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itself as safeguard of humanity, then what their refugees could remember of earth’s culinary history must also have been archived somewhere.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”.