Since industrialization, maintaining such a slow cultural metabolism has been much harder, with the long midday meal shrinking to whatever could be stuffed into a lunch bucket or bought at a food stand.

Its purpose is to build and maintain bone and muscle mass, both of which shrink with age.

com, predicts that the recession will shrink America's economy by

Yet there are recent signs that the gap could be starting to shrink.

But now these segments are looking at slower growth curves – or shrinking markets in some cases – as consumers are not as eager to spend money on new gadgets.

They have stagnant (蕭條的) or shrinking markets for goods and services.

What is said to be the consequence of a shrinking population

But at a time when the American factory seems to be a shrinking presence, and when good manufacturing jobs have vanished, perhaps never to return, there is something deeply troubling about this dilution of American craftsmanship.

Manufacturing's shrinking presence undoubtedly helps explain the decline in craftsmanship, if only because many of the nation's assembly line workers were skilled in craft work, if not on the job then in their spare time

But over the next few decades labour forces in rich countries are set to shrink so much that inflows of immigrants would have to increase enormously to compensate: to at least twice their current size in western Europe's most youthful countries, and three times in the older ones.

It's a product he believes could help solve future global food crises resulting from shrinking amounts of land available for growing meat the old-fashioned way.

During months without water under a harsh sun, they wither, shrink and contract until they look like a pile of dead gray leaves.

If the economy starts to shrink again, Baily says, it would make a strong case for a second stimulus—something the Obama administration hopes will not be necessary.