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How to be a versatile farmer/community homesteaders

4K views 111 replies 23 participants last post by  Shrek 
#1 ·
I believe this country needs an army of versatile farmers/community homesteaders who can plant, maintain and harvest crops regardless of situation.

Farmers/Community homesteaders should know how to work with/without tractors and advanced technology.
 
#10 ·
@Jerryberry, have you ever read a book called The Stand by Stephen King? Maybe even The Lord of the Flies? Both books give you an idea of how quickly society can break down and in most cases it will be every one for himself. Every disaster brings out the good and the bad in people. In every disaster there are stories of neighbors helping each other and stories of thieves stealing and/or destroying stuff.

All that aside, in a true large scale disaster the food growers will not be able to produce enough without equipment to feed a large community. Some people will want to help, some people will want to be spoon fed, some people will steal food from the fields and the less than human "people" will destroy the crops just to hurt the rest of the population.

To provide enough food for a large community everyone will have to pitch in. Someone will have to be in charge and guide those who never before got their hands dirty. Someone will have to be in charge of rationing food so everybody gets enough to eat. Someone has to be in charge of bringing in water. Someone has to be in charge of rationing water.

Unfortunately our society has degraded to the point where most people demand someone take care of them. If there is ever a large scale disaster the people who can make do, will disappear and care for only themselves and the ones with them. They don't want to be shot over a bunch of carrots that the shooter has no intention of eating. You can't get people to stop killing each other over stupid crap now, it will be a million times worse if society collapses.
 
#11 ·
@Jerryberry, have you ever read a book called The Stand by Stephen King? Maybe even The Lord of the Flies? Both books give you an idea of how quickly society can break down and in most cases it will be every one for himself. Every disaster brings out the good and the bad in people. In every disaster there are stories of neighbors helping each other and stories of thieves stealing and/or destroying stuff.

All that aside, in a true large scale disaster the food growers will not be able to produce enough without equipment to feed a large community. Some people will want to help, some people will want to be spoon fed, some people will steal food from the fields and the less than human "people" will destroy the crops just to hurt the rest of the population.

To provide enough food for a large community everyone will have to pitch in. Someone will have to be in charge and guide those who never before got their hands dirty. Someone will have to be in charge of rationing food so everybody gets enough to eat. Someone has to be in charge of bringing in water. Someone has to be in charge of rationing water.

Unfortunately our society has degraded to the point where most people demand someone take care of them. If there is ever a large scale disaster the people who can make do, will disappear and care for only themselves and the ones with them. They don't want to be shot over a bunch of carrots that the shooter has no intention of eating. You can't get people to stop killing each other over stupid crap now, it will be a million times worse if society collapses.
Bravo!

Well said
 
#13 ·
Look at indigenous people history. As we sit and watch Roseanne and Dancing with the Stars, we tell each other stories about how brutal they were to each other. The truth is, they were usually fighting for food or territory that had food.

The Caddo Indian tribe wasn't war-like though. They weren't nomadic either. They built roads and had roots. The oldest hwy in north America was built by the Caddo. It stretches from San Augustine Florida to Mexico City. It's older than the Roman empire. They even had a republic type government. They were agricultural in nature.

The other Indians left them alone because when it got cold, they needed food and they bartered for it. Since the hwy went all the way to Mexico City, its assumed they even traded with the Mayans and Aztecs.

I don't know how to do what you are trying to do but it would seem that it takes a good amount of people all wanting the exact same thing. That's where I would start. Find like minded people and get-er-done.
 
#16 ·
I agree, the problem is how.

I think a couple of things that would encourage more local farms are more farmer's markets that actually sell food and more grocery stores that have the policy to buy a minimum percentage of local produce, dairy, and meat.

I used to have to drive about 75 miles round trip to buy grass-fed beef, pastured eggs, and NC or Gulf shrimp. I can get them all locally now, but rarely at 1 store.

There was a local guy who opened a fresh produce market and was doing fairly well. Then he let some of his women customers talk him into carrying a bunch of keto snack foods and bread. Within 6 months he was struggling because he had given up too much shelf space to low-profit items with low turnover.

He could have had a great business, but he moved away from what had made him successful. He and I split a side of beef several times. I would buy half and he would sell the other half in the store. He also had a seafood supplier that would drop off orders once a week, plus he raised chickens and produce to sell in the store.

What I am saying is if there is a market, the farmers will come.
 
#18 ·
Hollywood seems to always project the worst in 98% of people during such an "event". A handful of the good try to survive hand to mouth in a world of where the rest are just bent on murder and ill intent. I'm not denying the evil that exists, I am just putting it out there that there are plenty of good people willing to join together and process those barbarians, even before they have started peeping on you.
 
#22 ·
Your thoughts are shortsighted. No farmer can grow and maintain crops in every situation.

If their crop land is experiencing drought, your crop turns to dust. If snow comes early, it is impossible to harvest when crops are buried under snow and if spring flooding washed seeds or crops away, there may not be time to replant.

The Mormon church is the best example I know of that is a community of like mined farmers and ranchers who have a significant amount of food and grain stockpiled in case of emergency. Their members are encouraged to individually do the same.
 
#23 ·
I’ve got a bunch of Mormon friends, and no shortage of places to stay in the Salt Lake area. Prepping is one of the tenets of their religion. Even the young, just-married apartment-dwelling Mormons do it.

It’s not random happenstance that the Harvest Right company sprung up in SLC.
 
#26 ·
I live in a valley where LDS is the main religion. Yes, they are a great example of preparation and working together. They have community kitchens for canning. Home Storage Center to buy basic food supplies for storage. They break it down into short term, long term, and water storage. They have worksheets and list to work from for the basics.
 
#27 ·
Farmers/Community homesteaders should know how to work with/without tractors and advanced technology.
I have been to a lot of places where the farmers did just that. They are all third world countries, and they are slowly starving to death. Without technology, (tractors) if the entire family works from daylight to dark, they can almost feed themselves. But they won't have a surplus to feed their neighbors.
 
#28 ·
Some here should familiarize themselves with the Lycov family. A Russian family that survived 43 years in the Siberian wilderness with nothing but an old iron pot. This story and many others prove that the "myth" of self reliance is, in fact, a myth. Self reliance is very possible long term. Do some people fail and die? Yup. Do some collective communities and whole societies fail? Yup. In fact some could argue that ours is failing as we speak.

In my neck of the woods we had a Hermit that lived alone for more than 30 years. Hunted, grew, and trapped his food. Built his cabin, cut wood to heat it, etc. Pretty much his entire adult life and only has a handful of communications with the outside world. In one scenario his gun barrel broke, he melted down the metal, reformed a new barrel and even drilled the rifling by hand.

Is total self reliance actually doable? Yes, objectively and definitively it IS possible.
 
#33 ·
I'm just saying that a realistic look at what they did is rather sobering. They fled the Bolsheviks, so they were highly motivated. The lived like animals and only half of them survived. Even with low expectations, it's not a picture of sunshine and rainbows. All of this brings to mind the dangers and grimness of pushing an advanced society toward anarchy and socialism. God help us if we actually have to go there.
 
#36 ·
@Orchardsmith "anarchy and socialism"

These two are incompatible. Anarchy is from the Greek and means "no rulers"

Socialism must take the fruits of the labor from the productive class and redistribute it. Whoever decides who recieves the taxed plunder is your ruling class and therefore the system has rulers.

A voluntary socialist society is possible such as the hippy communes but they almost always fail because socialism is a flawed theory that stagnates society and leads to tyranny.

Anarchy- such as existed in the socalled wild west and Viking age Iceland not only worked but worked better than the current dirigisme corporatist system of America.
 
#37 ·
@Orchardsmith "anarchy and socialism"

These two are incompatible. Anarchy is from the Greek and means "no rulers"

Socialism must take the fruits of the labor from the productive class and redistribute it. Whoever decides who recieves the taxed plunder is your ruling class and therefore the system has rulers.

A voluntary socialist society is possible such as the hippy communes but they almost always fail because socialism is a flawed theory that stagnates society and leads to tyranny.

Anarchy- such as existed in the socalled wild west and Viking age Iceland not only worked but worked better than the current dirigisme corporatist system of America.
Many groups push societies toward anarchy first as a way of appearing to come to the rescue with socialism. As anarchy grows in our own time, particularly in urban areas, socialists claim to have the answers. I would argue that many of the people encouraging anarchy are the socialists themselves. Have a look at the news.
 
#46 ·
My family has been thinking about this a long time. We moved out of the Houston area in 1979, but I don't think we went far enough, and the illegal traffic through our ranch has confirmed this.

I have other properties that are farther from major highways now.

We have a food stash, but I'm updating and doing more prep now.
 
#47 ·
Do you know how to plant, maintain and harvest 6,000 acres of wheat without advanced technology?

I know you're young and idealistic but I think the part you really don't understand that there aren't as many farmers as you think and they are expected to feed everyone in a cost efficient manner.

It's a bit tough to make those land payments if you can't plant and havest efficiently and giving away product will only make less farmers in the world because bankers aren't as benevolent as you may believe.

Farmers in my area donate a percentage of their crop to the foodgrains bank but they donate what they feel they can afford and that may become less now that our government is putting a limit on the fertilizer they can use.
 
#52 ·
..... Farmers in my area donate a percentage of their crop to the foodgrains bank but they donate what they feel they can afford and that may become less now that our government is putting a limit on the fertilizer they can use.
I don't think USA is effected the same way Canada has been effected due to our Canadian government having to put tariffs on all the Russian fertilizers that Canada used to be getting from Russia but is no longer getting now due to unavailability since Russia invaded Ukraine.

I do know that Canada is the only G7 country that had to do that, so maybe American farmers don't have it so bad with regard to availability of foreign imported fertilizers. I don't know if America produces a lot of its own fertilizers or if it has to import most of it from other countries too.

Anyway - @Jerryberry - this article linked below from July 2022 is about the Canadian farmers difficulties in growing larger crops due to lack of sufficient fertilizers being imported into Canada now, but it's relevant enough to your topic that it may give you an idea of what similar kinds of problems the farmers in America might have to be dealing with in the not so distant future. And maybe they already are having to deal with bigger problems because of it. And that's not counting problems due to droughts and other climate related problems that have been occurring.

Farm Groups and the Fertilizer Industry Call on Government to Support Farmers After Impact of Russian Tariffs - Grain Farmers of Ontario

Maybe some of the knowledgeable farming Americans on the board can enlighten you more about the American situation with regard to availability of fertilizers in America for American grown crops. The whole world was effected this year because Russia was one of if not the biggest of exporters of fertilizers to other countries, but that isn't happening now since their war started, so I suspect there has probably been some kinds of negative impacts to America too.

.
 
#48 ·
For those wanting to prep but lacking funds, this idea: years ago we lived in LDSland. We are not LDS. My LDS friend always offered to sign us up for hours on the church farm and cannery in exchange for supplies. We grew and put up our own and gave her some stuff, so I always declined. But never knew them to turn anyone down who offered to work for food.
 
#49 ·
You are right on the money, JB. Everyone needs to expand their skill set. With things going the way they are, the more one can contribute to one's own diet, the better. We don't need to go industrial, but just do a better job than we're doing now, and a better job than that next year. Your suggestion above is why we're on this site helping each other out.
 
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