I recently spent three days looking over the horizon with 21 leading food manufacturers and retailers.

For a futurist this is always a giddy time of year as everyone, everywhere is issuing their predictions for the year (and sometimes bravely, the decade) ahead. But does it matter? Given some will come more true than others—we’re still waiting for flying cars, jet packs and meals in pills—how can we use predictions to guide our work?