As the population of the world increases, the density of the population is going to have to increase as well. Lo and behold, more and more of us are living in cities than ever before. According to a recent Scientific American article, 75% of people in "developed" nations live in cities and the rate of urbanization is increasing quickly in the developing world. While city life brings its own problems, such as pollution and potentially using arable land for development, cities also offer education, technological advances, and a generally higher quality of life. Indeed, one of the interesting pieces of information that is coming out of studies about urbanization is that city people are healthier than their rural cousins.

As incentives like overall health and educational benefits as well as financial opportunities propell more people into cities, a serious question arises: where will our food come from? Currently, studies show that the average agricultural worker creates enough food to feed two people. In the future, as a smaller percentage of the population works in the fields, that same worker will have to produce enough to feed three people.

Concerns about overpopulation have existed since the time of the Babylonians, and now is no exception. While the rate of population growth is slowing, the absolute number of new people is increasing. As an example, the global population of the world was 2.5 billion in 1950. Between 2005 and 2050, the population is expected to increase by 2.6 billion. Many wonder how we plan to feed this growing and aging population in the future.

When many of us think of agriculture, we imagine picturesque family farms with cattle lowing and the smell of baking bread in the air, but much of modern agriculture is high tech and big business. Agribusiness is a term that denotes the large organized nature of many modern farming operations. In order to meet the demand for increased food production, farming has become more like factory work. Large agricultural corporations control their farming processes closely to achieve economies of scale that smaller operations could never provide. These often include all aspects of production from the development of the seeds to the packaging of the final product.

In the context of farming as a large business, one of the controversial technologies often proposed as a solution to the food problem has been developed and even put into use. Of course, this is the development of seeds that inherently produce better crops, also known as Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). GMOs can be used to create crops with better resistance to pests and higher yields. They could also incorporate vaccines, additional vitamins or minerals or other substances that would make an individual crop more healthy. For areas where the population lives on a limited diet, such changes could be extremely beneficial.

Many proponents argue that GMOs are a necessity in a world where fewer producers will need to supply a larger population, however, others worry that insufficient testing is occurring and possible safety concerns are not being addressed. Concerns about the safety of the food supply are common in the wake of the "mad cow disease" incidents. Some critics believe that "mad cow" or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) was a direct byproduct of large corporate farming practices. As a cost-cutting measure, cattle feed included matter that caused cows to develop BSE. Further compounding the problems, large cattle producers lobbied to avoid regular testing of cattle for the disease. Critics of GMOs speculate that a similar catastrophe could occur with insufficiently tested crops.

Another issue with regard to GMOs is the nature of creating ownership of a plant. There have been instances of private farmers being sued by the corporate owners of seed patents for having crops that came from those seeds, even when the seeds simply blew onto the farmer's land. Also, some licensing agreements do not allow farmers to save seeds from the plants they grow to plant in the future. While the capitalist motive to profit from farming has led to increased efficiency and higher yields, for many, the safety concerns about genetic modification call for restraint in this area.

GMOs might offer a way to make more and better food, but that food still has to be grown the old-fashioned way - on a big plot of expensive land. As the population increases, land will become more and more expensive. As this occurs, the costs to produce food will increase and even if there is enough to go around it may be too expensive for many people. So, how do you grow food without land? Hydroponics offers an alternative that until now has been sparsely used outside the marijuana-growing industry. Growing vegetables without soil may require a higher startup investment now, but as land becomes more scarce, the ability to operate a greenhouse in the middle of a city will be more appealing. Hydroponics offers the benefits of being able to grow plants in any climate and at most times of the year. Transportation costs are lowered as the source can be in the middle of an urban area.

Hydroponic cultivation also offers an easier method of controlling the environment. Many installations are able to avoid pesticides and herbicides by keeping the greenhouse free of outside organisms. Soil bound diseases or pollutants are also not an issue for hydroponically grown food. The downside of this form of cultivation is the need for reliable energy to power the special lights required and the ability to maintain a clean environment. Hydroponics, however, are a way of moving food production along with the population from rural to urban areas. Alternatively, hydroponic operations can be installed in areas that currently are neither urban nor on arable land. For example, there already is a hydroponic operation on Antarctica for the scientists stationed there.

The ideas discussed so far offer some glimpses into the future of agriculture - but they really only apply if we are all willing to become vegetarians. The domestication of cattle and other livestock is an area where little progress has been made beyond the factory farm. Recently, however, some interesting work is being done in the field of tissue engineering. Tissue engineering is a science usually associated with medicine, however the technology needed to "grow" human tissue is the same as that needed to "grow" meat.

Already, using techniques developed for medical applications, a type of processed, boneless meat (like sausage meat) has been created in the lab. The processes for creating skeletal muscle tissue are being developed for medical purposes and the precision required to create a vat-grown steak is much lower than for any medical purpose. However, we are more likely to see hot dogs made with real mystery meat than we are to a more structured creation.

As technology advances along with population growth, there is no doubt that great and strange ideas will continue to be put forth to solve the food problem. Like all technologies, some will create more problems than they solve, but others will be employed to help feed and sustain the ever expanding human family. Maybe one day we'll be eating test-tube chicken with common-cold killing corn grown in the greenhouse on the roof.

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