Throughout 2014, the National Geographic magazine published a series of full length articles and shorter pieces on The Future of Food.  You can view a listing of the articles that were published in the magazine’s print edition–and links to the full articles–on the magazine’s website.  The breadth of the series is impressive, including farming/production, food processing, environmental challenges, hunger, diet, nutrition and health concerns, cultural issues, etc.  And the magazine’s website includes additional videos, blog posts, news stories, and other content that did not appear in the print editions.

As a mostly mainstream publication intended for a popular audience, it is unlikely that many of the  articles in this series are likely to be critically acclaimed by food researchers or activists/advocates–on either or any side of the issues. Nonetheless, I found the series to be very helpful in moving the discussion along and providing easily grasped and colorful charts and other graphics to help describe some of the issues and challenges. And many of these same issues and challenges aligned with the different possibilities described IF’s Food project and discussion guide. They also strongly intersect with an upcoming IF discussion project on Agriculture, which is being developed by my IF colleagues Shannon Wheatley Hartman and Dennis Boyer.