this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
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Technically, duplicating food is not that feasible. That was a plot point covered in the seventh book.
I didn't really think they actually covered that plot point well.
The biggest problem iirc is a duplicated loaf of bread has the same expiration date as the original, so you can't actually make bread last forever with duplication without it getting moldy. Preservation charms wear off the same as muggle preservatives do.
But I don't see why dried or smoked food couldn't be duplicated for months or years. The biggest threat would be scurvy at that point.
Even with those limitations, duplication would still allow food producers to make less food go a longer way. Smaller farms could feed more people, reducing pollution. You could duplicate the food at the point of sale, which would drastically reduce transportation costs as well as traffic. Hell, cities could have small farms and fed themselves. It would also drastically reduce water consumption that is used in farming, reducing droughts. Producing and transporting food is a massive contributor to global warming. Farms and ranches take up tons of space, all that land could be returned to its natural state (I bet wizards could speed that up).
If wizards showed up with the cure to cancer and fed the hungry they'd easily have 1/5 of the world's population on their side. Unfortunately the wizarding society is extremely exploitative of animals, even worse than the average muggle.
I get that wizards were persecuted and don't want to have muggles expect them to solve all their problems, but they could literally save the planet.
Absolutely! Wizards can also cast longer-term enchantments in addition to duplicating food, so they could also provide self-stirring cooking pots and self-fueled stoves and self-cooling ice chests. That doesn't even get in to Arthur Weasley tinkering like the flying Ford.
Wizards deserved it.