While I love TNG (even though the cast can’t shut up) and that was the first Star Trek I was familiar with since I was 6 and a fan of reading rainbow when it came out I would say that the original series is my favorite (can happily watch Trek through Enterprise). My dad watched Original Series reruns since as long as I can remember.
The sendoff for the original crew always gets to to me and it just contrast that with writers today who live to crap on or deconstruct the works of better writers. I saw they are making a new blade runner with a delusional man, Disney is making a new Neverending Story, and Netflix is butchering… I mean remaking the Chronicles of Narnia.
One good thing about Star Trek is that I have a lot of books to read. I was at a convention once and a guy had a bunch of Star Trek books for a quarter a piece so I left with a bunch.
I always figured that it was the ultimate garbage recycler. Takes garbage, breaks it down into atoms/molecules, and then rebuilds those particles into whatever it is you want - a guitar or an ice cream sundae. That would totally explain the "utopia" that they supposedly experience.
What gets me is, if they have that, why does Picard have a commercial-sized vinyard? Sure, I could see people growing stuff for "real food", but you'd only need - and be able to work - so much. If you wanted help, you'd have to search out people who are willing to be paid in wine, and well, then you've got a goddamn commune, but you're not going to be able to sell to anyone outside of said commune (not like you'd need to.) And really, you can get a lot of wine out of a standard back yard (of the sort I grew up with, anyway, lots of Italians grew their own grapes. Us kids used to cruise the alleys to nick anything growing outside of a fence ...)
A piece of lore that fell by the wayside is that replicated food doesn't taste right. It's a necessity in space where storage is at a premium, but it's not a universal solution and wherever possible, real food is preferred.
I can't speak to the size of Picard's vineyard. You can definitely hand wave some with "automation", as unsatisfying as that is.
even if replicated food was perfect, you'd still see a healthy contingent of the population who would prefer the real thing for nostalgia sake, and nostalgia is all over TNG, anyway. From holodeck simulations of old books and historical periods to picard listening to classical music to establish his "cultured side".
I do find it funny that I never saw a single crewmember who listened to oldies in their time off, though, lmao.
The problem might be it is perfect.
A replicator is probably only going to be programmed with one way to make something, be it from disassembling a previous sample or having the programming manually entered. Regardless of the method there will only be one option for "granny smith apple", so every granny smith apple is going to be the same apple and taste identical. The imperfections between apples help contribute to why they are enjoyable. Some are crisper than others , some slightly more tart, but they are all still the same kind of apple.
The synthehol problem is also likely a result of this. Real booze is a process that produces vastly differing results, wine being one of the best examples given how vintage quality varies not just across years but even just across locations. Grass fed or corn fed steak would be another.
While it would be possible to program a selection of a particular food type it may lead to memory storage issues as well as complicate power requirements if both end up being a premium, even in a futuristic utopia like the Federation.
So while replicated food works, it may only end up being 80% as good because the various imperfections that are expected no longer exist. Which is why Picard and whoever else still make real wine, why Sisko and his father still grow and cook "real" food, and will likely be more widespread in species with far more potent olfactory senses or cultural dishes such as the Klingons and Ferengi.
Meanwhile Vulcans are almost all vegetarian, Romulans don't get much screentime for consumables beyond Romulan Ale, Bajor was literally an agrarian planet before being occupied, Andoria is a ball of ice, and the Tellarites evolved from ursine so encompass a very diverse range of species and cultures who will respond to tastes differently.
good point.
sidenote: romulans are technically vulcans who rejected the strict emotionless philosophy of the core vulcan group, though I dunno if vulcans are vegetarian by culture or evolution, lol
Don't get me started on how it's not "automated space communism" but in fact Conservatism writ large. Larger, in fact, than anyone should be comfortable with.
Or do get me started and I'll lay out the circumstantial evidence that only Europe and the Americas survived WWIII and the subsequent implication that the bright future on display is a consequence of global nigger, chink, and pajeet removal.
It probably fell by the wayside because it conflicts with the "Earthlings don't use money" concept.
There was also that bit in TNG where Riker was rubbing superior human morality in the face of a vaguely lupinish alien who was bitching about the replicated food, and then in Picard he's bragging about killing critters to make pizza with. Another case of "it's OK if it's humans doing it, but if something beastly does it, it's evil".
It's kind of stupid, because molecules are molecules. Scent and taste are all just molecules that can be programmed in.
Doesn't matter if you get sodium chloride from the ground, the sea, or a lab, it's still fucking sodium chloride.
I think your example is too small in scale. Salt may be salt but it's not the smaller molecules that are the problem with synthetic food in Star Trek, it's the holistic design of the entire foodstuff and drink.
Wine isn't just alcohol, it's a lot of other intentional and sometimes unintentional ingredients prepared in specific ways then left over time to develop to certain points. Replicators likely miss something here because they are either duplicating a very limited sample previously provided, or only creating the basics and leaving the finished consumable lacking. Traditional wine varies extensively between vintages, even when made with the same ingredients and methods, but that's what many enjoy as it gives each vintage character, or soul. Meanwhile large scale batch productions of modern times lack said character/soul and may still be enjoyable by many, but every bottle under a certain brand and label will likely be the same forever, for better and worse.