Posted on 03/01/2012 10:29:42 AM PST by blam
No Matter How Much Food You’ve Got Stored, It Will Eventually Run Out in a Full-Blown Collapse
Joe Alton, M.D.,aka Dr. Bones
March 1st, 2012
The following article has been generously contributed by Joe Alton, M.D., aka Dr. Bones, of Doom and Bloom Nation where you can find strategies to stay healthy that include traditional medicine, alternative remedies, and medicinal/survival gardening. For the best in emergency and long-term disaster medical preparedness we encourage you to check out The Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Handbook and follow Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy on their weekly podcast.
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To Survive, How Much Land?
Have you ever wondered how likely it is that you’ll be able to produce all the calories you’ll need on that piece of land you have? How much land for livestock? How about those solar panels you were thinking about? How many square feet of panels will provide you with the electricity you’ll need? There are ways to figure this out, and the answers may surprise you.
Let’s start by talking power. In a collapse situation, you’ll probably be able to rely on the sun and wind and not much else, unless you’ve built a watermill. The best answer might be installing some solar panels on your roof. This is a commonly available option that many people are considering nowadays. Let’s say part of your roof is facing south (the best place for a solar panel) and you get 7 hours or so of sunlight, on average. To get the amount of power that an average home uses in a year, you’ll need 375 square feet of panels. These things aren’t cheap, and that much hardware is going to be beyond the average family’s financial reach. This means that you’ll have to make decisions regarding how to ration the power you ARE able to produce. Look around the house, and you’ll probably see lots of things that are plugged in that you can eliminate if the stuff ever hits the fan. This is part of the planning you’ll need to do now, so that you’ll be better prepared for times of trouble.
How about food? If you have a family of four, you’ll want to provide at least 2000 or so calories per adult, more if you’re a big guy, maybe a little less for kids. The formula is simple: At least 30 calories per kilogram of body weight. One kilogram equals 2.2 pounds, so an 80 kilogram adult would weigh 176 pounds. 30 x 80 = 2400 calories/day. Less for kids, of course. All in all, you’ll need to provide 8000-9000 calories a day to maintain your family of four’s weight. So, let’s talk about some hard realities. No matter how much food you’ve got stored, it will eventually run out in a full-blown collapse. For your future success, better get that garden growing. Anyone who’s done it will tell you that there’s a learning curve, and you sure don’t want to plant that first seed in the midst of the Zombie Apocalypse.
Now, let’s separate your garden out into three categories: fruits, berries, and vegetables, then wheat, then corn. If you went totally vegetarian, you would need a little less than half an acre per person to provide all of those calories. That means a family of 4 needs almost 2 acres of farmable land!
The majority of this land will go to fruits, berries, and veggies. You’ll get the most nutrients in terms of vitamins and minerals from these. To decrease the amount of land you’ll need, consider companion planting. Some organic farmers will plant sunflowers, and then plant peas that will grow up the long stalks. The same goes with corn, squash, and pole beans. Squash will grow low to the ground, pole beans will take the intermediate area, and corn up high. Make sure you don’t put plants in the same family together, such as dill and carrots. They will share the same pests and diseases, which could possibly spread from one crop to the other.
If you stock up on wheatberries and use your handy dandy Wondermill, you can cut the land requirement down a bit. A mix of prepared food storage and gardening will keep you healthy and fed for a longer time. Corn isn’t a very land-efficient crop, but you might need it for your livestock. An alternative if you need to trim that acreage down a bit more is to stock up on bushels of corn feed; that’s about 55 pounds of feed for about $9-10. This is a good idea, but you’ll use a lot of it. It takes 10 bushels of corn to get a hog from weaning to slaughter. Btw, corn prices are going higher; they were less than 5 dollars a couple of years ago.
Don’t forget, you’ll need some land for hog wallows, goats, rabbits and chickens. All of these animals can be raised in relatively small amounts of space, and provide important protein. You’ll need a good 200 square feet for 3 hogs, more if they have piglets. You can get away with less for each of the other animals.
You might have to forget about cows; they aren’t land-efficient. If you want milk, think about goats, especially Nubian Goats. This variety can produce 1800 lbs. of milk a year, according to various sources. That’s a lot of milk! How about eggs? The average family of four will eat 1000 eggs or so a year. To reliably get this quantity, you’ll need about 10-15 birds in your henhouse, depends a lot on the breed and the ingenuity of the local foxes and raccoons.
You could probably squeeze this all in with an acre and a half of land. If you don’t have that much property, now you know you’ll need that much more food storage to make up the difference. This is information I thought was important for me to know, and now you know it too.
Here are some of the changes one I increased the margin on the left so it would work better if someone prints it and wants to put it in a binder.
I shorten the section on the various types of beans and grains and added the following:
27. A Highly-Mobility 72 Hour Kit-by Ward Dorrity (Up Dated
64. Medical Kits for Self-Reliant Families-by Jackie Clay
72. The Large M17 Medic Bag
74. Antibiotics and Their Use in Collapse Medicine™-By Dr. Bones
280. 10 Morale Boosters for any Worst Case Scenario-by Jack C
329. My SHTF Wartime Experience-by Selco
351. Selco on Signs of SHTF-by Jay
The other option is to die and let your family starve. I'd rather NOT go down that road.
The need for formidable militias, say 10-20 well-armed fighters, can discourage a sizable group of attackers, when entering the foray from an unexpected front (as a support militia coming to the defenders currently under assault), and is even more of a need in the cities. I feel for the preppers in the city apartments, for example, who are good people, but would be facing some tough decisions.
I have large dogs to serve the same purpose. After all, when the SHTF, they gotta eat also...
Anyone believe it’s just a coincidence that post-apocalyptic and SFTF preparedness shows have become hugely popular on TV lately? And there is a flood of ads for food storage, and gun retailers.
Humankind either instinctively knows something has been set in motion, or we are just becoming overly paranoid. I hope it’s the later.
A few of those shows are:
Extreme Survival
Man vs. Wild
Survivorman
Jeremiah
Jericho
Falling Skies
And several reality shows from building shelters, preparing for bug-outs, and of course numerous gun themed shows.
There was an old joke about a farmer with a three legged pig.
Seems the pig was super smart and had saved the lives of the family members many times over.
When asked why the pig only had three legs,
the farmer replied “when you have a pig that’s that good, you don’t eat him all at once”.
Some ranchers hang coyote carcasses in trees to deter the rest of the pack. Just sayin'.
sfl
Not a cross bow though.
I own a compound and a recurve.....
Still you can lose arrows...easy enough. I've done it....at $10 or more an arrow...plus a $10 or more per broadhead...it gets expensive to lose or break arrows. HA!!
Bullets are cheaper!!
BTW, I've a brand new never shot compound bow for sale!! If you know anyone looking....for one...Send them my way.
FRegards,
Here it is:
""The roots, berries, seeds and mature stems and leaves of pokeweed are poisonous," says Extension Food Scientist Jean Weese. There are at least three different types of poison in this plant -- phytolaccatoxin, triterpene saponins, an alkaloid, phytolaccin, and histamines.
If you survive the first few herds, a collection of heads on pikes around the perimeter might "encourage les autres" to move along.
If you plan ahead and store a supply of ‘white tip’ kitchen matches, you can easily make ‘cap lock’ muzzle-loader primers with the tips and alum soda cans.
A crude form of black-powder can be made with nothing more than charcoal and pig manure.
I would think if the new gang sees rotting bodies laying around a farm that they will give it a wide berth. Better to attack a soft target.
I have already begun assessing people I know for useful skills. Those with skills I need will be permitted to join up with me. Deadwood will be set adrift.
I have tried to get many I know to, at least, save up some for routine emergencies with little luck. I will NOT be their savior. Hard choices will need to be made and I am starting now.
Call me cold, but thats how it is.
I’ve also become a big fan of the 5.7x28 lately. All the positives of .22lr (except price) without the negatives.
I wouldn’t be my first choice at the “O.K. Corral,” but I’d prefer it for those impromptu hunting trip firefights any day.
When your neighbors ask WTH you are doing you DONT tell them they are pre-dug graves. Tell them that you are building individual fighting positions (just kidding) or better yet, future site of your septic system run off or animal waste disposal of parts that the slaughterhouse doesn't want. Just be sure to dig 30 degrees outside LOS of LEO satellites and in full shade, under a tree when digging, or at night. Satellites are GREAT at spotting freshly dug ground, even at the shallow grave level.
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