Passage Summary: We need to centralize society to grow enough food for rising populations, but centralization makes it much more dangerous and deadly when a society eventually fails.

Conclusion: Increasing societal centralization to boost food production will worsen the disasters that occur when a society collapses.

Reasoning: Significant food production increases require centralization, but historical data shows that more centralized societies suffer higher death rates during a collapse.

Analysis: This argument sets up a 'double-edged sword' scenario. It establishes that centralization is a necessary condition for meaningful food increases, but it also identifies centralization as a factor that increases mortality during a collapse. When looking for the most strongly supported statement, we should look for a synthesis of these facts. A likely inference is that there is an inherent trade-off between maximizing food security through technology and minimizing the human cost of a potential societal breakdown.