As a techer, I'll probably have decent farm tech, but I'm wondering if it's worth it to break even in food or just go all research and buy the food.

At what price would you say is not worth buying food?

when it exceeds your priv price. basically its always better to focus on 1 thing like teching and buy food when needed. unless techmarket is really crappy money gotten from sales>money spent on bushels.

AS A TECHER, YOU ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WANT TO PRODUCE YOUR OWN FOOD. EVER.

EACH FARM REDUCES THE PERCENTAGE OF YOUR LAND WHICH IS COVERED BY LABS. LOWER LAND COVERAGE CAUSES LOWER PRODUCTIVITY FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL LAB. IF YOU ARE KEEPING A "BREAK EVEN" FOOD PRODUCTION LEVEL AS A TECHER, THEN YOU ARE HURTING YOUR COUNTRY'S PERFORMANCE BY FAR MORE THAN THE VALUE OF THE FOOD YOU ARE PRODUCING.

THUNDER
HORSE!

sam: that depends how much food is used per turn but you are right but if bushels price is 2-300 and has been past 2-3 days and no sign of it dropping (farmers dream) then i would either switch to farmer or start buying priv. military and selling it off once-thrice a day (if bushels usage per turn is ~30k and ~70 turns per day is used then player would need bit over 2m bushels per day and that'd be 40-60m bucks spent on bushels, if country has 100k+ acres then food usage is skyhigh).

As long as your production from your labs is greater than what you need to tech a turn, its worth it to buy.