minor character

I didn't think to introduce myself before my first post, my mistake. My first post is over on the Stormlight Archive forum, about whether or not Parshendi have soulcasters (I don't think they do). I became acquainted with B Sand's (that's how my husband and I refer to him, I don't know if other people do) work through WoT first, and now I'm pretty sure I've read pretty much everything he has published, except for Alcatraz. I plan on saving and reading that with my daughter in another year or so. I've been lurking like crazy since having my youngest (2 months ago) and thought it was about time to officially sign up.

I've been re-listening to the books and it struck me that even though it's implied, there's no where in the books that specifically says the Parshendi use soulcasters for their food. I think it's Sigzil that theorizes that the Parshendi have soulcasters- he assumes that they need the gemhearts to create food. It's also implied in a conversation between Eshonai and Venli- Eshonai says they won the gemheart and Venli says something like, "good, we will continue to eat." But here's the thing- they never mention soulcasters and the book talks about farming on adjacent plateaus. I feel like it would be a very Sanderson thing to do to have the gemhearts be for something completely different than soulcasters. Related to food, because of the conversation between Eshonai and Venli, but also some whole other thing. I don't have any real thoughts of what it could be specifically, but what do you think? Where would the Parshendi have gotten soulcasters?