The Fleet and Consumables (Neo Battlestar Galactica)

Zor · Post by **Zor** » 2006-09-24 12:42am

This is something that i have been wondering about, Baltar gave some rough information on the matter but it had not been adressed afterwards. Assuming that everyone in the fleet eats two kilograms, the fleet needs roughly 100 tonnes of food a day for survival needs, thats 36,500 Tonnes a year. That is a lot of food, needless to say and it and would require alot of room to produce it in. This is leaving out ideas such as livestock for meat and milk and Luxuries like the "tobacco" (why they keep turning that out i don't get). Nor does it take in redundancy in case some food spoiling or getting destroyed during a Cylon Attack

This thread is about were are the colonials aboard the fleet getting there chow. It also adresses what is going on involving food production on New Caprica, From the ariel shots i did not see any farmland (although i did see a lake, which might mean fishing).

As a note of mine, i think the Colonials on New Caprica would go back in agricultural production, reverting to McCormick style Reapers and such as i doubt they have combines aboard during the attack and they would be far cheaper (in terms of resorces and man hours) and easier to make and maintain.

Zor

Jason von Evil · Post by **Jason von Evil** » 2006-09-24 02:05am

Soylent green is people. What did you think they did with the dead bodies?

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2006-09-24 04:22am

Shitmush.

If you have to ask... you don't want to know.

NeoGoomba · Post by **NeoGoomba** » 2006-09-24 09:24am

All I can think of, when it comes to food, that the Colonials seem to have plenty of is noodles. Its all I can remember seeing them eat. Noodles, water, and booze. The trifecta of champions!

Perhaps Rat-on-a-stick is supplementing the diet?

Cao Cao · Post by **Cao Cao** » 2006-09-24 09:32am

Well, the original BSG had 3 agriculture ships to grow food for the population.
I'm fairly certain I saw the same design of ships in the nBSG fleet which would be used for a similar purpose.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2006-09-24 11:36am

I think there were shots of agricultural ships in the colonial fleet, like the ones from the original series. Depending on how advanced their hydroponics is (if it is at least modern level), then all they really need is a supply of volatiles as long as their stores of micro-organism have held out in order to continue making soil and electricity to make white light lamps. Plus a bunch of KitchenAid Pasta Makers to stick on their blenders mass produce noodles.

SylasGaunt · Post by **SylasGaunt** » 2006-09-24 12:09pm

I seem to recall someone mentioning setting up hydroponics somewhere..can't for the life of me remember who though.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2006-09-24 12:20pm

There are agriculture ship in the fleet, and it's also possible they're growing algea in tanks on board the ships. The algea would not only be edible, but it would help filter wastewater and covert CO2 to O2. It wouldn't make for a very interesting diet, but it would keep them alive.

As for meat and milk, I don't think we've ever seen a Colonial eating any meat or dairy product. The food we've seen them eat seems to be limited to the ubiquitous noodles and vegetables. As for tobacco, they're smoking machine rolled, filtered cigarettes, which means their tobacco supply is coming from prewar stocks, since it seems unlikely that one of the ships in the fleet is a mobile tobacco processing plant. The cigarettes might actually be from Galactica and Pegasus's own stocks. The real life armed forces issued cigarettes to soldiers and sailors for years, and the 12 Colonies have apparently never experienced an anti-smoking movement (at least not a successful one, anyway).

Vehrec · Post by **Vehrec** » 2006-09-24 12:30pm

RedImperator wrote:There are agriculture ship in the fleet, and it's also possible they're growing algea in tanks on board the ships. The algea would not only be edible, but it would help filter wastewater and covert CO2 to O2. It wouldn't make for a very interesting diet, but it would keep them alive.

As for meat and milk, I don't think we've ever seen a Colonial eating any meat or dairy product. The food we've seen them eat seems to be limited to the ubiquitous noodles and vegetables. As for tobacco, they're smoking machine rolled, filtered cigarettes, which means their tobacco supply is coming from prewar stocks, since it seems unlikely that one of the ships in the fleet is a mobile tobacco processing plant. The cigarettes might actually be from Galactica and Pegasus's own stocks. The real life armed forces issued cigarettes to soldiers and sailors for years, and the 12 Colonies have apparently never experienced an anti-smoking movement (at least not a successful one, anyway).

Durring the period when Rosalin was hiding out in the fleet, one of the most highly guarded places she hid was a freezer full of the last steaks and chops in the fleet. Meat is an ultra luxury apparently.

Master of Cards · Post by **Master of Cards** » 2006-09-24 04:50pm

Vehrec wrote:
RedImperator wrote:There are agriculture ship in the fleet, and it's also possible they're growing algea in tanks on board the ships. The algea would not only be edible, but it would help filter wastewater and covert CO2 to O2. It wouldn't make for a very interesting diet, but it would keep them alive.

As for meat and milk, I don't think we've ever seen a Colonial eating any meat or dairy product. The food we've seen them eat seems to be limited to the ubiquitous noodles and vegetables. As for tobacco, they're smoking machine rolled, filtered cigarettes, which means their tobacco supply is coming from prewar stocks, since it seems unlikely that one of the ships in the fleet is a mobile tobacco processing plant. The cigarettes might actually be from Galactica and Pegasus's own stocks. The real life armed forces issued cigarettes to soldiers and sailors for years, and the 12 Colonies have apparently never experienced an anti-smoking movement (at least not a successful one, anyway).
Durring the period when Rosalin was hiding out in the fleet, one of the most highly guarded places she hid was a freezer full of the last steaks and chops in the fleet. Meat is an ultra luxury apparently.

How long can the meat last?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2006-09-24 04:56pm

We had this discussion a while back with regards to season 1. The fleet seems capable of self-sufficiency, but it would make far more sense to have people frozen rather than respiring and using energy and limited resources.

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2006-09-24 06:03pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:We had this discussion a while back with regards to season 1. The fleet seems capable of self-sufficiency, but it would make far more sense to have people frozen rather than respiring and using energy and limited resources.

Wouldn't that require highly specialized facilities, assuming the Colonials had cryogenic technology at all?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2006-09-24 06:13pm

If they can make FTL drives, which if not impossible, are at least damn hard to realistically do, then they can make low Kelvin grade cyronic caskets. It not only comes off as feasible, but damn necessary.

Lord Woodlouse · Post by **Lord Woodlouse** » 2006-09-24 06:31pm

There's one luxury liner with a big bloody garden in it, with gardeners staffing it. Why the thing has not been converted for agriculture I don't know.

Parallax · Post by **Parallax** » 2006-09-24 06:37pm

Morale of fleet civillians maybe? At certain times, fleet members have gone from "We want to have Adama's baby's!" all the way to "The Galactica is the house of the Devil!".

If you give them one special place in the fleet that they can go to relax and feel at peace, such a nice garden, then it helps them feel better which (in the long run) aids against hostle feelings.

LapsedPacifist · Post by **LapsedPacifist** » 2006-09-25 12:04am

Zor, I think you can pretty much halve your numbers. I'm on a backpacking kick right now and the current wisdom is one pound of (dried) food per person per day, and that's a person working hard. If you're willing to get thinner and eat hyper-nutritous albeit virtually non-palatable foods you could probably get away with less than a pound a day.

LP

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2006-09-25 12:14am

Admiral Valdemar wrote:If they can make FTL drives, which if not impossible, are at least damn hard to realistically do, then they can make low Kelvin grade cyronic caskets. It not only comes off as feasible, but damn necessary.

Low Berths should be available, but using them might confer a risk to the person getting inside them. Getting frozen doesn't seem terribly healthy.

Unless you're talking about zero-tau pods. Which are admittedly cool, but they never seemed 'hard' to me. Then again, nBSG has manned fighters when they could have had combat wasps instead.

LapsedPacifist wrote:Zor, I think you can pretty much halve your numbers. I'm on a backpacking kick right now and the current wisdom is one pound of (dried) food per person per day, and that's a person working hard. If you're willing to get thinner and eat hyper-nutritous albeit virtually non-palatable foods you could probably get away with less than a pound a day.

Astronaut food, anyone?

B5B7 · Post by **B5B7** » 2006-09-25 12:25am

I've been wondering recently where Colonel Tigh gets all his whisky.

Zor · Post by **Zor** » 2006-09-25 12:39am

B5B7 wrote:I've been wondering recently where Colonel Tigh gets all his whisky.

Lets just say when he said "i know a still when i smell it", i think that knowlage comes from more than just finding and busting people for them.

Zor

Shadowtraveler · Post by **Shadowtraveler** » 2006-09-25 12:50am

Zor wrote:
B5B7 wrote:I've been wondering recently where Colonel Tigh gets all his whisky.
Lets just say when he said "i know a still when i smell it", i think that knowlage comes from more than just finding and busting people for them.

Zor

You'll also note that in that same episode he casually swipes a pint of the stuff after promising to give the Chief some spare engines.

Made me chuckle.

Zed Snardbody · Post by **Zed Snardbody** » 2006-09-25 05:54am

NeoGoomba wrote:Its all I can remember seeing them eat. Noodles, water, and booze. The trifecta of champions!

So does this mean at the end of 4 seasons the colonials all leave the fleet with a degree in liberal arts? [/bad college joke]

Trytostaydead · Post by **Trytostaydead** » 2006-09-25 07:34am

B5B7 wrote:I've been wondering recently where Colonel Tigh gets all his whisky.

There's a still aboard the Galactica, he traded a lot on the black market, and being the XO of the Galactica probably does get him easier access to the goodies.

Skylon · Post by **Skylon** » 2006-09-25 08:46am

B5B7 wrote:I've been wondering recently where Colonel Tigh gets all his whisky.

Aside from the Galactica still it seems Ellen Tigh keeps getting him booze (God knows how).

That was one thing I liked early in season one, was Tigh's bottle, which we see him mark off how many shots he has. Kinda implied he was thinking that was the last bottle of booze he'd ever have after the world ended.

Trytostaydead · Post by **Trytostaydead** » 2006-09-25 10:16am

And lots not forget that whole episode that took place in a bar!!

Cao Cao · Post by **Cao Cao** » 2006-09-25 10:24am

Maybe there are government-sponsored stills all over the fleet.
After all, if you're stuck on some rusty tin can passing as a starship, your homes are nuked and deranged toasters are out to kill you.. you might as well be roaring drunk all the time.