Food Security in a Tiberium World.
One of the key challenges in a world ravaged by tiberium is providing enough food to the population. As tiberium is a pervasive threat that can infest and actively subvert biological organisms and has done so extensively, there is a distinct need for safe methods of food production. This document only tangentially touches upon these methods, it is far more interested in how to arrange our food production capabilities to produce food in a way that's effective and can provide for the population long term.
Key areas in food security are the following:
1) Staple Foodstuffs.
2) Macronutrients.
3) Micronutrients.
4) Taste.
We will take these items in order.
Staple Foodstuffs.
Staple foodstuffs are basically anything that can be eaten in bulk for the sake of energy. These are generally carbohydrates, proteins and fat. Most farmland currently in use is used for the production of at least one of these broad categories food, and they must be produced in large quantities to provide the required caloric intake the human body needs to survive. As such, these are products that are best produced in Blue Zones, where large areas can be cultivated with little risk of tiberium contamination.
Macronutrients.
Basically whatever staple foodstuffs you aren't using as your key energy source. Fat, carbohydrates and protein are all used by the human body to facilitate bodily processes that the body may find difficult to provide substitutes for without sourcing them from food intake, if it can provide a substitute at all. The issues are similar to the staple foodstuffs because they are otherwise staple foodstuffs, and can easily substitute.
Micronutrients.
Vitamins, minerals and other substances required by the body but in small quantities. Major sources of these nutrients are sadly often perishable, with some vitamins themselves only stable for days or weeks even under optimal storage conditions. Micronutrients are largely sourced from fruit and vegetables, and while some fruits and vegetables can be stored long term, most lose much of their nutritious value aside their carbohydrate, fat and protein content rapidly.
Taste.
A bit of an odd duck, admittedly, but the taste of food has key cultural and morale value. To put it simply, food that tastes nice makes people happier, and cultures have specific food tastes as part of their identity, and facilitating that identity is likewise good for morale. Luckily, while most of the spices and condiments that facilitate taste can be difficult to produce, they also rarely need anywhere near the same volumes of production as any previous category and usually keep as well as staple foodstuffs or better.
Maintaining Security.
Staple foodstuffs generally keep very well, even with little more treatment than a roof overhead and a way to keep out vermin. Cereals and beans, key plant based sources of carbohydrates and protein, respectively, are both known to keep for a decade or more without requiring more attention than keeping them dry. Meat and cheese can also keep for a very long time without needing to be stored in cooled environments through curing processes. Fat is a more difficult question, but properly treated cooking oils will keep a long time, and properly stored butter can keep for a decade or more even without refrigeration. Unfortunately, the difficulty of storing fat for as long as protein or carbohydrates is an issue, as fat is commonly used as a way to facilitate cooking.
Properly produced and stored staple foodstuffs can keep for decades, if not indefinitely so long as the storage method is not breached. This makes it easy to store excess food for later shortages, and strategic food stockpiles should prioritize building up a large stock of these foodstuffs as the key inventory.
Micronutrients are more of a problem due to the difficulty of storing them and maintaining their nutritious value. While creating and maintaining stockpiles of these foodstuffs is wise in locations we cannot source them locally, it would be best to instead to prioritize local production, even if only in limited quantities to provide the needed nutrition.
Putting this together, it is advised that we consider carefully where we produce and store our food. The changed situation with GDI now far more involved in the Yellow Zones than previously provides new challenges that need new answers. We need a better system than producing large quantities of food in Blue Zones, keeping most of it for local consumption and only shipping what is needed to maintain our stationed forces in Yellow and Red Zones through otherwise dangerous terrain. We will also need a deep well of foodstuffs we can rely upon to provide for the population in case of loss of production or isolation from outside food sources.
As such, I propose that every metropolitan area in Blue Zones acquires and maintains secured long term storage facilities that can provide staple foods, spices and condiments for the local population for at least a full year without outside support, and preferably 5 or more in case of disaster and displaced populations straining logistics. The fungal bars provided by fungal farming methods may not be the most palatable of food, it would make it possible to stretch a limited food supply further, notably decreasing the required storage. For vegetable and fruit production, hydroponic farms should be constructed to provide access to micronutrients, if not necessarily to the full standards of the health department's nutritional standards, then to at least prevent or slow down the development of nutritional deficiency illnesses.
Rural areas in Blue Zones should be encouraged to produce long term stable staple foodstuffs in large quantities, at least until the food storage facilities are filled.
For Yellow Zones, the situation is slightly different. The fact that tiberium is so prevalent in these areas can make large scale, unprotected farms difficult. We anticipate that it would be required for these locations to depend on their food supply at least partially upon Blue Zone exports of staple foodstuffs, but hydroponics can facilitate the production of fruits and vegetable for vitamins and minerals just as easily here as in Blue Zones, while the use of fungal farms would lower the demand on Blue Zone imports for protein, increasing food independence and increasing effective reserves. As Yellow Zones are under much greater threat of major disaster due to enemy attack or weather events, it should be required that Yellow Zones maintain minimum food stockpiles of at least 3 years, and preferably 5 or more years in case of disaster and displaced populations straining logistics.
