Crops can blight, animals can get diseases. I don't know much about hydroponics but I know that bacteria are a concern. What food source is the most reliable, the least likely to produce less food than expected?
I know youβre not really being serious, but it doesnβt really. I considered the logistics of this for an RP I was running and it doesnβt add up. You need way way way way more food to grow a human being than the human being provides in food when theyβre dead. At most, being very very generous, you could meet 1% of a societyβs food needs with cannibalism. And thatβs a really high estimate. Itβs really more of a special treat than a daily diet!
You're going to have people anyway, and they're going to die. We just need a process to make their deaths a d resulting disposal as productive as possible. We could set an optimum age limit; maybe gameify the process, and package it with respect and nobility. We could give it a pleasant name - something like "Carousel" maybe.
We're looking for balance, not a Buddhist sort of minimal impact.