I'm maybe halfway through, and I want to talk about The Wizard and the Prophet.

I'm maybe halfway through, and I want to talk about The Wizard and the Prophet.

The Wizard is Norman Borlaug. The Prophet is Vogt.

The conceit of the book is this: Wizards and Prophets both see the problems of the world, and see very different means of solutions. Wizards seek to use new marvels, prophets say if we keep going as were going everyone will die, so stop using so much crap.

Wizards say more people and more ideas, thinking and working on the problems. Prophets say fewer people, use less of the land, restrict breeding, etc.

They are both right, and they are both wrong. Which the book pretty much says. Dwarf wheat and C4 rice feed a lot more people and free up labor for things besides food production. At the same time, monocultures of dwarf wheat destroy the land and we also need farms that produce a wide variety using a variety of methods.

A concern of mine is: Who gets the thick-skinned tasteless tomatoes, and who gets the delicate heirloom varietals?

I think the answer as to who actually gets the high quality food stuffs is obvious, and I sure do wish it was better distributed.

I'm pretty sure we can come up with a means of doing so. But, then, I'm a wizard.