I am uncomfortable with designating anything human designed as "too important to fail".
Sorry, Duane, you are bang on there. I am similarly uncomfortable with protectionism. Sorry, I let my customary liberal precision drift there a bit! Interestingly when I was 'corporate man" we used to get a lot of that sort of thing when people left jobs. "Gosh how is [process X] going to happen without [Person Y]" people would say. I used to say that everyone's replaceable, that [Process X] was probably going on before [person Y] was born (or whatever) or that we'd probably find more efficient ways to do [Process X].
You are both right - if the water runs out, new directions will emerge and change will happen.. It'll hurt in the short term though! Who will produce the prunes!? Spanish Prunes, Turkish Prunes? Doesn't have the right ring to it at all!! LOL
John