2009: Food Network Says the Year is Greener

• More people will be cooking at home, and doing it better; 
• food communities will continue to grow (hear that, Chowhounds); 
• kitchens will be more eco-conscious (I guess we’ll all be recycling our Zip-Locs); 
• we’ll be eating like locavores (wasn’t this a big trend in 2007?);
• bioengineering and genetic modification will continue to make strides (um, also not exactly news?); 
• food philanthropy will increase as individuals and companies try to combat world hunger; 
• there’ll be a bigger push for controls on food safety (hear that, China?); 
• a bigger gap between “exotic” foods and “day to day” needs (just like the widening gap between the uberwealthy and the unemployed, I guess). 
• And then, to make it an even 10 I suppose (because we so love our numbered lists) the Food Network sandwiches in some questions that aren’t really predictions at all. I feel so cheated. Viz; Is putting the calorie counts on everything too much information? And, Where in the world will the next flavor trend come from?

Uh, I don’t know, Food Network, I thought you were supposed to be telling us what the trends were. Anyhoo, I found this list pretty yawn-inducing, and I hereby invite readers to submit their own trends for 2009, since I PREDICT that as a group you could do much better than the above, without even having to pay the  the World Thought Bank [TM] a few thousand million to do a study or anything. Cheers!

— Gail Shepherd“>