foods and restructured meat products, though not ac-
ceptable to the current older generation, will find an
increasing market, based on cost, with the younger
generation. The proportion of convenience foods will
increase.
 Diets, food sources and human nutrition/disease
relationships will receive increasing attention. There
will be emphasis on reduced salt and low-sodium prod-
ucts and a trend away from the use of nitrates and
nitrites in meat products. New health food items will
be introduced. The human diet will contain fewer fat
calories and sugar, and more starch and fiber foods.
Many people will avoid use of sugar, salt, caffeine,
cholesterol and preservatives. The current outpouring
of books on human nutrition and diets reflects the need
for more definitive information and the necessity of
attracting new scientific talent into this area.

 Food engineering will focus on new products and in-
gredients, meat extenders, food fortification, partially
dried and more acidified foods. Irradiation at low
temperatures will gain in prominence for food preser-
vation and after the year 1990 may no longer be con-
sidered a food additive. This SM research will be done
in schools or departments of packaging, food science,
agricultural engineering, animal sciences and horti-
culture, as well as in private industry.

 Nutritional values of foods in food processing will be
given increased emphasis. Vitamin A and C for preven-
tion of certain types of cancer will receive attention.

 Systems for integrating farm production, marketing,
processing and distribution are now being created. Ad-
vances in food technology sometimes create the oppor-
tunities for such integration. At other times, new food
technologies are sought as a means of attaining market
power and control through integration. Thus, market-
ing systems research is now needed to understand the
impacts of technical change and rising energy and
labor costs on farming, and it will be increasingly
needed in the next 50 years.

 Because the United States is a residual supplier of
basic farm commodities and a price taker, much price
and supply uncertainty exists for the food processing
and distribution sector. This uncertainty provides an
incentive for the food processors and distributors to
develop technologies and institutions either to help
control farm production and prices or to make market-
ing systems and their managers less dependent on the
production, availability and prices of basic farm com-
modities. Serious conflicts of interest among farmers
and consumers, on one hand, and food processors and
distributors, on the other, are likely to develop. Public-
ly supported research on and regulation of food systems
will be needed to serve the public interest.


Disciplinary Research Relevant
for Food Science
 Because of the multidisciplinary nature of food
science, it depends on the advances in its supporting
disciplines and related multidisciplinary subjects.
These disciplines include human nutrition, bacteri-
ology, chemistry, physics-including electronics-
agricultural engineering, economics and sociology. To
date there have been few systematic investigations of
priorities for the various kinds of DISC research that
support food science as a multidisciplinary SM research
area. Food processing, storage, distribution and
preparation in the home are obviously affected by ad-
vances in nutrition, bacteriology and entomology.
Electronics has made and will make future contribu-
tions to both the processing and storage of food, and
the operation of food systems. Computerized control of
inventory, sales, accounting, etc., is moving forward
steadily with electronic advances. Similarly, advances
in chemistry are extremely important in the food in-
dustry because they affect the products available, their
nutritional value and their storability. Of particular
importance for food science is the danger of chemical
contamination of the food chain. Disciplinary ad-
vances in the ability of chemists to detect trace quan-
tities of dangerous contaminants are important both to
the food industry and to food consumers. Significant
losses occur in the food chain from insects. Insects
reduce both the quantity and the quality of food and
they arie expensive to control. Disciplinary advances in
economics, sociology and political science are impor-
tant for the efficient operation of the U.S. food system
and to attempts of the government to guide the system
into socially and politically desirable directions.


Subject-Matter Research
in Agricultural Engineering
 The SM research is listed under four categories:
 mechanization and automation, including robotics;
 natural resources; structures and environment; and
 food engineering.
 Mechanization and Automation U.S. temperate
 zone agriculture has used machines to replace increas-
 ingly expensive labor to take advantage of the short
 periods of good weather available for farming
 operations-planting, tillage, harvesting. More
 machines will be used to conserve energy as well as
 labor, though there will be a few major advances in
 new designs. Many improvements in mechanization
 technology for increasing food, feed, fiber and forest
 production for the years 2000 and 2030 will come from
 the use of improved electrical sensors and controllers.
 Sensors will become increasingly important in
 agricultural mechanization for reductions in cost and