These two sketchbook pages demonstrate how Robert pursued multiple ideas while looking for a solution to a design problem. The problem he set himself was how to visually represent a public forum on the future of food. He starts by sketching a carrot and stalk of wheat inside a glowing crystal ball. The ball suggests a giant seed that will give life to the food inside. The hands holding the ball are those of a fortune teller, but with the added responsibilities of a caretaker of precious contents. Below this, Robert sketches the examination of an unimpressed cow with a magnifying glass. The facing page shows a tiny thumbnail sketch of a head of broccoli on a launching pad (top right). Robert also draws a farmer moving between city and country and a more realistic study of broccoli. These sketches indicate the finished drawing is meant to be humorous and also to stretch the viewer’s imagination by contrasting the common-place quality of local foods with an element of magic prophecy or space-age technology.