Saruman's economic infrastructure unexplained?

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

I think that for the rest of the orcs in the Misty Mountains cannibalism may have been a more substantial part of the diet.

But hardly the only part. We know from The Hobbit that the Great Goblin often took a fancy to fish, and that they regularly ventured forth from the mountains to raid and pillage the Woodmen's villages.

And on the other side of the Misty Mountains, we know that the the Rangers were quite often dealing with ork raids and such, although probably not in numbers like on the eastern side.

Also, as the population of the orks in the Wilderland (esp. the Misty Mountains) regrew after the Battle of the Five Armies, the incidents of conflict between them and the "good" locals (eg. the Beornings) intensified. This most likely had to do, in large part, with the intensifying of Sauron's war, but I imagine that it served the ulterior motive of feeding the orks.

And we know for a fact, that the orks would eat human flest and horse flesh without a qualm, in addition to more normal things like sheep and fish. So those raiders might not have been after just sheep and such.