Warren, you keep putting JFWI.....am I being slow in not knowing what this is?
Eric, a few things I have learnt while playing...don't keep the game on fast even overnight when things are not running totally smoothly yet. I have mucked up many games this way. My solution is to pause the game if I am leaving it for an extended period of time. Running it on slow may also help lessen the deaths and disasters
I always try to aim for 300 in the food bin. This seems to be the magic number to stop the villagers complaining quite as much about food....however, there is usually the whiney on who continues to complain, and not look for food
The stage you reported your game at can be saved still, but takes a little bit of attention. I don't bother even trying to breed while food is low. everyone concentrates finding food, and if they seem to go off to do other things, I just drag them back to food gathering. I only set them off reseraching and breeding, when things seem to be going smoother. I think it has been mentioned elsewhere, that if they are highly skilled in another area, they may spend time doing the other task as well
After all that, good luck trying to save your game