Where in Mordor is there food?

[Bêthberry]

This question raises anthropological issues of enormous import.

At what stage was the development of orcish culture? Were they hunter/gatherers or had they entered the agricultural stage yet? Did they have specialisation of labour or were they all just fighting grunts?

Another aspect concerns she-orcs. In early cultures, women were primarily responsible for horticulture--the cultivation of grains, herbs, veggies. But what do we know of she-orcs? Were there hort-orcs and were they primarily female?

[ninja91]

I thought that prisoners worked the fields of Nurn, which were surprisingly fertile. The food from there was then brought up to feed the armies of Sauron. Around Lake Nurnen, the lands were farmable (if that is a word).

[High King Fingolfin]

I always had the impression that while the Orcs where fairly proficient in metals, due to Sauron's influence, they had neither the ability nor the inclination to work farmland. So that might be why Sauron used slaves, also, not having the Orcs growing their own food allows more of them to be used for military purposes.