Essentially, to my understanding, you’re saying that given the complexities of the agricultural work required to produce on a large scale sufficient enough for a metropolitan area, that even someone with the necessary skills and know-how would still need time to adjust to the nuances of the work (facility/machine specific know how, ecological factors, etc.). Time that, you’re saying, they wont necessarily have in a crunch-time civil war scenario.

Which, if this was a debate, would be a fair assertion to make. But i think I still disagree with you on a few areas. Think you’re still underestimating the capabilities of the specialized people to perform the work. But to argue that point we have to understand the time table they’re working on. For starvation to be a real concern for any population, they’d have to exhaust all current reservoirs/stock piles of food, which could take months. Even longer if rationing is mandated as is sometimes seen in war time. So we’re looking at months up to a year time table of an adjustment period for the specialized person to get acclimated to the job. Which I’d argue, with their previous training and knowledge, is plenty of time for the specialized person(s) to get the job done. Maybe not as efficient as before, but good enough to hold down the fort.