So far I’m having a blast with the game. But the food, man…
What is the appeal of Chunks for people living in New Atlantis? Did the post-exodus humanity sign some kind of a Green Pact and decided to go full worms and lab-grown proteins? Isn’t the appeal of a home cooked meal some of the most commonly told tales across all cultures? If UC prides itself as safeguard of humanity, then what their refugees could remember of earth’s culinary history must also have been archived somewhere. What happened?
Yes, there’s New Homestead. Yes, there are enterprises producing grain and synth-meat products. In-vitro meat technology should be incredibly sophisticated and economically viable by then. Even small scale traditional farming and butchering could be practiced in planets under FC jurisdiction. But why is Chunks everywhere then? Cost?
Yes, there are cooking stations in which you can craft custom dishes. But (probably a lore oversight) naming many of them “alien jerky” or “alien stew” tells me that humanity still hasn’t accepted those new ingredients as “proper human diet” yet, compared to the “old earth ingredients”.
If you look at the food selections in starfield it follows what astronauts currently eat//projected to eat in theory for deep space travel. The reason chunks is so popular is not just because it’s everywhere but you can take it on your ship as rations. Food in 0g environments must be very compact and produce as little crumb like issues as possible to keep the food from getting into your space craft machinery. Be a real shame if your life support system shorted out because a drop of liquid got in it or your engines shorted out cause a chunk of apple got in it. Same with the bugs, I read a report that they could use certain bugs like worms as a protein replacement due to the science required to break the atmosphere. Because every single unit of weight must be calculated for fuel consumption entering and exiting atmospheres(a problem we don’t really have on our player ships due to instant refilling he-3 gas tanks.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21554801/#:~:text=larvae were regarded as an,the last two instars%2C respectively.
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/what-really-astronaut-food
Now for why it’s still popular after grav drives produce artificial gravity, I have to say it’s probably because people got so use to eating it on ships in the 300 years since Earths Demise and everyone bailing. Plus for in the rare instances your ship malfunctions from getting shot.