Dear Editor,

Who would have thunk it? My man Dan Banov and his perpetual optimism have once again taken the high road in thinking that human ingenuity will prevail and lead us all to some glorious future with no cause for concern [Farmland easy to replace, Sept. 18 Letters, TIMES].

However, my innate skepticism just won't shut up, so allow me to counter his assertion that we need not preserve farmland because we humans are so smart we couldn't possibly mess our own beds.

However, there was a time that we, the infallible human race, were quite sure that we knew that washing created germs. Well, it didn't take too many bubonic plagues to prove us wrong.

Now, I'm not saying it'd impossible to feed the people without farmable land for a while - maybe a couple hundred years or more. But one day, there will be a shift, and suddenly there will be no more fertilizer to hit the fan. Instead of growth, all we will get is a starving planet.

But, hey! The bugs will have a heck of a feast as we all rot on the ground.

And life will go on - maybe without us, but it will go on.

But the biggest insult to humanity would be the paving over of all things green and soft. Without the lush beauty of our diverse world, what would be the point of living on this green and blue ball of confusion?

Grant Baker, Maple Ridge