I need a name that would cover all food production

Hi everyone,

In my current project your society will be split into different types of workers to keep things simple, but I just can't come up with a good name which would cover all possible ways of obtaining food.

This worker will work on farms, hunt, fish, collect food from bushes etc and I just have no clue what to name him, as farmer doesn't cover the jobs hunter does etc.

Any ideas? Thanks!

what are the other options for the non-food worker?


You don't have to find a name that covers all if it becomes obvious by context.


For example, there is nothing wrong with calling the worker a "farmer" if the other options are craftsman and warrior - the player will automatically understand after a short gameplay that the "farmer" also handles other types of food production.

The other ones are ''Guard'', ''Soldier'', ''Worker'' (Covers all production) and Explorer.

There will probably be more, but those will be the ones which will be in the game for sure.

Now when I think of it you may actually be right... It's just that it's a postapocalyptic word so 'farmer' sounds a bit out of place.

"Gatherer" then?, but that would not be as intuitive to the player. Because while calling it something other than farmer might make it more fitting to the game setting, but the players don't live in a postapoc world, they compare to the names they know from today...


And "Guard" and "soldier" are basically the same, especially in a postapoc world...

I'm not sure of the meaning in english but I thought of "nurturer".

"Hunter/Gatherer" - it's what people were before agriculture.

Perhaps Harvester? Producer?

Harvester(maybe if more focused on passively taking stuff) or gatherer

"Survivalist" or maybe this could help? http://thesaurus.com/browse/farmer

Provider should cover everything nutrition wise. As long as you introduce the different jobs effectively nobody will question why you chose those words. Everyone has heard nonsensical names but most people don't bat an eye since its done well.

Glean would be a good word, but "gleaner" sounds dumb.


In the army someone who is good at getting supplies is called a "scrounger."


Has to do with finding and procuring.

Except that at least in some parts of the world (e.g. UK) "scrounger" has a very negative implication - someone who lives off other people by begging/"borrowing" from them with no intention of returning it.  Your farmer type character is pretty much the opposite of this, so I would avoid it.

Foodbringer

Foodmaker

Foodmaster

Foodlord

Foodprovider

Food dude (...?)

Nourishmenter! or... simply "Feeder"? That might be what people call the food providers in a postapoc world, sort of a nickname rather than a literal job name. I don't think people would bother with proper naming that much in a postapoc world. Nicknames would be much more applicable, I imagine.

So this is a social strata, right?


Tell me more - are they well thought of?


Middle Class?


Are names casual or derogatory or ethnic or heritage?


I mean you can make something up.


"Nutras" or something.

In a post-apocalyptic world, farmer is probably the most relevant.

Or you could use "Harvester," which could include crops, yeast patties, Soylent-Green, ahem "patties"

But that might have somewhat ominous implications.

Note:  All these words are made-up

"Provisioner"
"Subsistencier"

Actually, that's all I got, but I might edit with more ideas.  Probably.  When I was in the Marine Corps, we just called these people "cooks," but their official designation was "Food Service Specialist, MOS 3381"

The main issue you run into here is that farming is very different from "hunting and gathering".  By nature, someone who is a farmer could not be a "hunter and gatherer" because farming takes up the same amount of time as the other three professions combined.

To be honest, I suggest simply splitting it up into two classes for the sake of simplicity and less questions by the players.  I mean, unless we're talking a very Meta type game (like a Minecraft type game), you're going to run into believability issues fairly quickly.

Harvest Moon, as an example, teaches you that farming will take up 99% of your day.  So, you learn early on to save the basic farm work for the "infinite nighttime" sections, when you can do everything without worry of having to waste time.  Meanwhile, you learn that on days you don't harvest crops, you go into the mountains and pick wild fruit to sell each day, or if you're lucky, catch a fish to sell for a good chunk of change.  In fact, if you're really lucky, you can catch two fish in an entire day and have just enough time to deposit the second one before the shipper arrives to pay you.

Now, a "mountain man" would be able to do the berry picking, the fishing, the hunting no problem.  But, to add farming on top of that...  I'm sorry, but it strains believability.

That's not to say it can't be done that way, but I have a hunch that you're not looking to create a "meta" game and you're kind of looking to integrate this into the storyline in some way instead of just as a resource gathering and using mechanic.

I would go with provisioner, personally.

Upon consulting a thesaurus I got:

Sutler
Vicutaler/Victualler

Or there's always just "Supplier"