Convenience foods will become increasingly prevalent and eventually replace traditional foods and traditional methods of food preparation. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

One of the most significant advances in civilization is the development of modern methods of

food

production and preparation.

Convenience

foods have now become the norm in many societies.

Although

some people idealise traditional cooking practices and believe they will prevail indefinitely, demographic trends suggest that

this

is unlikely to be the case. In fact, there a number of reasons for believing that

convenience

foods are likely to grow in popularity. The

first

reason is the decline in family size and the increase in single-adult households. In more traditional societies, where families tended to be large, it made economic sense for one person to devote him or herself to time-consuming domestic tasks

such

as growing and preparing

food

. Nowadays, people tend to live in ever smaller family units. If each family were to spend large amounts of time growing and processing

food

,

this

would be a poor use of society’s human resources. Another reason

convenience

foods are likely to become more popular is the increase in the number of adults, especially women with children, who work in full-time employment. In the UK,

for example

, working mothers significantly outnumber stay-at-home mothers. There is evidence that consumption of

convenience

foods rises with the amount of hours worked. As modern life increasingly demands that people are economically active,

this

trend is likely to continue.

Although

many people still value traditional foods and methods of cooking, the trend towards smaller, dual-income households suggests that

convenience

foods are likely to continue to grow in popularity and may very well eventually replace traditional methods of

food

production and preparation.