Are we waiting for a Henry Ford in food production? The perishable nature of food greatly alters the way in which massification is possible. Also, the need for variability in diet diminishes the possibility of standardization which was the key to Ford's massification. McDonalds may be the furthest extent to which Fordist development can take us - and the consequenses to health, as well as the relatively labor-intensiveness of on-site production, make it seem that this doesn't take us that far at all. While all cars are now produced with relatively developed technology, only recently has it become the case that a majority of meals were even produced outside of the home!

The relavant changes in technology don't even seem to be of the era of the industrial revolution - they were probably not even possible for the robotics revolution. But we are well into that stage of development - why have the changes not yet come to foodservice?

Wages as a factor.

The development of car production technology has not been smooth forward motion. Under private production for profit, it is possible to substitute reduction of wages for advances in technology. In car production, this has meant that the movement of plants to the South, to Mexico, and to China has resulted in the de-technologization of production! For food production, which cannot be effectively outsourced, the consistently low wages (and the failure of organized labor to make any significant inroads) may play a significant role in the underdevelopment of foodservice technology. Why build a better machine when a cheaper worker is, well, cheaper?

Also to be addressed is the effect of massive subsidization of certain foodstuffs in the U.S. My understanding is that the effects have been, if anything, overstated by the current crop of health-focused authors. What many of them do not seem to understand is that the main reason that vegetables (and other sources of vital nutrients) do not represent a larger part of the low-cost foodservice in the U.S. is the simple fact that vegetables, and vegetable nutrients, are far more perishable (and take less well to freezing) than meats and starches.

Perishability, immediacy of production, and locality are coming to the fore as the most important issues.

Where next?