Living Off the Land

>>935549
Reading and doing

>>935549

you just have to be a hipster douchebag and get a nat geo camera crew to make a drama filled reality show about you

>>935592
/thread

>>935549
Thoreau lived in a cabin on Ralph Waldo Emerson's land which was only a one mile walk from Concord and relied on the Emersons for food. Tl;dr living like Thoreau won't be much of a stretch for you. He was no Dick Proenneke, or Mick Dodge if you're a pleb

>>935608
Yeah I know, that's why I chose Thoreau. Mick goes to town as well.

File: 237C174A00000578-0-image-49_1416920795427.jpg (177KB, 634x507px) Image search: [Google]

177KB, 634x507px

>>935549
>tv show
>mick dodge
>doesnt know the complete backstory

he doesnt forage everything he eats. have a friend who lives up there and he always says that a few of those 'livin on land' crews work for weed growers who guerilla farm up there. I'm in mendo and know a few guys that live that same kind of lifestyle as dodge, sort of look similar too. and most confirm the outsider crews in his area work farm security for growers on some lake up there.

>>935613
Even Dick went to town on occasion, and his pilot brother flew in supplies.

Living 100% off the land was only ever a viable prospect with a tribe to back you up, and nowadays not even then.

>>935839
What about subsistence farming? An individual can certainly manage that.

>>935608
There were also multiple trains going by every couple of hours, part of the Fitchburg line, which he could no doubt hear from his cabin as trains were much louder back then.

>>935941
It's a lost science. What was common knowledge only a hundred years ago became a necessity for the impoverished, and therefore anyone who could afford not to grow their own food stopped out of misguided shame. People have started getting interested in it again, but the popular opinion is that something that nature has does perfectly well on it's own for billions of years can't be done today without massive amounts of chemical fertiilizers and pesticides.

>>935941

If by subsistence farming you mean only growing enough to feed yourself, sure. If by subsistence farming you mean grow enough to be able to live without purchasing or trading for food? unlikely, unless you live in a tropical climate with plenty of water

>>936118

No it isn't a lost science, there are plenty of subsistence farmers in the developing world, but they still either work as a family or small community and purchase staple foods like rice to supplement what they grow

>>936205
>only growing enough to feed yourself
>grow enough to be able to live without purchasing or trading for food
How are these two things different?

>>936205
Sorry, I meant lost to the greater population rather than lost completely.

It's like soap making and trap building. There's still a lot of people that know how to do these things, but most people don't, and even those who do, still aren't quite as good as those who did it a hundred years ago, because it's typically a hobby rather than a way of life.

>>936209

as in, growing enough to make up 80% of your diet, with no spare crop to trade or sell, and purchasing the remaining 20%

that would still be considered subsistence farming, although not totally self sufficient

>>936227
What would the remaining 20% be? Not too hard to do without meat and dairy if you aren't raising children.

>>936242
Have you raised any children? I don't really see the value in raising them as pets, and they can't legally be raised for meat in the US.

>>936253
>can't legally be raised for meat in the US
moralfag

>>936214
You couldn't be more wrong. As human society advances individuals become more specialized because we become more efficient at individual tasks. We then offer our specialization as products or services to others.

If I specialize in making clothes I'm going to make clothes that are x10 better than anything that was made hundreds of years ago and I'm going to be able to produce them at x10 the rate. This means you and your neighbors don't need to produce your own clothes that look like shitty linen potato sacks. Instead you can focus on your specialization, then use currency to exchange for your work, IE basis of the human economy for the last several thousand years.

There are people today who make better soap and traps than people two hundred years ago. Even as hobbyists with the ease of knowledge sharing and the access to all the right tools they have a huge advantage.

>>936267
In theory, you're right, but that's an extremely idealist perspective. What really happens is that someone comes up with a great product that people are willing to buy, and someone else who's probably Chinese makes a cheap knock-off with toxic components. The creator loses, the consumer loses, and the chink still didn't make enough to move into a house with a floor.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/20254745/ns/business-consumer_news/t/mattel-issues-new-massive-china-toy-recall/#.WIahv33Dbcs

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chinese-made-hotel-toothpaste-recalled/

>>935549
That guy has an apartment and a girlfriend and wears shoes and shit. Look it up.

Watched a few clips of this guy.

Total fraud.

>>936278
so did Thoreau

Guys I honestly don't care too much about the authenticity of him. I just want to know how to do it.

>>936253
>laws
spooky
>>936915
>be a hipster fraud
>get your family member to hook you up with a popular reality tv channel like natgeo
>pretend to be a survivalist or some shit and make mad money
>fuck bitches every day

>>935549
Learn by doing op. Find woods go out in them try and survive. Unless you have your own land you will be competing for resources with other people and or government regulations preventing you from living off the land. This land is not your land it was made for Kings and queens.