I'd just like to chip in that I like the food system. I'm not saying that it can't be tweaked and improved, but my guy is a lord in a surplus producing rural region and I like the leverage that it affords us. Also, it rewards good management and punishes bad management. What I don't understand is when regions are starving and their lords either post no buy orders, or they place 20-gold limit orders and ignore existing sell orders. If your region is starving, shouldn't you be willing to pay more? Perhaps they feel that their fellow realm mates should sell to them at a discount, but the fact is that rural regions generate less tax revenue than cities and towns. If you're not willing to dig deep into your revenues to feed your region, then why should a lord whose tax revenues are less and therefore needs to actually do some work to generate revenue, cut into his/her revenues to feed your region?
Also, a general question: When it says that 'x bushels needed to be burnt because they were found to be rotten,' does that mean you have too much food? Or what do you need to do to not burn food?