floods not suppose to be in peaceful but that was fixed in the update I am currently working on. Floods, rotten food, or anything similar are the AI director trying to kill off your colony. But doesn't mean he is "always" mean or a jerk. Sometimes he'll give you free research, fallen space chunks, and others.
Everytime you play, the results will be different. One game you may have tons "rotten" food but in another game you may have tons of ships stealing your stuff and ships attacking your colony.
It is very important to have some form of defense. The start of the game, you do have bunkers that will protect your colony.
in "build" everything is organized based on what you will need as a service. Getting attacked "protection" might help. Have tons of crime? "services" might help.