ABSTRACT
The abundance of statements about the future in the sources reveals some basic structures of thought behind development policies to tackle the world food and hunger problems. It shows the technocratic outlook of actors who tried to solve social problems with technical means and their inability to control socioeconomic processes. The 1970s marked a turn to pessimism and were characterized by managerial, computer-based, quantified medium-range reformist predictions. Doomsday prophecies about hunger were supposed to rally political support. Food import gap projections in particular had a strong political impact. This was in contrast to a string of grandiose but empty promises by politicians to end world hunger until a certain year, first made in 1974. Contrasts between gloom and promise became particularly apparent in forecasts for Africa. Planning was an ubiquitous means of controlling the future but usually failed, especially in times of crisis when insecurity undermined even many short-term forecasts and basic natural conditions like climate, environment and population size appeared uncertain. The many wrong and anxious predictions by elites in state, academia and private business ultimately show the narrow limits of their power.
