Food

Tutinari historically are omnivores and will eat any living thing they can fit into their mouths even if they have to cut it down to size. Today real food is a luxury for the wealthy to enjoy regularly and the poor to afford once or twice a year on special occasions. Most Tutinari eat some form of highly processed food even if it looks, smells, and taste no different from the real thing. At least that's what the marketers say.

For the last roughly 20 years the Republic has subsidized artificial foods indirectly by directly subsidizing urban agriculture firms. These firms purchase towers near the center of towns in their industrial districts and force fruits, vegetables, and even livestock to endure factory conditions to create as much of these things as possible to then be ground down into the most calorie dense version of themselves. Protein bars filled with 90% vegetables, yogurts that taste like steak, and actual paste that taste like birthday cake. These firms stopped giving people simple foods when the subsidies stared rolling in because the law had them paid by the calorie of food, not the quality or form. A 24 ounce paste pack that's packed with two thousand calories that cost less than an Astoni to make retails for 5 and the subsidy pays 3 while a handful of fruit retails cost the same thing, retails for less and the subsidy is nearly nonexistent. The choice is clear. Make the people love the paste. Put the paste on everything. Eat it straight. Pour it on the ground for all they care just buy the paste. Companies like Oversoyus give the stuff away in free vending machines where people can come and get as much as they want because the subsidy pays for the whole operation.