Why hello Gripper! I'll try to give you how I see things.
Shadowrun has its origins in the 1980s cyberpunk literature movement. The idea back then was that technology and greed was sending the world on a downward spiral where the megacorporations were going to try to make themselves rich at the expense of everything else. People, the environment, etc. So there are some tropes involved with the genera. For example in Neuromancer they're traveling through Istanbul. One of the character says, "Do you see that? Its a horse man, you ever see a horse before???" The the Sprawl Trilogy setting horses went extinct due to a plague that wiped them out. My assumption would be some virus a corporation was working with that got loose, or used in their world war 3. So I will go about your assumptions and how, I at least, view the genera.
1) Meat: Sold at a premium
Ah real meat. Shoot, real food in general, that's the life. Most people eat soy based meals, or krill. Its cheap, its mass marketed and its what the corporations give to the masses. Real meat, for example takes a lot of work. You have to bio-engineer cows that are resistant to the various diseases, you want them to be lean, so they have very little fat. Then you need to feed them on specially engineered meal, because their system is just so precariously balanced that normal meal would kill them. Sure, you could use regular natural cows, but then you have to contend with mutations because of magic, polluted waters, toxins in the ground bleeding into their food supply. Really, its too risky and this stuff is meant for the social, and economic elites, better to go with something you can trust. Something made by one of one of your subsidiary companies.
2) Paper: Sold at a premium. To reasons I think this to be the case. First off, there just isn't that much left, and with Amazonia going back to nature, logging rights are hard to come by (Anyone know what the former Russia's stance is on logging?) Secondly, everything is done by commlink's now, so there just isn't the demand for paper that there once was. I doubt most people write by hand.
Paper, how retro! No one uses that stuff, for all the reasons you mentioned. Besides, that stuff sits around for a few years and it starts to go brown and crumbly. What you should be using is flimsyplas. Its like paper, only its made of a thin layer of plastic. You put a small block of that in your printer and it melts/etches it with whatever data you absolutely cannot send electronically. Really, get a comlink you luddite!
3) Traditional Alcohol: As apposed to meat, there doesn't seem to be much advantage to using a soy/algae substitute. Meat needs time, room, and nuyen to grow, but rye/barley seems to be on par with the alternatives. I'd say these are easy to find and akin to today's beverages.
No reason? Ha! Ever have a good Macallan 1946? Yeah me either, it sells for something like $460K a bottle. That's the thing. Its just whisky, I've got lots of empty bottles of whisky (don't ask) but mine goes for $30 a bottle. You control the production of the stuff, the world has given you near monopoly rights to it. You can charge whatever you want for it. If people ask why the real stuff costs so much, point to the damage that's been done to the environment due to your competition's careless treatment of the world. You can't just go out and plant potatoes anywhere. Sheesh just look at natural cows and how messed up those are! Don't get me started on the mutant banana I saw at a street vendor last week. But back to the subject of booze. You're not one of the social and financial elites, but you still want to live the good life. Well, we've got just the thing for you, synthohol. It tastes just like the real thing, we promise, in fact it packs three times the punch of the real deal. So really citizen UCAS-5048-1-M/37/NDA, why would you want to spend your money on that expensive junk, you can get the same taste, more of a kick to it at a fraction of the cost. Big Brother isn't just your friend, he's your drinking buddy.
