An Urban's Rural View

Back in the days when royals ruled and not just reigned, a prince's pronouncement could end arguments. This side of the king, the prince's word was the next best thing to law.

Today's princes get less respect. They can't dictate; they must persuade. Because they're celebrities the public hears them out. But to prevail in the marketplace of ideas they must do what any contributor to the public dialogue must do: make winning arguments.

Which brings us to Prince Charles, Britain's monarch-in-waiting. Sound off he does, typically to clamorous applause from those who already share his beliefs. But he seems curiously uninterested in persuading anyone who doesn't already agree with him.

Take his recent address at a conference in Germany on food security (http://bit.ly/…) His passionate plea for local food and organic agriculture pleased true believers. It made no effort to win converts.

The world needs an environmentally sound agriculture, the prince proclaimed. Therefore it must go local and organic. The non sequitur in that argument is obvious. It assumes there's only one environmentally sound form of agriculture.

Many serious environmentalists think agriculture can judiciously embrace technology and trade without destroying the planet. They believe farmers can sustainably boost yields on lands already under cultivation through no-tilling, precision spraying, cover crops and other practices.

By failing to acknowledge, much less refute, the case for "sustainable intensification" the prince indicates he is more interested in pleasing a certain crowd than contributing to the search for truth.

It's a shame the prince doesn't use his position to make a more nuanced and therefore more persuasive case. It's one thing to sing organic agriculture's praises, quite another to insist it's the only way. It's possible to deplore the excessive use of chemical inputs without demanding they be abandoned altogether. There's no contradiction in liking local food while recognizing that in some cases it's kinder to the environment to buy food produced elsewhere.

Reading the prince's speech brought to mind what Richard Brookhiser said about leadership in his biography, "Alexander Hamilton: American." There are, Brookhiser wrote, three modes of leadership:

"The highest is inspiration: rare, sometimes false, but impossible to live without. Next is demonstration -- honestly sharing all your reasons with all comers; explaining where they come from, and where they lead. Lowest is flattery, which either fools both the leader and his followers, or fools no one, but is indulged, because followers and leaders are too tired to think of anything else."

Prince Charles practices flattery, assuring his followers how right they are. Whether he's too tired to think of anything else can be argued, but with more demonstration and inspiration he would use his princely platform to better effect.

(AG)

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