Food Independence Could Save You In Hard Times. Here’s What You Need To Know.

Food Independence Could Save You In Hard Times. Here’s What You Need To Know.. Graphic © off-grid.info. Background Image: Unsplash (PD)

Serious concerns have been raised recently over the safety and reliability of our food supply. Modern industrial food production, in its endless bid to increase yields and profits, certainly stands accused of putting business before health.

Due to the immensity of the agribusiness machine, many people feel that their voices are not being heard. Consider that there was a 1,000,000+ signature petition against genetically modified salmon – which was simply disregarded.

And then there’s the issue of the supply chain – an extremely complex web that ultimately makes us entirely dependent on forces outside of our control. You could argue that life itself is out of our control – but the simple fact remains: If you grow / produce / hunt / forage your own, and have skills in these areas, you will be resilient against interruptions to the food supply.

There’s also the simple fact that we are being squeezed like never before. Energy prices (and thus food prices) are through the roof… and what a surprise, oil megacorps posting record profits. Same crap different decade eh? We all know we are being screwed; but what can we do? The answer is both simple and challenging: Get independent! Nature never puts her prices up, she always gives her gifts in return for just one thing: Tender care.

Many people are now turning to long-term food independence: Producing your own food, using and saving your own heirloom non-GMO seeds and growing without using chemical pesticides.

Here are some resources related to food independence, for those who wish to learn more.

Seed Saving

The beauty of saving your own seed is that you really are independent. You don’t need ‘them’ for anything! By collecting the seed of the plants that perform the best in your location, you gradually develop a stronger and healthier strain over the course of time.

The Real Seed Catalogue has some great articles and tutorials related to seed saving:

How Long Will Seeds Last– a great tutorial on the subject of how many years vegetable seeds can be saved for, and how to increase their chances of germination.

Seed Saving For Beginners – full tutorial into how to save seed – from which plants to select, how to collect and dry the seeds and how to store them.

Make no mistake though: They don’t want you to do this. A few years ago, this happened – the Plant Reproductive Material Law made an attempt to restrict all seed distribution in the EU – even trees. This article explains what is going on in comprehensible terms.

Where To Get Heirloom / Non GMO Seeds

Check out our huge database of 250+ Heirloom / Organic / Non-GMO Seed Suppliers!

Source Local

Lots of reasons to source local food – from reduction in overall energy consumption to the participation in a local network. Growing your own food and sharing locally is a step towards freedom!

In Switzerland, people grow their own allotments and trade vegetables with their neighbors. Strong local networks are a great key to food independence from oppressive corporate interests.

The ultimate example of a vast, resilient independent food production network comes from Russia. A huge amount of food is grown in a network of small “dacha” gardens. Around 30% of the Russian population owns a dacha. (Fascinating article!)

Check out our mega database of 340+ Raw Honey Suppliers!

Organic Food

Many people who have been into the organic movement for a long time, have a deep understanding of its principles and why properly-grown organic food is superior. Check out this tutorial on How To Grow An Organic Vegetable Garden.

Foraging

If you can’t grow it, maybe you can find it already growing in the wild? For an introduction to this useful skill, check out my tutorial The Art Of Foraging.

Permaculture

Permaculture – defined nicely by Wikipedia’s Permaculture page – is “a branch of ecological design, ecological engineering, and environmental design which develops sustainable architecture and self-maintained agricultural systems modeled from natural ecosystems.”

The “Father” of permaculture is widely regarded as Bill Mollison, who together with David Holmgren, coined the term. In 1981 he received the Right Livelihood Award (the Alternative Nobel Prize) for his work in environmental design. He has been called “an ecologist of the first rank.” His book Permaculture:A Designers Manual has been highly praised as the definitive Permaculture design manual – even being called “the last book you will ever need”.

Mollison himself observed “Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labor; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single product system.”

More info from the Permaculture Institute.

Natural Farming / Nature Farming

Natural farming is an ecological farming approach which aims to farm as “close to nature” as possible. The system was brought to light by Japanese farmer and philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka (1913–2008).

Fukuoka’s method has five main principles: No tillage, No fertilizer, No pesticides (or herbicides), No weeding, No pruning. His system – although seemingly completely alien to the ideals of modern industrialized agriculture, is actually based on some very interesting principles. One of the ideals is that the natural farming system seeks to mimic as closely as possible a mature ecosystem – also known as a climax ecosystem or old-growth ecosystem.

Hope this quick tutorial has sparked your interest in the rewarding pursuit of producing your own food! Check out more of our gardening tutorials here.