Some years after they learned to farm, my villagers went through a long drought. They would plant and harvest, and the food supply would slowly grow, and then the crops would fail. This became a regular occurrence; it seemed every time I went into the game, the fields would be barren again and there would be a little mob of villagers hauling water from the well. Eventually crops would sprout, and they would harvest, but the yield was less and less each time. Several times the food supply went to zero for a while. All of my original villagers, now elders, weakened and died during this time, there were almost no births, and my population shrank by a third.

Then...it stopped. For the last 15 "years" or so, lots of food, lots of growth, lots of progress. So, if you are having trouble with keeping people fed, just hang in there!

Oops! It's happening again. So, for a while most of my adults are farmers, regardless of what I try to tell them to do.

Just out of curiosity, does your game spend most of its time off or on? The food supply seems to be very reliable when the game is on continuously, and not as reliable when the game is off. The situation should improve considerably when your villagers know how to fish.

Well, mostly off, actually. I don't spend much time in the office, and my Palm (Zire 71) travels with me, so I only turn it on when I need it.

Perhaps surprisingly, my villagers are much better farmers when my Palm is off. If I leave them alone and just let them farm or fish for a few hours, it seems to go much better than if I try and micro-manage them. I think they resent the dark hand of "the man!"

Well put. I have had the same experience. How like real life, where the best policy is often to make sure there is consensus about goals and mission, and then stand back and let people work out the details in their own way.