I believe that irradiation of food will be an increasingly important element of food safety, largely for economic reasons, in the future. I think the extensive use of chemical preservatives, like artificial fertilizers, will simply become too expensive, as well as being increasingly recognized as too environmentally and biologically unhealthy, over time.

I also think that the current global method of food production and distribution, where foodstuffs are produced in one nation or continent, processed in another, and perhaps sent back or to a third for consumption, will also be reduced for largely economic reasons in the future. It relies on comparatively cheap foreign labor and transportation, and those things are going away.

However, I don't foresee these being replaced by truly local, "organic" production anytime soon. Instead, I imagine that we will see increasing reliance on regional producers providing increased varieties of products appropriate for their region and season. This will be more affordable, sustainable, and less reliant upon petroleum-based transportation, chemicals and refrigeration. it will promote and require new agricultural methods, biodiversity and probably genetic engineering, too, and possibly create new markets for smaller farms.

I likewise foresee increasing demand for biofuels. Corn isn't the answer for that, but there will be resistance as long as the early caucuses and primaries are held in corn growing states, and those states keep re-electing senior congress members and senators. However, there is a huge potential market for American agriculture in producing affordable and renewable biomass alongside local food crops and animals that could revitalize smaller or marginal farms.

Corn, in the form of corn sweeteners, is also probably playing a role in the current obesity and diabetes epidemics. It appears that corn syrup is now in most all processed foods, and there is some alarming research on just how unhealthy that may be. Meanwhile, the American sugar lobby has it's hand in keeping the embargo on against Cuba, a potentially huge sugar supplier to the domestic food industry, to keep their prices artificially high. The days of large scale industrial corn monoculture are, or should be, numbered.

Just my two cents' worth.

Jeff