Food

## Cuisine

Food intended for humanoid consumption on Ijzeria is overwhelmingly vegan. The consumption of animal products is strictly illegal, although the limited ethical harvesting of certain animal byproducts is allowed.

Regardless of legal issues, the consumption of animal products is considered openly disgusting or immoral to the common Ijzerian. The consumption of meat is neither desired nor tolerated among the vast majority of Ijzeria's diverse nations, though there are notable exceptions.

## Removal of Humanoids from the Food Web

The ethicality of eating animals has always been a gray area, even in the earliest days of intelligent thought. Around 1000 years before The System was founded, many cultures and spiritual traditions began to voluntarily phase out the consumption of meat, both as a response to increasing food insecurity brought on by prolonged international conflict, as well as part of a larger spiritual awakening, where common citizens rejected the idea of being in conflict with nature, and instead chose to embrace and foster it.

### Legal Status of Animal Products

The System has outlawed the consumption of animal flesh since its inception, though animal byproducts (like chicken eggs) were outlawed later, in 233AU. There are some notable exceptions, but for the vast majority of Ijzerians, the idea that animals can be food is completely alien. The average Ijzerian would find the very idea of eating any part of an animal disgusting, and would most certainly perceive anyone who consumed animal flesh as "evil".

Animal products or byproducts which can be harvested without death or injury remain legal, though their harvesting process is strictly controlled and licensed. These products would include things like honey, honeycomb, or civet coffee. Either the animals must be "compensated" (flowers for the honeybees), or the foodstuff must be collected only after the animal is "finished" with it (as is the case with civet coffee).

## Industry

Food as a world industry makes up a much smaller portion of the Ijzerian economy than in our own world. In the realworld, food is 12% of the world's GDP, and 40% of the world's employment. On Ijzeria, both of these numbers are less than 1% worldwide. This is because on Ijzeria, over 80% of food consumed is entirely free of financial cost due to advances in automation and agriculture.

Food as a state industry varies from nation to nation, though throughout Ijzeria there is a rebate system in place known as "supply management", wherein food producers are compensated an agreed market value for crops regardless of actual sales. This means that some nations may choose to specialise in agriculture as a business model, and others may ignore food as part of their economy entirely. The island city-state of Nawa for example, produces 0.01% of its own food supply, and relies instead entirely on produce from System-operated **free farms**. This not unusual, and is in fact the majority case throughout the world.

### Supply Management

Supply management ensures that food producers can grow as much food as they are able without wasting any time or effort. They are paid according to the amount of food they produced, not how much food was purchased. Precisely how much they are paid does factor in market demand, but for the most part, farmers and agriculturalists around the world can be confident of their craft and secure in their income through registry in the supply management system.

Supply management as a concept slightly predates The System itself, although the various supply management programs used by the nations of the world were slowly combined into a single program through a centuries long process that completed in 386AU. Having enriched and fed billions of people for thousands of years, it is considered to be one of the primary purposes and duties of The System.

Historically; failure of the supply management program in an area is a strong predictor of political upheaval or deadly turmoil.

### Free Farms

Free farms are highly-automated nonprofit agricultural facilities which make extensive use of technology to cultivate the highest possible yields of reliable and nutritious fruits and vegetables. A free farm is usually made of four or more fields, which grow three different crops, and rotate automatically. Everything from planting, harvesting, and processing is done by bespoke machinery which is specialised to handle the crops which are assigned to the facility.

Free farms are extremely expensive to build, but quickly pay for themselves since after being established the only costs are facility maintenance and product transportation. Once built a free farm usually has a crew of one engineer, one machinist, one botanist, and one agriculturalist, although each free farm is able to run on a one-person crew, if only for a short time.

#### History of Free Farms

The first free farms were established in the early 1000s using enslaved people to perform the manual work. These people were usually humanoid criminals serving prison terms, or golems who at this time were not yet considered "people". As automation became more widely available, golems supplanted their humanoid colleagues, and further when golems were granted freedom, machinery replaced the golems.

Modern free farms can produce the fullest yields from their assigned fields with a crew of even a single engineer. As long as the machinery is getting maintained, the electricity stays on, and the produce is being shipped away, a free farm will run itself.

### Free Farms vs Supply Management

The existence of free farms does not conflict with Ijzeria's private agricultural estates and industries. Free farms produce dietary staples and raw whole foods; whilst private estates manufacture specialty products like fruit jellies and vegetable juices, and invest in exotic and unusual fruits and vegetables which are new and exciting.

Think of free farms as the "free trial" and private farms as the "premium experience." Free farms are part of a system of programs which ensure that an individual person's dignity and liberty are not threatened by extenuating economic circumstances. Pomegranates will always be free, for example, but "Saha'i Sparkling Wonderful Pomegranates" are said to be of superior quality, and are only available in Saha'i.

It is The System's responsibility to ensure access to food, and not to ensure that the food wins any awards for taste or style.

## Special Dietary Requirements

### Koboldic Special Diet

Members of the kobold species are exempt from some laws forbidding the consumption of animal products.

Kobolds as a species require much higher quality proteins than other humanoids. This means that they do not receive the necessary proteins for life from the consumption of plants, and in fact must consume animal protein in order to survive.

### Kobold Culinary Persecution

##### Kobold Cuisine Availability Issues

In order to meet the dietary needs of kobolds, the waterways in and around Ch'Agl are specially designated fishing grounds. This means that waterborne life may be harvested for consumption without regard to their safety or wellbeing, except to allow healthy spawning and quality of life. There is also similar special dispensation to harvest insects for consumption. There is no exception for beasts or birds which remain protected by law.

The fish and insect food allowances have the unfortunate (and intended) effect of highly restricting the mobility of kobolds both as individuals and as a people. It is simply too dangerous for kobolds to leave their homeland, since there are no guarantees they will be able to get the food they need to survive - in fact there are many areas of the world where it is guaranteed they *won't*.

##### Public Reaction to Kobold Diet

The koboldic need to consume animal flesh is often perceived as barbarism or savagery. Since kobolds are so rarely seen outside their holy city of Ch'Agl, only culinary and medical professionals would even be aware of their dietary requirements since most Ijzerians simply forget or do not know kobolds exist. A kobold who does not have express written proof of their condition authorised and signed by a chef or a physician would almost certainly face persecution if they were to consume any animal product in public.

Kobolds who are seen consuming animal products in public are often subjected to public backlash, social rejection, and even false arrest. In many cases where kobolds have been falsely arrested, their foodstuffs are confiscated as evidence, and so if they are unable to resolve their legal troubles and retrieve the "evidence" fast enough, then of course they must return home as soon as possible. This is a form of de facto banishment.

Even more disturbing, kobolds consuming animal products can occasionally be mistaken for some kind of strange beast or monster, and might be subject to violence and capture.

The entirety of the kobold race is fewer than 100,000 people worldwide, with less than a dozen active outside Ch'Agl at any time. And so, although these issues are quite disturbing, they are not widely known or highly prioritised.

## Trivia

* The most popular types of culinary animal products available are honey , ambrosia, and honeydew. This is because of their dual use as both food and magical reagent. These products can contain an enormous amount of mana, if magical infusion is part of their harvesting process.
* Ijzerians do not have a concept of "vegetarianism" or "veganism". To Ijzerians, vegetarianism and veganism are simply the normal way of doing things, it is very obvious to them that animals should not suffer unduly. Conversely, they may refer to meat-eating people as "carnarian", since to an average Ijzerian, the consumption of animal flesh would be far more unusual and shocking.