Chapter 128: Food Crisis
After the city reconstruction efforts had slightly found their footing, Osena’s next urgent priority was to address the food crisis.
There wasn’t enough to eat.
Revival City was a commercial hub and center of light industry, and now with the addition of the Wasteland District of Weixing City, heavy industry was developing rapidly.
However, Revival City didn’t produce food.
Although there was a small farm in the Manban River Valley Manor near the city, its seasonal yield barely reached 2,000 tons, enough to feed the entire city for just ten days.
Combined, Revival City and Weixing City formed a city of about a million people.
Based on lower food ration levels, daily food consumption had to reach at least 500 tons; for an entire year, the food demand was around 180,000 tons, and a target of 200,000 tons wasn’t excessive.
When Gu Hang first took over the city, its food reserves could barely last fifteen days.
Now, twelve days had passed, and the remaining food reserves could only sustain them for about nine more days.
The reason for this wasn’t due to purely relying on stored food.
Firstly, after the initial end of the war, the end of the city’s lockdown, and the passing of the storm, some food trade had gradually resumed.
Caravans already en route to the city dared to unload their goods and take away industrial products in return.
Secondly, assistance came from Weixing City.
The two synthetic starch production lines in Weixing City operated at full capacity day and night, achieving a combined daily output of up to 100 tons.
After reserving enough for the local supply of Weixing City’s two districts, the rest was all sent to Revival City.
However, even with these two sources of food, it was still not enough.
This situation couldn’t continue.
For now, they couldn’t rely on synthetic starch production lines, as Wu Jiarong’s task of research and mass production was heavy, and progress on the local deployment of synthetic starch production lines was slow.
Even if she focused entirely on this, it might not resolve the immediate crisis.
Therefore, they had to resort to the old methods.
Revival City never produced food, so it had always relied on foreign trade to survive.
Of course, relying solely on trade meant that the food supply was inherently unstable.
In the past, Revival City didn’t care; if food shortages occurred, it didn’t matter.
After all, the people in the inner city wouldn’t starve, and if a batch of people in the outer city died of hunger, so be it.
Soon enough, more displaced people would arrive, replacing those who had died.
But now, Revival City couldn’t continue this way.
Osena knew that the high morale among city residents was built on Governor Gu’s political declaration.
People had begun to believe that the Governor could bring them a better life, inspiring strong support for the governor’s regime and sparking immense productivity.
But if hunger became an issue, and Gu Hang’s political declaration failed shortly after being made, it would deliver a severe blow to the new government’s authority.
Osena would not allow this to happen.
In the long run, ensuring food self-sufficiency within the New Alliance’s territory was the fundamental solution to food security.
But before that, they could only rely on foreign trade to solve the problem in the short term.
Originally, this work had been handled by the first Alliance Council Member to die at Gu Hang’s hands — Lian Wohan.
He had been the largest food trader within Revival City.
After his death, his food trade channels were quickly divided up, with Bradford taking the largest share.
He had been a major business tycoon, avoiding competition with Wohan by not venturing much into food trade.
But with Wohan’s death, there was no longer any reason for restraint.
At that time, he had simultaneously berated the Governor’s tyranny in the Alliance Council, shedding tears for Wohan’s death, while hastily seizing Wohan’s assets, afraid that if he hesitated, he might lose out.
After losing the war and becoming a prisoner, Bradford thought everything he had seized was lost, but now it seemed that some of it could still be used.
Even without him, it didn’t mean there was no way to proceed.
After all, the employees of the various trading companies weren’t all dead.
However, with Bradford’s extensive connections and trade channels beyond Revival City, things would become much simpler.
At this moment, he was explaining the specifics of Revival City’s food trade to Osena.
“Revival City’s food imports can be summarized as two major arteries and numerous capillaries,” Bradford explained his knowledge and insights to Osena.
“The two major arteries run west and south.
The southern one leads to the Qing Valley region.
I understand you, Ms. Osena, are from there, so you should be quite familiar with that area.”
“Mm,” Osena nodded slightly.
She was indeed familiar with it, being the daughter of a plantation owner with thousands of workers, helping her father with accounts since a few years ago.
Qing Valley lay south of Revival City, over four hundred kilometers away.
There was no clear boundary, only a gradual improvement in climate as one traveled southward.
It was one of the few places on Fury Owl Planet with a favorable climate, with low frequencies of waste energy storms and large areas of arable land.
On Fury Owl Planet, to see vast, fertile fields, one could only go to Qing Valley.
One plantation after another dotted the land there.
“The western route, however, leads to the great desert.
You might not be familiar with it.
Despite its expanses of yellow sand, there are scattered oases.
Some in the Western Desert have found pre-war agricultural factories beneath the ground of these oases.
After repairs, these factories allow for high-density, vertical cultivation, producing high yields from relatively small areas.”
“These two major arteries supported Revival City’s primary food supply.
Last year, Wohan’s report to the Alliance Council noted that Revival City imported a total of 400,000 tons of food from these two sources.”
“By ‘capillaries,’ I mean the various medium and small settlements with food production capacity within a 500-kilometer radius of Revival City.
There is some arable land within this range, although not as expansive or concentrated as in Qing Valley, but it’s still something.
The Manban River Valley Manor is an example of this type.
There are also underground caverns with unique environments that allow for intensive cultivation of fungi.
Some places even have livestock farms… many types, with varying outputs.
They primarily sustain the settlements within this range, with surplus production sold to Revival City.”
“Again using last year as an example, Revival City purchased a total of 100,000 tons of various foods from these capillaries.”
“This brings the rough total to 500,000 tons.
Revival City didn’t actually consume that much; about 70% of the food was distributed to areas outside of Revival City.
After all, Revival City is the largest trade hub on the planet.”
Osena’s expression grew grave.
“Then we need to do more than just secure our own food supply; we need to restore the flow of food through Revival City as a hub, circulating it across the wasteland.”
“Yes,” Bradford sighed.
“If that isn’t achieved, perhaps no one will starve in Revival City, but many settlements across the wasteland with no food production capacity may face catastrophe.”
Osena said, “Moreover, Qing Valley is in trouble this year.
A monster wave much larger than usual has destroyed many plantations, leaving a large number of displaced people, many of whom have turned to looting, further destabilizing the region.”
“Yes,” Bradford agreed.
“The unrest in Qing Valley has reduced our food imports from there by over 30% this year.
If the situation doesn’t improve, those imports could collapse even further.”
Osena had experienced the crisis in Qing Valley herself.