Conclusion

Abstract This chapter argues that innovations in the nineteenth century have had a major impact on the way we produce and think about food in the twenty-first century. A Janus-faced picture emerges. On the one hand, mass production has eradicated hunger in large parts of the world. On the other hand, it has set in motion a spiral of global population growth and ever-increasing consumption needs. Many of the problems of the Anthropocene, such as climate change and obesity, have their roots in nineteenth-century transformations. The book has refocused attention away from colonial exploitative practices, and more towards technological innovation. Food empires emanated from the micro-world of laboratories and expanded in tandem with the world economy. Germany played a key role in transforming global food technology and science between 1870 and 1914, with consequences visible up until today.