Food
Pollution, toxic waste, and wanton resource stripping has left many croplands barren and many food staples are either endangered or outrageously expensive. America's response has been to create processed substitutes for whatever it needs. The patents for much of this technology are owned by Continental Brands.
Kibble is the standard base-line food product. It is a mass-produced nutrient made primarily of kelp, plankton, and soy proteins (none of this "Kibble is people!" drek) that fulfills most nutritional requirements, but smells and tastes about as good as its canine namesake. Neocorps often dispense this to laborers as part of their "support" programs (of course, the cost is deducted from their pay). Most people in the urban zones have at least one meal a day of kibble, but try to have something with more variety as their main meal, if they can afford it. ▶ Prepack ◀
The next step up is Prepack: meals that can be microwaved or self-heated. They still tend to be largely soy and grain-based "faux food," but they are usually flavored more effectively and may have a few bits of real meat or veggies in there. Good Prepack has a higher percentage of natural food and is rather like restaurant fare, just in a bag. You press the tab and it's "heat and eat." A Prepack diet is significantly more expensive than kibble with Good Prepack pushing up the price still higher. Prepack is far more common in Executive and wealthy homes; if you want Prepack in Edgerunner turf, you'd better head out to a restaurant, choomba.
But right after the War, getting any kind of food into the Cities (and past the raiding gangs, the warring Megacorps, and the issues of just plain transportation) was nearly impossible. Faced with starvation, many Edgerunners suddenly developed green thumbs— tearing up previously abandoned lots and revealing the soil beneath—and transporting the materials to make rooftop gardens and water sprinkler systems powered by the intermittent rains. Within a couple years post-War, there were a lot of gardening sites that were small, carefully tended, and feeding the populations of local Conapts and neighborhood squats. It was actually good food for a change (if you didn't mind the radioactivity and toxic waste traces). ▶ Killing for Cabbages ◀
This didn't go unnoticed by the non-farming communities ... like the Boosters, gogangers, and anyone else not particularly interested in raising crops. Savage wars broke out over food-growing areas, with the body counts growing (only to be reprocessed into fertilizer when possible). Whole neighborhoods armed up and started patrolling their Upper Forties, ready to maim and kill anyone who had a hankering to steal a tomato. ▶ Meet the Meat ◀
Things got even more heated when some enterprising farmers began raising real chickens, dwarf pigs, and even goats (cows are still rare). Herds were shipped under Nomad protection with a heavy Solo element, creating a new form of "cattle drive." Needless to say, there were attempts to rustle the range that ended up with many of the rustlers buried in the Night City equivalent of Boot Hill. ▶ The Market Price ◀
In the Time of the Red, things have died down a little. A tentative detente was reached, especially between the Growers and certain Neocorps. In exchange for some heavy security, the Growers traded fresh food, and both sides profited. This does not always hold up, however and there are still raids on individual city farms and rooftop gardens that come too close to the Oasis Markets operated by Continental Brands.
SynthFood
▶ Kibble ◀Kibble is the standard base-line food product. It is a mass-produced nutrient made primarily of kelp, plankton, and soy proteins (none of this "Kibble is people!" drek) that fulfills most nutritional requirements, but smells and tastes about as good as its canine namesake. Neocorps often dispense this to laborers as part of their "support" programs (of course, the cost is deducted from their pay). Most people in the urban zones have at least one meal a day of kibble, but try to have something with more variety as their main meal, if they can afford it. ▶ Prepack ◀
The next step up is Prepack: meals that can be microwaved or self-heated. They still tend to be largely soy and grain-based "faux food," but they are usually flavored more effectively and may have a few bits of real meat or veggies in there. Good Prepack has a higher percentage of natural food and is rather like restaurant fare, just in a bag. You press the tab and it's "heat and eat." A Prepack diet is significantly more expensive than kibble with Good Prepack pushing up the price still higher. Prepack is far more common in Executive and wealthy homes; if you want Prepack in Edgerunner turf, you'd better head out to a restaurant, choomba.
Fresh Food
Fresh food had always been standard fare for the City elite and a rare luxury for the average person, although some groups had an advantage in this area as they were living in environments where the food was processed. ▶ Guerrilla Gardening ◀But right after the War, getting any kind of food into the Cities (and past the raiding gangs, the warring Megacorps, and the issues of just plain transportation) was nearly impossible. Faced with starvation, many Edgerunners suddenly developed green thumbs— tearing up previously abandoned lots and revealing the soil beneath—and transporting the materials to make rooftop gardens and water sprinkler systems powered by the intermittent rains. Within a couple years post-War, there were a lot of gardening sites that were small, carefully tended, and feeding the populations of local Conapts and neighborhood squats. It was actually good food for a change (if you didn't mind the radioactivity and toxic waste traces). ▶ Killing for Cabbages ◀
This didn't go unnoticed by the non-farming communities ... like the Boosters, gogangers, and anyone else not particularly interested in raising crops. Savage wars broke out over food-growing areas, with the body counts growing (only to be reprocessed into fertilizer when possible). Whole neighborhoods armed up and started patrolling their Upper Forties, ready to maim and kill anyone who had a hankering to steal a tomato. ▶ Meet the Meat ◀
Things got even more heated when some enterprising farmers began raising real chickens, dwarf pigs, and even goats (cows are still rare). Herds were shipped under Nomad protection with a heavy Solo element, creating a new form of "cattle drive." Needless to say, there were attempts to rustle the range that ended up with many of the rustlers buried in the Night City equivalent of Boot Hill. ▶ The Market Price ◀
In the Time of the Red, things have died down a little. A tentative detente was reached, especially between the Growers and certain Neocorps. In exchange for some heavy security, the Growers traded fresh food, and both sides profited. This does not always hold up, however and there are still raids on individual city farms and rooftop gardens that come too close to the Oasis Markets operated by Continental Brands.
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