The paper provides an overview of global food consumption trends. It describes how significantly changing patterns in food consumption – worldwide – are having profound effects on health, the agroecological resource base and food security. It examines the drivers behind these trends and previews how the anticipated continuation of these trends will affect the ability of the world to feed itself sustainably. The paper provides illustrative case studies which demonstrate that unsustainable food consumption patterns are already leading to considerable detrimental effects.