Opportunities are  greater than ever before for cutting-edge science to improve food and agriculture. Chemistry, in particular, can help provide a safe, healthful, and sustainable food supply to meet a growing worldwide population.  Chemists and chemical engineers have made plenty of contributions to food and agriculture, which allow us to raise, harvest, and consume abundant and nutritious food. At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century, an average kitchen table would be loaded with produce from the root cellar, garden, or local farm; butter from a churn; eggs from hens penned in the backyard, vegetables from the garden, and meat stored in an icebox and cooked over a coal or wood stove. The last century has brought massive changes in how we get food on our tables by making our farms more productive and our food and water supplies readily available. Modern farmers have utilized new chemical advances to improve agricultural production with fertilizers and pesticides and to develop plentiful food supplies. Consumers have benefited from new technologies, which have enhanced the flavor, appearance, availability, and nutritional value of their food.  This paper will review advances in chemistry during the last one hundred years which help to feed potentially all individuals of the world's rapidly expanding population.

How chemistry has improved our food supply

247th National Meeting (2014)

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