History Main / BlackMarketProduce

* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', the heroine makes her living poaching game and selling it on the black market, as District 12, the coal mining district, has no agriculture and isn't permitted any. In addition, most food that isn't made from grain rations is expensive and rather rare in the Districts. The decadent Capital, on the other hand, has tons of food of all kinds.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DerFuehrersFace'', as a citizen of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, DonaldDuck's breakfast consists of wooden bread, aroma of bacon and eggs, and coffee from a single bean he keeps locked in a safe.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'': Food is easy to come by in Alpha Complex. ''Real'' food is a rare luxury, only enjoyed by the higher security clearances. As such, the InfraredMarket makes a tidy profit selling real food to citizens eager to try such luxuries.

* On ''Series/{{MASH}}'', the occasional real food was quite a treat. One time a farmer gave the unit a bunch of real eggs, not the reconstituted stuff they usually get. Another time Radar went through a ChainOfDeals in order to supply Col. Potter with fresh tomato juice after some accidentally got shipped to them and Potter liked it - but then after all that trouble, it turns out Potter is mildly allergic. He'd been without it for so long he forgot. In another incident, a wounded quartermaster that Hawkeye had operated on thanked him by diverting a side of beef meant for the table of the general who had gotten him wounded in the first place to the 4077th - the unit ends up rushing to thaw and cook the beef before the [=MPs=] sent by the general to recover his dinner arrive (They arrive just as Potter is about to start carving the roast, and he tells them to sit down and have a slice).

* In the United Kingdom, oranges were a particular Yuletide treat, associated with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas Saint Nicholas]]. They recur (along with chocolate, butter, and meat) in works set in the austerity of post-WWII Britain, when wartime food rationing continued. Bananas, for instance, did not properly return to Britain until the early 1950s.

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[[folder: Literature ]]

* In ''[[Literature/TheBooksOfEmber The City Of Ember]]'', the people of the city live mainly on canned food stored for decades in huge cellars. By the time the story takes place, the supply is getting low and only the most basic kinds of foods are left. Canned fruit is thought of as an exotic luxury enjoyed by previous generations. The few items (such as pineapple and applesauce) that do show up aren't being sold on the black market, but they are being stolen, hoarded, and jealously guarded. Lina has several "beautiful things" stuck up on her bedroom wall. One of them is the label from a can of peaches.

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* ''[[Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook The Mitchell And Webb Situation]]'' has a sketch with a farmer acting like everything he did was some sort of black market get-rich-quick scheme.
-->'''Farmer''': Hey... you want to make a bit of money? [{{beat}}] You should do what I did: get into farming. [pulls out a wad of bills] See this? I got this sellin' ''corn!''

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* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' - the nobles eat the best food, imported from agri worlds. The masses... not so much (yes, Film/SoylentGreen included). Same applies to the Imperial Guard where Officers from nobility get actual food and the ordinary grunt's rations are indestructible bricks or goos of superdense nutrition.
** Though this varies wildly world to world. Your typical Civilised (Gamma-class) world citizen would eat much like a modern 1st world individual. Hive, Fortress and Forge worlds without a fraction of the agricultural capacity needed to support their population get the densest, cheapest sources for the masses (if they're lucky). Shipping halfway decent food through the warp is unreliable at best and incomprehensibly dangerous at worst, so the price goes up a bit.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' in terms of warzones is pretty much a prime place for black market produce. As described by Hard Exit...
-->You want food, you can get food, if you want corned beef in a can, you might be shit out of luck.
** Depending on the location, the trope can become a little more literal. The staple of the Fifth World is nutrisoy, supplemented with enough vitamins and minerals that it'll keep a metahuman alive. To call the taste 'lacking', though, is inaccurate, because that implies that there ''is'' a taste. In Denver, there's also a ban on any Aztechnology products -- and Aztechnology is one of the biggest biological providers in the world. As such, there's a thriving black market and smuggling circus around drugs, weapons, biomods, oranges, cashews and steak. It's a not entirely inaccurate joke that a 'runner is more likely to be fervently attacked over a pallet of beef than a case of [[FantasticDrug tempo.]]

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* In ''WebComic/StandStillStaySilent'', fruit must be grown in heated greenhouses, and is rare enough to make juice a "special occasions only"-treat for most of the population.
--> '''Torbjörn:''' Although in the spirit of saving money, maybe we should stop celebrating with fruit juice.
--> '''Siv:''' You SNOBS bought juice when all I got was water?! ...might as well be drinking liquid gold.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In ''Disney/DerFuehrersFace'', as a citizen of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, DonaldDuck's breakfast consists of wooden bread, aroma of bacon and eggs, and coffee from a single bean he keeps locked in a safe.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* In the United Kingdom, oranges were a particular Yuletide treat, associated with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas Saint Nicholas]]. They recur (along with chocolate, butter, and meat) in works set in the austerity of post-WWII Britain, when wartime food rationing continued. Bananas, for instance, did not properly return to Britain until the early 1950's.

[[quoteright:250:[[Film/{{Tekken}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Orange-small_8381.PNG]]]]
[[caption-width-right:250:ForbiddenFruit was never [[LeastRhymableWord so hard to rhyme.]]]]

In many stories set in a CrapsackWorld, a character is shown buying food in the BlackMarket, sometimes for an exorbitant price. At least one of the items being bought is something very sensuous, for example, either an orange or a sack of coffee. That character will either stand around and marvel at how wonderful the orange looks against the gray/sepia world, or press the coffee against his nose to absorb the aroma, or take a precious bite of chocolate and perform a milder version of EroticEating. Sometimes, a character might be shocked to find one of these foods in a rich person's house.

** Depending on the location, the trope can become a little more literal. The staple of the Fifth World is nutrisoy, supplemented with enough vitamins and minerals that it'll keep a metahuman alive. To call the taste 'lacking', though, is inaccurate, because that implies that there ''is'' a taste. In Denver, there's also a ban on any Aztechnology products -- and Aztechnology is one of the biggest biological providers in the world. As such, there's a thriving black market and smuggling circus around drugs, weapons, biomods, oranges, cashews and steak.

* In TheBible, ''Literature/{{Revelation}}'' has this to say about the manifestation of Famine; in context, these are astronomical prices expected for staple foodstuffs equivalent to a week's wages for the basics of life and imply both shortages and a lot of black-marketeering going on.

* In the ''Series/FoylesWar'' episode "Bleak Midwinter", set in rationing-bound UsefulNotes/WorldWarII England, Foyle busts an operation that's been smuggling restricted food, leading to a subplot for the rest of the episode about who's going to end up with the food once it's done being held as evidence.

* In the Franchise/{{Batman}} series ''[[ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand No Man's Land]]'', Gotham has been devastated by an earthquake, and abandoned by the government. With the bridges bombed and the waterways mined, the population is cut off and food supplies are limited. A journalist hires a pilot to fly him over so he can drop food and get footage of people fighting over it. One of the items, an apple, is considered so precious that it eventually makes its way to The Penguin, who auctions it off to a crowd in return for ''[[WorthlessYellowRocks a 20 carat diamond]]'' - '''after''' he takes a bite out of it!

* Downplayed in Babylon5. Babylon 5 has a large hydroponics section, which grows a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. However, these are designed to provide a nutritionally complete diet, not provide a wide selection of food. Anything NOT grown in Hydroponics will need to be shipped from Earth, three weeks away, and while [[CasualInterstellarTravel interstellar travel may be common, it's still a bit risky]]. This means that any perishables will likely be spoiled when they arrive, and the shipping costs stellar.

In-universe, this could be explained by OnlyElectricSheepAreCheap, or the authors are trying to evoke parallels to RealLife (see examples below). Also, because {{Dystopia}} tends to be set in northern climates, it makes sense for people in northern climates to find foods from tropical areas as rare and sensuous because of the implied expense. However, an astute viewer might note that the foods selected by the authors are generally those that can be dramatically used by the actor/director to reinforce the crapsackiness of the CrapsackWorld. It's never something that is dull but nutritious, like peanut butter or spinach. If it's an orange, the color is used to make a stark contrast against the background; coffee/chocolate can be dramatically used by the actors.

* ''Series/TheMeetingPlaceCannotBeChanged'' is set in Moscow right after UsefulNotes/{{WWII}}, in the autumn of 1945. There's no famine, but food is being rationed, and anything above the set limits costs a lot. The Black Cat gang rob stores (murdering people for food and money) and then sell food through an accomplice in a cafeteria. The scene in their hideout is a feast honest people cannot afford, with fresh cucumbers and tomatoes.

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--> Torbjörn: Although in the spirit of saving money, maybe we should stop celebrating with fruit juice.
--> Siv: You SNOBS bought juice when all I got was water?! ...might as well be drinking liquid gold.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' - the nobles eat the best food, imported from agri worlds. The masses... not so much (yes, SoylentGreen included). Same applies to the Imperial Guard where Officers from nobility get actual food and the ordinary grunt's rations are indestructible bricks or goos of superdense nutrition.