Thessia agricultural plan bears fruits, in a literal sense

Thessia agricultural plan bears fruits, in a literal sense

Lajeris T’Acaya – The Plow

For the first time since the end of the Reaper War the economy board on Thessia have issued a positive value for the aliment sustainability index for 2188 for the asari home world.

The index is calculated over all relevant imports and exports in relation to the net agricultural production and also takes into account which goods are produced or imported. A positive value means a planet is able to cover all its alimental needs without depending on specific imports.

“Early focus on environmental control systems allowed us to guarantee up to three better than average harvests in the area where agricultural production was possible,” explains board member Lana Ramsis. “The growth of agriculturally usable surface in the last ten months was essential for the development since it enabled us to deliver some key products ourselves for the first time since the Reaper War, instead of importing them.”

Ending the dependency on crucial grains and seeds takes a lot of strain from agricultural colonies like Paros or Nevos. The latter, mainly known for its scenic beaches, has also taken on a leading role in agricultural production in asari space.

There is still much to do though.
“We still have many areas to decontaminate and reestablish infrastructure but the plan is bearing fruits in a very literal sense. Malnutrition can be completely eliminated; today it is no more a question of quantity but of logistics. The next step in the plan is rebuilding a widespread export market again for basic aliments and further restructuring of seafood based products.”

Currently Thessia only exports on a limited scale specialized products which were available in excess like for example seaweeds. A large convoy loaded with enriched Munya-seeds is heading out to the Nimbus Cluster as a symbolic gesture later this week accompanying classic Armali thanksgiving.

Ahemhemhem.

Testing, testing. Are we good?

We're good.

Right.

I would like to call utter bullshit on this blatant piece of propaganda by virtue of the fact that the galaxy runs on logic and causality rather than space magic and the dreams of tiny faeries.

Oh shut up.

Now that's out of the way, this is good news, and quite the relief. It was heartwrenching to see the ecological devastation the Reapers left. Not that I disbelieved the predictions of recovery once they'd gone and their crop blights and whatnot had been counteracted, but it's something else to actually see it.

Ecological devastation is far from a thing of the past on any of the homeworlds.

Honestly I'm really surprised at this. It's only been two years and they're apparently producing enough food to support everyone on Thessia? Wow.

Don't fret my dear I'm sure the reality is still as heartwrenching as ever given that it is improbable, if not logistically impossible, for a planet as hard hit as Thessia to have recovered almost completely with regards to agricultural production within two years. Much less do so without any reliance whatsoever on colonial imports which, frankly, most homeworlds and coreworlds needed even prior to the war.

To establish a bit of comparison Earth is only recovering in rather localized regions, not even entire continents but regions, and that's with devouring the vast majority of the output of every colony and extrasolar settlement the SA has to their name.

So, no, unless optimism is now the cure for everything from grain eating fungus to influenza things are not going to be completely well and good and fine within two years and, frankly, the asari do a disservice to themselves pretending otherwise.

From what I hear it's not exactly dinners at the Jewelled Seas Club all round - but that there's enough basics that we don't need to import just to stave off more famines, no, not that surprising (although very welcome news). If there was one saving grace to the Reaper invasion, it's that compared to the other homeworlds that were hit on a similar scale, it didn't last long. Long enough for a lifetime granted. But not long enough for the crop killers to entirely complete their work, before it all stopped, and what was left of us could get to work on healing what they'd done. It doesn't often make the news (which is another reason it's pleasing to see, this time, it has), but that kind of struggle, we're pretty good at. Something to be proud of, I suppose - with luck the various renewal programmes will continue without disruption, and we'll start to see the Republics taking a much greater role in providing outgoing aid to other regions.

This is going to be another one of those threads where everything I say is progressively ignored by every asari present isn't it?

My, my well done.

I know ignoring unpleasant realities (like the businessman calling your government an idiot) is the Republics modus operandi on the macro scale but I must applaud its citizens for so rigorously applying that standard to personal interactions as well.

I can't speak for other asari, but for my part - with this obvious exception - yes, it is.

So what you're saying is that I could be (and personally think I am) entirely correct and reasonably consistent but you won't even do me the same basic courtesy I do to you and address my points no matter how ridiculous or unrealistic they appear to be.

Really Ms. T'Nara I've taken the time, repeatedly even, to explain why I thought your arguments were wrong or how they were flawed. And yet you can't be assed to acknowledge my existence when it doesn't suit you?

Tsk. Tsk.

You really should have more confidence in yourself.

Why not? General nutrition wasn't a problem in the past and we had several fruit cycles since the war now. Thessia isn't nearly as densly populated as earth for example which makes self sustainability easier to achieve again. I have no idea where earth is in that regard nowadays.
But I think the main focus here is on the Eezo enriched basics. I do not not know of vast malnutrition on Thessia since the war on general terms but the enriched food is something that's a bit special. It also was an important export factor to the colonies as only very few of them are able to grow their own enriched seeds. With seeds from Thessia they can grow one or two harvests themselves though.

Of course we do not need a constant influx of Eezo in our food to live but most asari try and get at least some of it in their diet and for kids it is deemed generally healthy, as you know.

Well that's amazing news, it seems that the asari reputation in state of the art farming techniques wasn't undeserved.
Were there salarians teams helping there?

It's the Asari, Mr. Aleksanders. If there is one thing they have shown themselves absolutely proficient at is their ability to ignore the obvious until it is forcefully shoved into their face. Usually at the expense of several billions dead.

Ugh, even when you twist it to make yourself out to be the mature party you still sound like a thirty year old.

So yeah, shock of shocks, we've grown tired of your throwing temper tantrums at every bit of news even remotely related to asari affairs and somehow your continued stamping of feet is not going to convince us otherwise.

That said, the news itself is most welcome. Hopefully the successes seen here can be applied on other asari worlds and prove a valuable lesson for everyone as we strive to restore the ecologies of our respective worlds.

As ever, Thessia provides for her children.

...Really. Is that really all you see it as? I suppose I shouldn't really be shocked given that this is the same demographic that dismisses the contrary factions as being vocal minorities, or label critical matriarchs who take issue with their attitudes as "unpleasable" but still I must confess a degree of disappointment and surprise.

Do you know why I take such issue with many of the bits and pieces of propaganda or poorly spun news that filters its way to us from Thessia, and the reactions of some noted board members in particular?

Because it is stupid. Because it is offensive. Because it is offensively stupid and stupidly offensive.

Because you're acting as if nothing has changed, as if we're all still living in the days and months before the Reaper War, before we all saw how monumentally fucked up your government really was. You're treating us as if we don't know any better now and then get snipey and hurt whenever you're called on your utter bullshit be it by someone like myself or your own people.

Tough darling. Tough. You can't make your problems here go away by ignoring them to death and you do nothing but make an ass of yourself in the process. Have I been unpleasant? Oh undoubtedly. Have I been crude and dare I say a tad callous in my comments? Obviously.

Why? Because it amuses me. Because it was good for a laugh here and again and, frankly, you and yours are really easy targets. But speaking in all seriousness now, speaking with all jokes laid aside:

You are protecting something that doesn't actually exist anywhere but inside your own heads. Almost everyone else can see it. Deep down you have to know it as well.

So save everyone the braincells and drop the act.

Please Mr. Aleksanders, they're only trying to realize now that a crystal palace does nothing more than look pretty. It's not ever day that you get to watch an entire civilization who's dominance was built around A: Fucking and B: Showing up first and then keeping everyone effectively halted technologically for their own benefit.


They may just be suffering the least tragic end to their hubris in understood history.

Of course I'm surprised. Earth and Palaven are still only recovering on a regional scale and Thessia's global agriculture industry is fully recovered?

Oh okay then.

'Fully recovered' is still a long way away - the index has hit positive, but the prewar figures were... what were they, in the +40s? Agriculture's not quite my forté. And that was basically just luxury goods, Thessia was never a big raw goods exporter in agricultural markets. Not from lack of capacity (huge areas of potentially arable land were deliberately left untouched), but simply from lack of need; all the coreworlds and major colonies had enough capacity of their own that they didn't need to import basics, and where there were markets further out it tended to be the frontier Republics that stepped up. What this is is mass-production at the highest sustainable levels from the lands and waters that suffered the least - it's a fraction of what the planet will be capable of once the damage is repaired in full, but it's enough to fill the most pressing needs right now.

It's still a lot of food.

And it's still surprising, but good on Thessia.

I think this is a key sentence. I am also not sure what kind of products are listed in and weighed in the index but this here means enabling to produce enough of key products for the first time again. This does not mean a 'fully recovered industry'. Thessia's agriculture sector is special and different to most other worlds in many respects. You don't have to worry about an Ezo enriched flora at all. It is even stated below that infrastructure is still an issue. This means Thessia seems to be over a hump (one of many), not more but nothing less.

I can't tell how earth's agro sector looks. Maybe better than you think now!

Maybe Thessia's output in battlecruisers wasn't as high in comparison to other worlds over the last two and a half years? I don't know the figures.

Well Earth has been traditionally importing from the colonies in peacetime anyway, since it's oour most industrialised planet, you know. There's still agricultural areas but uh

Earth got hit bad. The Reapers, during the occupation, systematically destroyed our infrastructure, including our agro sector in order to force civilians into the camps.

Maybe Thessia didn't lose as much of that due to a shorter time under occupation but I know for a fact that that sort of thing suffered greatly-I come from a nation with a pretty big agricultural industry.

Okay, I mispoke, my point is that the fact that Thessia can provide for itself is staggering.

I'm trying to give you people a compliment for god's sake