While Mealwood needed a nerf, the problem is that neither Mush Bars nor Bristle Berries are practically renewable long term because they simply require insane amounts of Dirt/Fertilizer which cannot be sustainably created in such amounts.
See the math done by another player:
Suggestion #1: Instead of making Mealwood completely non-renewable (which doesn't make sense immersion-wise either: the plants and their seeds existing in the world naturally, but not producing seeds and just dying out) make it harder to manage than it was before the update. For example, it could require a power using machine to process some Meal Lice back into seeds at a rate that you can still have a net gain of Lice at the cost of power and manual labor.
Suggestion #2: Fertilizer needs to be rebalanced greatly so that it can be created at a more sensible rate.
Play game...
