I’ve been noticing that adding lasers cuts into my food. I dunno, maybe building lasers means they have to be staffed with gunners, who of course have to eat…
they eat transports for breakfast
my lasers eats n00bs…only 
It is probably just your population that is growing.
I’m not sure it’s population. I’m playing in chaos so I’m pretty sure nothing else is changing. I’m not adding any lqs and my pop quickly maxes out.
I spoke too soon. It’s population growth. Which is good, because food-eating lasers scare me.