FOOD CHANGES IN THE GLOBAL ERA: ABSTRACT

The technological revolution of recent history has affected virtually every aspect of American life, and the food New Yorkers consume has been no exception. The development of new technologies since 1940 has facilitated an increase in food and beverage variety, production, and consumption. This was determined by collecting data provided by US government agencies, reading newspaper articles, journals, case studies, and books both past and present. The findings from these sources indicate that indeed, technology has had a significant role in increasing New Yorkers’ consumption of food and beverage items in terms of volume and types of items. Similarly, food production and transportation of products has increased as well. These phenomena inevitably cause other trends to emerge, including detrimental impacts on the environment, including but not limited to species depletion and pollution. Other such effects include changes in infrastructure to accommodate the ever-increasing volumes of food being transported. Within the research there is reasonable evidence to assume these patterns will continue, leading to increased diversity in food importation and consumption and less production of food in New York.