Living Off The Land: Delusions and Misconceptions About Hunting and Gathering

[economist]

The world lives on GMO based agriculture heavily dependent on chemical fertilizer and modern agricultural methods. All of this requires tremendous production of oil, appropriate weather, stable social structure, and staying one step ahead of disease, pests, and weeds. If that system keeps running nobody needs to figure out how to live off the land. If that systems fails, most people are going to die. The disorder and violence that would accompany those deaths would make living off the land nearly impossible. As the article notes (and I agree that the calorie assumption is questionable) living off the land is no easy feat under the best of circumstances.

 

[xtry51]

The world lives on GMO based agriculture heavily dependent on chemical fertilizer and modern agricultural methods. All of this requires tremendous production of oil, appropriate weather, stable social structure, and staying one step ahead of disease, pests, and weeds. If that system keeps running nobody needs to figure out how to live off the land. If that systems fails, most people are going to die. The disorder and violence that would accompany those deaths would make living off the land nearly impossible. As the article notes (and I agree that the calorie assumption is questionable) living off the land is no easy feat under the best of circumstances.

I concur. Was merely running the isolated presumptions through their paces.

Seeds are a good thing to be storing if you're a prepper. Along with enough food to make it the year or two it will take to establish a garden.

Such an interruption to the food supply would result in nothing short of 60-80% of people dying. Either to starvation, violence or disease caused indirectly by the former two.

 

[coastie]

The world lives on GMO based agriculture heavily dependent on chemical fertilizer and modern agricultural methods. All of this requires tremendous production of oil, appropriate weather, stable social structure, and staying one step ahead of disease, pests, and weeds. If that system keeps running nobody needs to figure out how to live off the land. If that systems fails, most people are going to die. The disorder and violence that would accompany those deaths would make living off the land nearly impossible. As the article notes (and I agree that the calorie assumption is questionable) living off the land is no easy feat under the best of circumstances.

If the wheels come off we are toast. There is no doubt about it. Food storage will only get you so far. THe key is having the supplies, the skills and the space to raise your own food. And the means to protect it. I am a believer in squash, beans and corn for the long haul. They are relatively easy to grow, the seeds are easy to store, they are easy to store and they are fairly complete nutrition wise. I figure they worked for thousands of years for the Indians.

 

[KBCraig]

The figures he provides are interesting, but his "opportunity cost" analysis is bogus.

If living in hunter/gatherer mode just to survive, how exactly does one carry a box of instant mashed potatoes into the woods instead of a gun -- and if not carrying the means to kill game, why go in the first place?

According to author's calculations, millenia of hunter/gatherers should have starved to death, because you can't survive by hunting/gathering.

 

[joeendris]

Well if that ain't a slap upside the head for the "bug out in a tent" folks I don't know what is.

I like blueberries but no way I'm gonna eat 15 pounds of them,

It would make for some interesting sightings.

Mom! Holy crap, you lied! Smurfs ARE REAL!......


Concerning this blog:
I was born in Alaska. Me, my brother, father and mother. We'd spend 2-3 months in a cabin 200+ miles from the nearest town, every summer. My father was a commercial fisherman back in the 70s. The work was hard, as I remember it. Not a lot of play time, most of your day was focused on getting food squared off. Dad would be off hunting local game and the three of us would be picking blueberries, raspberries, and something called "salmon berries" (they were the orange-ish color of salmon meat but tasted like blackberries/raspberries. Mom would can hundreds of cans of salmon meat, preserves, etc for winter. Dad would pack in half a dozen deer and a moose.

We'd spend days on the beach clamming. Or, we'd run up and down the beach with a bottle of bleach. At every rock outcropping, we'd splash some bleach into the hole. We'd usually get an octopus shoot out. Grab the head, reach in, get bit, and pull it inside out. Instantly dead, though the suckers would latch onto anything for a while. Good eats there! Crab pots full of nomnoms, as well.

It was hard. I get a chuckle watching preppers go to the store and.....buy cream of mushroom soup....and think they're ready.

It's been 15 years since I've played that game. I just started getting back into it. Come to find out, I've forgotten a lot. And not having any land of my own, isn't exactly helping. Ah, the joys of suburban life, sigh......

Note: we didn't grab octo with our bare hands. Even little octo are poisonous to a degree. Good leather gloves. The last thing you want is to have to deal with that bite. Leaves a nasty, leaky wound for a while. So, don't go to the beach bare-handed thinking you're going to get dinner with just bleach and an idea, lol. There's a bit more to it than just that. I was just giving a lamens version

 

[Hiltonizer]

That is gross.

Related, I just yesterday read an AMA on a 450~lb guy who starved himself for over a year with just vitamins and mineral supplements.... got down to 180. Possible kidney failure risk, but he lived over a year without food.

 

[coastie]

It would make for some interesting sightings.

Mom! Holy crap, you lied! Smurfs ARE REAL!......


Concerning this blog:
I was born in Alaska. Me, my brother, father and mother. We'd spend 2-3 months in a cabin 200+ miles from the nearest town, every summer. My father was a commercial fisherman back in the 70s. The work was hard, as I remember it. Not a lot of play time, most of your day was focused on getting food squared off. Dad would be off hunting local game and the three of us would be picking blueberries, raspberries, and something called "salmon berries" (they were the orange-ish color of salmon meat but tasted like blackberries/raspberries. Mom would can hundreds of cans of salmon meat, preserves, etc for winter. Dad would pack in half a dozen deer and a moose.

We'd spend days on the beach clamming. Or, we'd run up and down the beach with a bottle of bleach. At every rock outcropping, we'd splash some bleach into the hole. We'd usually get an octopus shoot out. Grab the head, reach in, get bit, and pull it inside out. Instantly dead, though the suckers would latch onto anything for a while. Good eats there! Crab pots full of nomnoms, as well.

It was hard. I get a chuckle watching preppers go to the store and.....buy cream of mushroom soup....and think they're ready.

It's been 15 years since I've played that game. I just started getting back into it. Come to find out, I've forgotten a lot. And not having any land of my own, isn't exactly helping. Ah, the joys of suburban life, sigh......

Note: we didn't grab octo with our bare hands. Even little octo are poisonous to a degree. Good leather gloves. The last thing you want is to have to deal with that bite. Leaves a nasty, leaky wound for a while. So, don't go to the beach bare-handed thinking you're going to get dinner with just bleach and an idea, lol. There's a bit more to it than just that. I was just giving a lamens version

The Northeast is a whole different ballgame. With the population density here there wont be any game in a few weeks at best. Anything bigger than a chipmunk will be practically extinct.

 

[garandman]

Living off the land in a tent in New England - what a romantic, fanciful notion.

At least living in Boston, I consider "bugging out" to be the height of folly under almost any circumstance.

I'm heading for the wholesale food warehouses and the container port with a couple bottles of liquor.....

The Northeast is a whole different ballgame. With the population density here there wont be any game in a few weeks at best. Anything bigger than a chipmunk will be practically extinct.

But thankfully, commercial fishermen will still like to drink. Bank on that!

My primary "trade bait" is liquor and motor oil. I'm thinking liquor store owners will be very popular.

 

[Mike-Mike]

I haven't read the story yet. But I have been saying for a while " The thought that we are all going to go camping and somehow be ok is ridiculous.".

 

[garandman]

For reference, an MRE averages 1,250 calories and is considered to be one third of a day's caloric intake.

Interesting website. He has an article on how to make a glued together Tyvek stuff sack from USPS Priority Mail envelopes. Which are free and hold as much or more. One of us is confused....

 

[joeendris]

The Northeast is a whole different ballpeople. With the population density here there wont be any game in a few weeks at best. Anything bigger than a chipmunk will be practically extinct.

Within a few weeks, most of the people would be dead, so I wouldn't worry about them.
Starvation
Exposure
Infection
Ignorance

That's what would clear them out pretty quick. Think about the people in Boston. Think many of them have the knowledge to live past a Patriots game and microwave popcorn?

 

[enbloc]

.

 

[xtry51]

For reference, an MRE averages 1,250 calories and is considered to be one third of a day's caloric intake.

Interesting website. He has an article on how to make a glued together Tyvek stuff sack from USPS Priority Mail envelopes. Which are free and hold as much or more. One of us is confused....

The only thing with that is an MRE is designed to be eaten by troops humping gear everywhere while under duress.

Not the same energy requirements as just living.

 

[coastie]

Within a few weeks, most of the people would be dead, so I wouldn't worry about them.
Starvation
Exposure
Infection
Ignorance

That's what would clear them out pretty quick. Think about the people in Boston. Think many of them have the knowledge to live past a Patriots game and microwave popcorn?

New England probably has 20x the population of AK on 1/20 the land. Those people are going to be like locusts before they die. Do you really believe that after they die there is going ro be anything left of the local animal population or wild foods? They are driven by one goal and that is the next meal. They might not know how to gut a deer but they know it is food. I am going to hedge my bets and buy a can of soup or 50. If I get lucky and get a deer or squirrel awesome but I won't be counting on it.

 

[joeendris]

New England probably has 20x the population of AK on 1/20 the land. Those people are going to be like locusts before they die. Do you really believe that after they die there is going ro be anything left of the local animal population or wild foods? They are driven by one goal and that is the next meal. They might not know how to gut a deer but they know it is food. I am going to hedge my bets and buy a can of soup or 50. If I get lucky and get a deer or squirrel awesome but I won't be counting on it.

I concur.

 

[cockpitbob]

I hadn't thought about it, but you guys are right about nature's pantry being stripped bare in New England. That makes a case for bugging out; way out. Like several hundred miles into Canada (winter would be a beatch). That would require somehow leaving home with a big load: enough food and fuel to get deep into Quebec and enough stuff to survive once you got there.

 

[goodlife30]

Live by the ocean. That's where the food is. You can even eat periwinkles

 

[Hiltonizer]

I wonder how long it would take for all the pumpkinseeds to be pulled out of the lakes and ponds after a collapse. I give it a week, maybe two if its ice-out.

 

[Twigg]

Live by the ocean. That's where the food is. You can even eat periwinkles

Yeah. 60,000 or so might do ya for a day.

 

[garandman]

Live by the ocean. That's where the commercial fishing boats are.

Ding ding ding!

 

[KBCraig]

Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (on Netflix)




The Last Trapper (a year in the Yukon)

 

[namedpipes]

The Northeast is a whole different ballgame. With the population density here there wont be any game in a few weeks at best. Anything bigger than a chipmunk will be practically extinct.

But shortly after that limit is reached, the population density will drop to near zero.

Be alive THEN, and you have a shot.

Sent from my chimney using smoke signals.

 

[jmjkd]

Been piece meal working at living with the land 25yrs, still not even close to ready. Unless you have a lot of $$$, hands on experience and a team with construction equipment you have no chance if you are starting now. Survival tactics and primitive living will only get you from point A to point B then it's all about homesteading and how far you are in the process.
The blog was a good reference thank you.

 

[brew3x]

good read, I plan on eating all the neighborhood dogs and cats.