If you check out the UET thread, we are havin a bit of a debate about such matters ourselves!
If done correctly, I don't think that it needs to be a 'micromanagement nightmare'.
First up, coffee and sugar are currently luxuries-and should remain so, IMHO.
Secondly, for the purposes of city growth, it shouldn't matter one whit what type of food you produce-i.e. food is FOOD!!
Trading food is a different story, though. In my model, food and shields can be 'vectored' to a central 'trading pool'-from here it can be vectored to cities which need them, or traded to other civs. Under the 'diversified food model', the types of squares you are obtaining food from will determine the split of any food you send to the 'pool'. For instance, if 75% of your food-producing tiles are sea or river, then 75% of all food you send to the 'pool' will be 'marine produce'. In the trading screen(s), this will be shown pretty much the same way as luxuries currently are: with an icon for the appropriate 'food type' with the number of them displayed. eg 'Marine Produce'x6 (meaning 6 'bushels' of marine produce). The relative scarcity of the different types of food resources, both within your nation and within other nations, will determine its value in trade. Again, as an example, a land-locked nation might value 'marine produce' highly, whilst place little value on 'livestock' or 'cereals'. A nation covered in forests and/or jungles, on the other hand, would probably prize livestock and cereals, but turn its nose up at 'fruit/veg' and 'Game'-which it already has PLENTY of.
Under my system, much of the breakdown of food trade is automatic-requiring precious little, if any, player management. This does not prevent a player, however, from TRYING to manage his food resources to his best advantage! It also gives added incentive to placing cities near certain types of bonus resources, as these effectively help to 'specialise' the food market for a given city.
Anyway, on a final note, much of this is just 'window dressing', and I would be happy just to see a generic trade in food/shields!
Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.
! To clarify, though, they have said that they are pretty much going back to Square One with the design of Civ4, so you can hardly blame me for putting my 'wish-list' out there, can you? At the end of the day, so long as it is AT LEAST as good as Civ3, then I will be a VERY happy man! All the rest is just extra points for me!
!!
