From safer insecticides and tiny sensors monitoring the health of crops and livestock, to fat your body can't absorb and vitamins that are stored fresh at a microscopic level and only released when swallowed, Steve Boggan's article in today's G2 raises some fascinating possibilities around the involvement of nanotechnology in food.
Aside from the obstacles in the way of achieving the scientific know-how required to make any of these things a reality, he identifies another big problem - the attitudes of consumers. He says "there are signs that consumers will recoil from any food to which this new technology is applied ... nowadays it's difficult to get food companies even to admit they are conducting research into nano".
To what extent is this true? Do we distrust new technology (like GM) just because it's new, or because we don't trust the motivation of the big corporations who have the capital necessary to invest in this sort of research? Perhaps we only accept new food technologies once we're satisfied they're safe, and in today's climate of constant claim and counter-claim, press releases and pressure groups definitive answers are rare.
In the absence of Arthur C Clarke we're going to have to peer into the future for ourselves on this one. What are your thoughts?
