[Brian_K_White]

Farming has merely a lot of study and input into the process, very little actual control and no determinism at all. We know how to improve chances is all. The fact that we breed and "engineer" is like a drop in the bucket.

[bluefirebrand]

It's pretty deterministic in that if you plant corn you will grow corn not beets, you know?

If the farming situation were as dire as you seem to suggest, we'd have unpredictable famines all the time, but we don't

[Brian_K_White]

You might grow corn, or you might grow defective unusable corn and/or any number of other things like locusts or fungi or other plants that decide to grow in the place where you planted corn. Sure, the corn seeds will not produce ball bearings. Genius observation. There are about an infinity of other things that can and do happen besides that.

Planting is merely setting up the conditions. We didn't write the dna, we couldn't write the dna if we wanted to because we are an infinity away from understanding all the actual processes that descend from the dna. And when we utilize the dna that we simply found and didn't and couln't hope to write, it's always, at best, a case of hoping it goes right again this time.

[nradov]

Tell me you've never done any farming without telling me you've never done any farming. There is certainly risk in the business due to market fluctuations, weather, natural disasters, disease, and pests. But the final product is highly deterministic. Almost all genetic variability has been expunged from major food production species in a relentless pursuit of predictable yield. Everything looks and tastes the same. We can debate whether that's a good thing but it is the reality for most farmers.

[Brian_K_White]

If it was deterministic, there would be no such thing as blights and other forms of failures. There would be no problem with the bannannas, or coffee or wine grapes. There would be no such thing as a critical few days of the entire year where if anything goes wrong you lose the entire year because it was too humid or too cold or your equipment was out of commission for a week. The bees wouldn't matter at all.

Even when it works, even if you put in a lot of work and experience and understanding, it still just worked by itself and it's just good luck every time.

You have also guessed incorrectly.