So I would guess that modern day "food production" consists of harvesting the raw elements needed to synthesize food, or else to build replicator machinery. read more
Although previous sci-fi writers had speculated about the development of "replicating" or "duplicating" technology, the term "replicator" was not itself used until Star Trek: The Next Generation. In simple terms, it was described as a 24th century advancement from the 23rd century "food synthesizer" seen in Star Trek: The Original Series. read more