[AlexanderHowl]

Earth to Stone is especially problematic for fantasy economics because it allows the transformation of massive amounts of earth into bronze and, with Essential Earth, the transformation of massive amounts of Essential Earth into adamant and/or orichalcum. I think that one possible solution would be to change Earth to Stone so that its effects are temporary, similar to Continual Light, which would actually make Shape Earth even more valuable because Shape Earth can shape stone. Essential Earth then just becomes really, really good potting soil instead of a precursor to adamant and/or orichalcum (though tripling food production makes urban farms much more viable).

Create Food and Essential Food do not really have as much impact as an unmodified Earth to Stone spell because they require a minimum of 6 energy per person per day and 9 energy per person per day respectively to keep people feed. With Create Food-15, each meal costs a minimum of 1 FP, which is the equivalent of eight man-hours of work replaced by Shape Earth-15. With Essential Food-15, each meal costs a minimum of 2 FP, which is the equivalent of 16 man-hours of work replaced by Shape Earth-15. In that case, Create Food needs to be worth $1.75 per meal and Essential Food needs to be worth $3.50 per meal to make it worthwhile for mages to spend the time learning them. By comparison, a Status-1 person at TL3 can really only spend a maximum of an average of $1.67 per meal for their entire household.