I was actually thinking about this the other day, and really tempted to have like a tangent or a one-shot about the people who procure these potions ingredients-- I mean, some of them are really obscure or hard to reach or just dangerous to collect. You'd have to be a badass to be a potions ingredients supplier. (either that or one of the ocd types... beetle eyes, anyone?)

Also, if wizards can't conjure food, then what the hell was Mrs. Weasley doing conjuring gravy straight from her wand in like book two or whatever? That always pissed me off, because it suggested huge gaps of inconsistency to me...

 

Well hallo thar!! Glad you finally made it to the sieveverse of Rowling's Harry Potter.

 

I always assumed that Molly just transported it magically, sort of like the House Elves.

 

There's a couple of ways out of it.

Firstly, it's a sauce she conjures: a liquid. We know you can conjure water and wine, so that fits in.

Secondly, you could say that it will have no nutritional value but as its just for flavour that doesn't matter.

Or you could say that its transported rather than conjured.

 

Lol.

Also, it's okay to conjure liquid but not solids? Eh, that's weak. Especially since gravy is a solid at room temperature, and has solids in it even when its not. Nope, not buying it. Maybe given the right spell you can conjure food, but those spells are only doled out sparingly so the food industry still has customers. (unless you're a wizard with skillz who can just do whatever you want anyway) It's all a conspiracy to control the weaklings...

 

The whole problem with "no conjuring food" idea is that it doesn't define what food is. Can I conjure wheat? If so, then I've conjured food. Can I conjure wine? If so, then I've conjure food.

Here's my take on how JKR came up with it - well, two possibilities, really:

Possibility 1) Conjurations are not permanent. Aguamenti probably summons the moisture out of the air, but if you conjure wine, or some food item, after you digest it and it is absorbed into your bloodstream and becomes part of your body, you'll be pretty fucked when it de-conjures. This is why you can transfigure other things into food, but you can't conjure it.

Possibility 2) Economic regulation. IIRC, JKR said that conjuring garments is illegal because it interferes with wizarding business. How are the Malfoys going to stay rich if their house-elf slave-labor farm doesn't sell potatoes or whatever other shit they grow?

My guess is that (1) is more likely than (2).

 

Oz is the winnah !

 

I see one. We know Burkina Faso, which like most African countries is an historical non-entity, exists, so why not the US.