated study, Belasco (Appetite for Change: How the Counterculture Took on the Food Industry) focuses on "a long-standing romantic fascination with extravagant technology alongside a rich tradition of skepticism and alarm." Part one, "Debating the Future of Food," explores how questions of food security and supply have been framed and discussed over the centuries, with a focus on the recent past. Part two, "Imagining the Future of Food" is subtitled "Speculative Fiction," and covers food utopias and dystopias-or idealizations and nightmare scenarios for how and what people will eat. Part three, "Things To Come" is subtitled "Three Cornucopian Futures." It details "material assertions of optimism as found in world's fairs, restaurants, stores and kitchens-as well as in upbeat feature stories that function largely to sell the cornucopian future" and covers most of the 20th century. A postscript covers the future as currently envisioned. The discussion is smart and comprehensive, but dense. With 24 b/w photos.
 

Product Description
In this provocative and lively addition to his acclaimed writings on food, Warren Belasco takes a sweeping look at a little-explored yet timely topic: humanity's deep-rooted anxiety about the future of food. People have expressed their worries about the future of the food supply in myriad ways, and here Belasco explores a fascinating array of material ranging over two hundred years--from futuristic novels and films to world's fairs, Disney amusement parks, supermarket and restaurant architecture, organic farmers' markets, debates over genetic engineering, and more. Placing food issues in this deep historical context, he provides an innovative framework for understanding the future of food today--when new prophets warn us against complacency at the same time that new technologies offer promising solutions. But will our grandchildren's grandchildren enjoy the cornucopian bounty most of us take for granted? This first history of the future to put food at the center of the story provides an intriguing perspective on this question for anyone--from general readers to policy analysts, historians, and students of the future--who has wondered about the future of life's most basic requirement.

 

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