When did man produce all his own food?

[Callieslamb]

I think many here have a goal to produce all or almost all of their food. Can anyone name a time in this country when people did just that? I'll give you Native Americans. Through doing a lot of family history research - I see people were dependent on store-bought goods. Am I wrong? Even Daniel Boone bought things from the store. Rome, GA early 1800's 6 shoemakers, 8 grocery stories, glass factories, brickfactories, butchers, tinsmiths, and right down the line. Other areas I have done extensive research in have all been the same - From Rockingham, VA to Stonebridge, CT. My family came over the pond in the mid-1600's. I am not sure any of them didn't depend on flour, beans, sugar that was produced elsewhere.

I'd like to know when a group did provide for all their own needs. Mayflower/Pilgrims? If I remember correctly, they almost died trying.

Is the ability to produce your own food a reality? Would it be easier today than 'way back when? Why?

[Sonshine]

We may not be able to produce all we want to produce, but I believe it's possible to produce all you need.

[Bearfootfarm]

I see people were dependent on store-bought goods

I'll give you Native Americans.

Even Native American traded for things they couldn't find or grow on their own.

You'd have to go all the way back to nomadic hunter/gatherers to find true self subsistance

[Kiamichi Kid]

Originally Posted by Callieslamb

I think many here have a goal to produce all or almost all of their food. Can anyone name a time in this country when people did just that? I'll give you Native Americans. Through doing a lot of family history research - I see people were dependent on store-bought goods. Am I wrong? Even Daniel Boone bought things from the store. Rome, GA early 1800's 6 shoemakers, 8 grocery stories, glass factories, brickfactories, butchers, tinsmiths, and right down the line. Other areas I have done extensive research in have all been the same - From Rockingham, VA to Stonebridge, CT. My family came over the pond in the mid-1600's. I am not sure any of them didn't depend on flour, beans, sugar that was produced elsewhere.

I'd like to know when a group did provide for all their own needs. Mayflower/Pilgrims? If I remember correctly, they almost died trying.

Is the ability to produce your own food a reality? Would it be easier today than 'way back when? Why?

They almost died because they were not farmers...didn't know how or what to plant...and were not aclimated to the new diseases they would find here....as well as landing here to late in the season to get their first crops in.

Being able to produce your own food is a reality as has been done by many even in recent times...subsistance farming/hunting/fishing is still common in places.

[Forerunner]

Ditto..... and with a working knowledge of what's available in the "wild", there is little reason why any diligent family should go hungry or nutrient deficient.

It's all about labor and the need for an ever-present sense of urgency...... two nearly lost values in this day and age.

[tomstractormag]

Originally Posted by Callieslamb

I think many here have a goal to produce all or almost all of their food. Can anyone name a time in this country when people did just that? I'll give you Native Americans. Through doing a lot of family history research - I see people were dependent on store-bought goods. Am I wrong? Even Daniel Boone bought things from the store. Rome, GA early 1800's 6 shoemakers, 8 grocery stories, glass factories, brickfactories, butchers, tinsmiths, and right down the line. Other areas I have done extensive research in have all been the same - From Rockingham, VA to Stonebridge, CT. My family came over the pond in the mid-1600's. I am not sure any of them didn't depend on flour, beans, sugar that was produced elsewhere.

I'd like to know when a group did provide for all their own needs. Mayflower/Pilgrims? If I remember correctly, they almost died trying.

Is the ability to produce your own food a reality? Would it be easier today than 'way back when? Why?

Why not?
What we need are many small farmers, like 50 million.
Actually we need small self sustaining communities.
Trade with each other on a local basis.
Some people are certainly better at some things more than others.
Not everybody is good at growing food.
Not every area can grow every kind of food.
Nothing wrong with fair trade.
We would still need all basic services, shoes, clothing, etc.
It would be easier now than in the past because of the technology of today. Dont have to dig a hole with a stick when we have shovels.

Tom

[kirkmcquest]

I don't see why producing your own food should be thought so difficult. There are accounts of people marooned in Islands who lived for years on whatever they could scavenge. Biosphere 2 mission 1 is an example of people going into this situation prepared and actually came out healthier than they went in.

While I can certainly understand people's skepticism of a person's ability to produce everything they need ( food, clothes, medicine, tools) I think that simply providing food should be very do-able.

[tinknal]

[QUOTE=Kiamichi Kid;5093038]They almost died because they were not farmers...[QUOTE]
No, they almost died the first year because they were socialists.

The next year they became capitalists and they did just fine.

[Explorer]

I wouldn't call hunting, fishing and gleaming wild plants self production as it is just harvesting mother natures bounty.

[DamnearaFarm]

I think the OP meant this post as a gentle reminder that not producing all you need isn't a failure. Sure it MAY be possible, but if it isn't attainable to each person trying, they sure shouldn't feel bad if they can't.

Callie, correct me if i'm wrong, please.

[Callieslamb]

I am happy for this thread to go anywhere but yes, I don't see failure if you don't produce all you eat. I just wonder also if some aren't more off track in trying to do it alone rather than working towards community rather than going it alone. I'm all for it if anyone wants to do it....but is it necessary?

I agree that it would be easier now - though we eat such a variety of things compared to say those that moved west in wagons. We also have much better means available for preserving what we grow.

If I could develop a love of dandelions, I could eat for a week from my front yard. So, perhaps an added question would be - are you willing to change your diet to the point that you could produce all your own food?

[JuliaAnn]

When we visited and studied the ruins in the southwest such as Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, Aztec Ruin, Salmon Ruin, etc., we learned that even the native Americans living there at the time traded with natives from the region south of our present day border; from Mexico and central America, and some speculate trade goods came from as far away as south America. So even a thousand to two thousand years ago, people traded among and between themselves.

ETA I just remembered my husband's aunt telling of how they lived during the Depression, in rural north Texas, when there was no water due to the severe drought and when there was literally no money whatsoever to go and buy anything with. They lived on jackrabbits and the occasional wild hog or deer (although deer were almost hunted out in that area at that time) prickly pear pads and tunas, mesquite bean flour, chicory roots and other such things. They ate, and they survived, but it must have been a difficulty beyond what many of us could comprehend.

[Yvonne's hubby]

Originally Posted by Callieslamb

are you willing to change your diet to the point that you could produce all your own food?

Nope. I knew a guy that did that..... wound up blowing his brains out..... after beating his wife and kid nearly to death several times. They all nearly starved to death eating only what they produced and foraged for locally, after the wife got out with the child they both began recovering. We need a much larger variety of foods to maintain our health, both physical and mental than we can realistically provide for ourselves out of a back yard garden.

[Harry Chickpea]

In the northeast especially, the native plants were pretty thin pickings for food. A LOT of fishing and hunting went on.

[Scott in Florida Panhandl]

[QUOTE=tinknal;5093110][QUOTE=Kiamichi Kid;5093038]They almost died because they were not farmers...

No, they almost died the first year because they were socialists.

The next year they became capitalists and they did just fine.

+1

[PNWest]

This is an interesting thought.
We can all strive to produce as much as we need ourselves.

I do not believe we can produce everything we need. Eventually there will be something we, or our land, air, or water cannot supply.

I have elders that were so desperate to excape the crushing poverty and overcrowding, in a country that could not sustain them, that they indentured their lives for seven years to reach these shores.

Even back in early cave man days, people traded what they DID have; for what they needed and COULDN'T produce.

There is such an individual pride in producing what you eat. It comes with an incredible amount of planning, hard work, and sweat that feels better than any other kind of a workout.

In all that I do; I will eventually need a new hoe, coffee and/or the medication I use that is stronger than what herbals can produce. So I will need to trade. I am no different than my early elders. I will take what I can produce, and trade for what I need.

[Callieslamb]

Originally Posted by Yvonne's hubby

Nope. I knew a guy that did that..... wound up blowing his brains out..... after beating his wife and kid nearly to death several times. They all nearly starved to death eating only what they produced and foraged for locally, after the wife got out with the child they both began recovering. We need a much larger variety of foods to maintain our health, both physical and mental than we can realistically provide for ourselves out of a back yard garden.

Lack of variety did that? Or lack of nutrition? There are plenty of people that survived on beans, potatoes and a bit of meat they hunted. Lack of fat will cause the brain to malfunction but I'm not so sure about variety. My tongue would rebel, but maybe not my brain.

I think we have a great advanatge in variety over any time before us. Even in my lifetime, other veggies and fruits have become very common place in home gardens. Kohlrabi anyone? I don't remember my parents ever growing anything like broccoli or cauliflower or melons. Just corn, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers. And they always had a really large garden.

We have advantage of modern methods and tools. They had the advantage in work force! LOL!!!

[kirkmcquest]

I don't see why hunting and foraging wouldn't be considered in this scenario. Yes it is nature's bounty but so is sunshine, soil nutrients, and water. Ultimately everything that exists on earth is nature's bounty but I think that needs to be included in the equation because we are part of, and dependent on, that system.

[HermitJohn]

People really have a hard time separating "need" from "want". You can produce all you need to survive. You cant produce all your wants that are only available from other climates. Until 20th century, folks usually had little cash. But would buy things like tobacco, coffee, maybe salt pork, white flour (like the rich folk ate), and white sugar (like the rich folk ate). Those were their luxuries. Most rural folk with a working farm produced everything else. Always ultra poor folk that lived on boughten salt pork, white flour, or degerminated corn meal and never really grew anything.

[HermitJohn]

Originally Posted by Yvonne's hubby

Nope. I knew a guy that did that..... wound up blowing his brains out..... after beating his wife and kid nearly to death several times. They all nearly starved to death eating only what they produced and foraged for locally, after the wife got out with the child they both began recovering. We need a much larger variety of foods to maintain our health, both physical and mental than we can realistically provide for ourselves out of a back yard garden.

Pretty broad brush stroke, to claim everybody out there that doesnt do things just like you chose to do them is crazy, abusive, and degenerate. Hope you have a link to the indepth research study that backs up such a claim!

I am sure there are even more abusers out there that eat nothing but gobermint approved fast food from McDonalds. I say that cause most likely there are more people living on fast food than ever thought of growing all their own. Bigger number of people, more violent people thus included in the sample... Does that mean anybody that ever ate at McD is a violent abuser?

And no, you dont need exotic foods grown in different climate to stay physically or mentally healthy. If that were true, all people would be sick and mentally ill up to mid 20th century. You do need certain nutrients, but most climates allow growing foods that meet those requirements. For instance your vitamin C can come from local berries or locally raised tomatoes just as easily as they do from imported oranges.... even some varieties of apple are high in vitamin C. You may prefer oranges or orange juice but it isnt a necessity.