"You could let 'em switch back. You get that problem anyway, within the construction industry or within the textile industry, and no one suggests splitting purples into distinct castes as a solution."

"I've heard it suggested, actually."

"Really? How would you divide it -"

"Mostly farmers and some rural farming-related occupations, and the not-farmers - the farmers have their own traditionalist kind of culture, they've been doing what they do for thousands of years and only the tools have changed, see, and city purples do all kinds of things and job-hop and talk differently -"

"Wouldn't solve industry booms, but I guess I can see the appeal as a cultural thing."

"They're usually shouted down by people who have, like, feelings about purpleness as a whole thing."

"And it's probably a good thing that when there are dramatic increases in farming efficiency those people can move to the city and get other jobs, instead of just cutting their credits in half or worse."

"Mm-hm. My dad used to be a farmer, but Mom's restaurant took off and she moved it to the city and now he works with her there."

"Paprika? Their noodle bowls are fantastic, you have a talented family."

She grins at him. "Thanks! It's nice to be able to get Mom's cooking middle of the work day without going all the way home."

"I bet. How'd she pick up Voan cooking?"

"She went to cooking school! She can do other styles, but there was a niche for Voan-inspired stuff."

"Aitim loves Voa, he'd tag along whenever anyone we even vaguely knew was visiting."

"Well, we're not really on great terms with them anymore. But when I was a kid certainly."

"I've never been, what's so great about it?"

"Oh, I mostly liked the people. But the food's good, the city's very orderly, fairly relaxed atmosphere. Well-run."

Nod. "I've only been abroad for business reasons. I do sell to Voa but I do it through middlemen."

"That makes sense."

"Have you talked with them about imports from the massacre sites -"

"Yeah, actually, there are some people who remember the debacle a few years back without any fondness and want to be stringent but there's always a balance to be struck between being appropriately conservative and stoking paranoia - you shouldn't buy things from Biyan but we don't want poor families throwing out the contents of their pantries in a panic either - I think what'll end up happening is people will pressure Olvala and maybe Evalee to be more careful, their exports of food and anything we can't clean might suffer - Biyan might collapse entirely -"

"And other places will be more careful?"

"I certainly hope so. This could have been done so much better, it's very frustrating."

"Ah huh."

"It would've been well worth the money for Biyan to buy that overpriced patch of rainforest - and to clear it, and to outright build a city on it -"

"WIth a little bit of foresight you could move them to the rainforest without having to pay for much beyond the initial land costs, even. Send a thousand people over, let their family send them remittances, let them do piecemeal remote work online since they're not a citizen of any country that'd object to that, give it half a season and some entrepreneurial businesses notice there's a market sitting there and go figure out how to serve it. And then once there's a palatable place to go you charge the rest of the reds to emigrate, and they'll save up for it because they'd love to be out."