ABSTRACT
There is an irrepressible longing in the human spirit to see into the future. Since (at least) the dream readings of Jacob, this longing has inspired predictions about the future food supply – years of fat and years of famine. Aggregate food availability and nutritional status are inextricably tied to aggregate economic prosperity: good nutrition is both a symptom of and a cause of prosperity. And in no aspect of the world economy can the role of technology be seen more clearly than in the history of and prospects for the world food situation. As we follow Zakaria in speculating about the world in the next half-century, differences in attitudes toward the promise and dangers of technology will be at the heart of many differences of opinion about the likely condition of the world's economy.
