Beyond Food Storage: Creating your own food production system

Many years ago while studying at Brigham Young University, I worked with the Benson Food and Agriculture Institute (The Institute still exists today and continues their work throughout the world—look them up at www.bensoninstitute.org).  They developed a program whereby a family of 7 could be sustained on one hectare (2.5 acres).  This system was developed at BYU and then put to the test in Ecuador.  Our friends Neils and Gina Tidwell worked tirelessly with the program in Ecuador and Michele and I were slated to replace them but unfortunately the program lost its funding and we never got the opportunity.  My experience with the program instilled in me a real interest in self-sufficiency and the goal to be able to provide for my family and others should that become necessary.

The system included an extensive garden, as well as a small animal component including chickens, goats, and guinea pigs…yep they eat them in Ecuador.  It produced enough food for the family as well as some income from the sale of the surplus vegetables and animals.  This program went beyond food storage, it was in fact, a food production system.

My church encourages its members to store a year’s worth of food and other basic necessities.  I think that is great counsel and although we still don’t have a year’s worth of food on hand, we work on it little by little.  I personally want more than a year’s worth of dry beans, powdered milk, and macaroni. I want the ability to keep my table filled with what we eat now.  I guess you can call us old-fashioned. We still sit down most nights and eat a home-cooked dinner as a family.  Not much in the way of prepared foods in our house. With a milk cow to produce milk, butter, and cheese, pork, rabbits, chickens for meat and eggs, a couple of beehives, and a large garden my actual food storage list becomes quite short.

I realize that most of you don’t have the land base to keep such a menagerie but there are things that you can do. Chickens and rabbits require very little space, don’t eat much, are quiet—assuming you have only hens and no roosters (no, roosters aren’t necessary for a hen to lay eggs!) and both produce very high quality food—especially high in protein. Take out some of your lawn and plant a garden.  I realize that many of you live under the oppression of city ordinances that don’t allow critter raisin’, but I believe that if times get tough, these silly ordinances will be repealed.  I’m glad that us country folks don’t have to put up with the regulations imposed on our city cousins. In my county we have no zoning, no building codes, no building inspectors, etc.. If I want to build a house, I build it and I don’t need anybody’s permission.

Hen house (6 hens) in my backyard--would fit in any city backyard

Think about your own situation and what you can do to be prepared. More detailed ideas to follow.