Synopsis (short abstract)Alleviating hunger and poverty has been and continues to be the pre-dominant policy challenge facing global and national decision makers. This paper argues that policy interventions for addressing this challenge should be designed in the context of emerging global, regional and national trends. This paper discusses four major trends that are shaping the future food economy and consequently the prospects for meeting the hunger and poverty goals. These trends are: i) rapid urbanisation in the deve loping world and its impact on food markets; ii) increasing integration of global food markets through trade; iii) deterioration of natural resource base and the degradation of the global and local commons; and iv) rising transactions costs in the acquisition and use of science and technology for development.