I dont think the food production is meant in any other way then to give you a supply of food to prevent your soldiers from starving. Not to say you cant use it for passive income, but still…
Also I dont think ive ever seen a 1 for 1 trade option available. I think 8 food for 1 tech (or materials) or somesuch is alot more common. But I have also seen that it varies from haven to haven. Considering that the other 2 currencies (I guess) are alot more important in most cases I think its fair. It gives players less of a headache by removing the need to hunt down food. And if they want to invest in lots of food production for trading they can also do that.
It gives the players options. I would only remove the insane requirement that you need to ally with Anu for it. That part makes no sense to me… I get that making it available at the start would make the early game to easy but why have it be tied to research from a faction?