June 12, 1967

Mr. Gerard Piel
Selentific American

415 Madison Avenue

Kew York, New York 10017

Dear Mr. Piel:

The National Academy has just issued the proceedings of its symposium on
"Prospects of the World Food Supply".

It occurred to me that the Sclentific American could perform an even more
effective public service by dedicating some future issue to this subject,
and doing an even better job of the systematic analysis of the fundamental
problema. I have in mind a consideration pg the plenning for resource
allocation over the next 50 to 100 years.” projection should then take
into account such fundamental questions as the utility of agriculture com-
pared to industrial techniques for conversion of raw materials into edibles;
the fascinating economic issues that were raised by Schultz in the Academy
symposium, what kind of agricultural preduct would reflect the optimum use
of planetary resources, given some imaginative exploitation of primary fixed
carbon by industrial processes.

There are of course many equally cogent issues that belong to the behavioral
rather than the natural sciences.

My own perplexity stems from the consideration that it is obviously ineffi-
cient to devote human labor to an agriculture primarily devoted to carbon
fixation. We already have ample energy resources in the form of fossil
fuels, and nuclear energy to accomplish this task in waya that must be more
efficient than the current emphasis on cwweals. And there is no doubt that
we will develop the technology to solve the practical issues of converting
cheap carbon into calories, and protein too. What then are the crops that
will atill be in urgent demand for their special organic content and texture
some fifty year hence?

This is probably the most fundamental technological decision that we face in
the world today, since we are under such severe stress to solve the world
food problem. I can think of few vehicles that would be more effective in
outlining the more fundamental issues to the scientifically competent public
than the use of a special number of your magazine for this purpose.

Wid
Mr. Gerard Piel June 12, 1967
Page 2

I am vehemently not volunterring to be a special editor for such a publication,
and I am sure you will have no diffiaulty in thinking of a number of names

who would do an excellent job of it. The one that comes to my mind most
readily is Harrison Brown.

Cordially ,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics