Farmering gardening and hunting after SHTF
Lets say some kind of SHTF / TEOTWAWKI situation happens tomorrow, what would your long term farming, gardening and hunting plans be?
Do you plan on hunting for most of your food from livestock, gardening, hunting or a combination of food sources?
Long term survival plans after SHTF
In theory this may sound fine and dandy.
In reality, chances are the family is going to starve to death.
If various humanoids have gone extinct over the past 100,000 years, what makes a family think they can survive with very few primitive survival skills?
The long term survivability of humans is directly related to much much food we can produce, and not how much food we can hunt or gather. There is a physical limitation to how many miles a person can walk in a day. There is a physical limitation to how much weight a person can carry.
Primitive tribes were able to overcome some of those obstacles by being in great physical shape and living a hunter-gather lifestyle their entire lives. How can some couch potato expect to kill a 300 pound hog, then pack that hog 3 or 4 miles back to the camp.
Our sedentary lifestyle in no way compares to the lifestyle of a hunter-gatherer.
While reading through the Smithsonian website, I came across an interesting article about when humans first domesticated livestock.
What happened around 10,000 years ago to make humans start domesticating livestock?
Goats – 10,000 years ago
Sheep – 11,000 years ago
Cow – 10,000 years ago
Pig – 9,000 – 12,000 years ago
Chicken – around 8,000 years ago
What made someone catch that first pig or goat? I imagine the driving factor was to have food close at hand. Instead of having to hunt or catch food everyday, why not have a goat, chicken, pig,,, around the house? Instead of having to hunt a wild pig, just go butcher a piglet.
How does this relate to survivalism?
Consider that humans domesticated livestock around 10,000 years ago, while the Neanderthals died out as recently as 24,000 – 28,000 years ago.
From examples set by by previous humanoids, every species of prehumans that has relied on a hunter-gather lifestyle either went extinct, or never made it past the stone age. There is no evidence of Neanderthal or Cro-Magnon having livestock. Where are those humanoids now? Extinct.
There are still groups around the world that live a hunter-gather lifestyle, but those groups live a substance, stone age lifestyle.
It was only after the domestication of livestock that mankind was able to step out of the stone age.
Squash domesticated around 10,000 BC
Pea domesticated around 5,000 BC
Corn – around 2,500 BC
Radishes – mature quickly, with sprouts ready to pick in 15 days in good conditions.
Romans ate types of peas, beans and greens.
Native Americans grew squash, corn and peas.
Instead of having to forage for food, why not have food growing at your back door.
The question about livestock also relates to a garden. What made primitive man start growing their own food? It was probably the ease of access.
Do we think gardening helped bring mankind out of the stone age? Sure it did. Instead of having to forage for food, people picked what they wanted, then had free time to do other stuff.
It was that free time and improved nutrition that helped move mankind out of the stone age, through the iron age and finally into the space age.
Hunting after SHTF
The greater competition for resources, the less resources will be available.
During the great depression whitetail deer and turkey was hunted to extinction in areas all across the nation. In southeast Texas, whitetail deer and wild turkeys had to be imported to reestablish the populations. It took the southeast Texas wild turkey population close to 40 years before numbers became viable enough for hunting to be allowed.
But yet some people think wildlife is a never ending supply of meat?
During a long term SHTF / TEOTWAWKI survival situation, hunting is going to deplete local wildlife to extinction levels.
What are your renewable food sources
Besides stockpiling canned foods, #10 cans of freeze dried foods, and food stored in mylar bags, what are your renewable food sources?
Do you have a homestead that you can use as a Bug Out Location?
Do you have access to land where you can raise a garden have livestock?
Or do you plan on bugging out to the wilderness to live off the land?Farmering gardening and hunting after SHTF,