Rare earths: Forbidden cures

It is in true scientific sense that we have been making "bread from stones" as the biblical allegory intimates, but not by a momentary miraculous process. Our heritage of soil fertility accumulated in ages past has telescoped the time lapse between bread form stones to bring these two close together. With the squandering of our soil fertility by continuous crop removal and insufficient fertility return, the distance between bread and stones will not be bridged by the best of science. If our fertility decline is to go much further we shall wish for some miraculous power by which we may quickly convert stones into bread.