I suppose you could say that this is my own silly fault, but ...

During several games (towards the beginning when I've only got a few villagers) my farmer hasn't been able to fish because of the algae and the crops aren't due for several minutes. I'll usually switch my farmer to some other task such as building or research, meaning to switch him back once the crops grow. Sometimes I've forgotten and restarted the game to find my villagers starving or perhaps even dead. On other occasions my farmer has fallen sick while the game was off. Maybe a 'failsafe' could kick in? Perhaps, if the stocks of food reached zero and there were no designated farmer, a villager who had reached, say, adept level could come to the rescue and start harvesting.

Or would that make the game too easy?