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Maybe it’s just too close to lunch, but this week’s Friday Fivefeature a collection of links about the future of food:

Scientific American’s September cover story, Feast or Famine examines the present and the future of food from a number of angles: the paradox of simultaneous hunger and obesity in developing countries, the fact that overall obesity is a larger public health problem than hunger, and a look at the role of genetically modified organisms in the future of food technology.

Fast Company profile of FringeHog favorite Homaru Cantu, the Chicago chef whose unique kitchen - or as he likes to call it, the food replication factory - is delivering everything from ink-jet-printed sushi to new food concepts for NASA to famine-relief options for third world countries.

New York Times article based on research out of Rutgers University on the use of edible antimicrobial films and powders to enhance food safety. In the near future, thin films woven with a thyme derivative that can kill E. coli could line bags of fresh spinach. The same material in powder form might be sprinkled on packages of chicken to stop salmonella.

Visualizing hunger: one of my all-time favorite tools, WorldMapper, offers two cartograms displaying worldwide undernourishment in 1990 and 2000. Over the ten year period from 1990 to 2000, the number of people in the world that lived on an inadequate amount of food increased from 840 million to 858 million. If you haven’t checked out WorldMapper yet, do so: you’ll never look at statistics the same again.

I’ll have the nano burger: the first-ever Nanotechnology Consumer Products Inventory gives the public the best available look at the 500+ manufacturer-identified nanotechnology-based consumer products currently on the market. Check out the “food and beverage” category for a look at food and food products that incorporate nanotech. Produced by good friend Dave Rejeski and the folks at the Woodrow Wilson Institute’s Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies.

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