Full quote is "We couldn't feed" stops picking the word "A few billion people would have to die if we hadn't come up with fertilizer." >Not just in this case b

Full quote is "We couldn't feed" stops picking the word "A few billion people would have to die if we hadn't come up with fertilizer." >Not just in this case but he's confusing the cause and effect. Why do you assume he doesn't understand a trivial thing? "wouldn't be able to live" -> "would have to die" is an easy mistake to do while speaking