One day I watched my step-uncle call the farm animals over to the fence by their names. The pigs and beef cattle would respond expecting to be fed. And as they approached my step-uncle casually raised a revolver and shot them in the head. This seemed very brutal, but it is part of the process of slaughtering animals. This seems terrible and as a twelve year old witnessing this it had an effect on me.
Even though my step-uncle's farm seemed horrible it was paradise compared to how most of the animal slaughtering business is done. Eventually I found out about the bigger corporate backed slaughter farms and how they were ran. I saw the small chicken cages, I saw how pigs were held in torturous holding cells, I saw how cattle were housed in small stalls and forced fed non stop. And the smell was worse than death. The pig farms are the worst, I still don't know how the farmers can live in a house within smelling distance of the pigs. The factory farmed animals short lives were a living hell that ended in a painful death. And during the entire process they are injected with drugs and hormones.
For a time in my younger life I became a vegetarian because of my beliefs against factory farming. I was not a true vegetarian. I preferred eating meat, smelling cooking meat made my mouth water, and health wise it wasn't working for me. No matter how much I ate on a vegetarian diet I was losing weight. I was very skinny and wasn't holding muscle mass despite working out and being active and eating as much as I wanted. I know it is possible to be healthy living a vegetarian life style - it just wasn't working for me. And I also didn't necessarily believe that animals shouldn't be eaten for food. I was/am against factory farming.
I eventually gave up my vegetarian diet and ate meat again. I always wanted to buy free range animal meat but it is very expensive. I would buy factory farmed meat products due to economic reasons. It still would bother me though knowing first hand how the animals were treated.
I am a father of two children and they were getting older and I was watching them grow up in today's overly convenient world. I wanted to get them off the computers and smart phones and get them outside more. So we started with fishing together. The great thing about fishing is you can do it cheap. But shore fishing can be challenging and even though you can find some great shore fishing spots in Minnesota your more limited than using a boat and we got skunked (caught no fish) more often than not.
Another reason I wanted to get back into fishing is for the food aspect. Once the initial gear is purchased it can be an inexpensive activity. Not only is the fishing part fun and a great reason to get outdoors you can also catch yourself a free-range organic meal for free! I know the arguments animal-rights advocates state about hunting and fishing are bad -- but I'm not a "sports" hunter/fisher person. I don't enjoy killing animals. I do enjoy eating them though. And I'd rather do my own dirty work and slaughter the animals myself that I am going to eat instead of paying a butcher to do my proxy killing. And me fishing guarantees there were no unwanted sea animals killed unintentionally by net fishing and I know first hand where the fish were from and how they were processed.
I started home garden farming also. The first year I had a great harvest. If I did it right I think I could farm most of my own vegetables consumption. I also was reading about urban farmers in Detroit and other cities around the world and how they can be successful.
It then dawned on me that if I started hunting again (bows only) and with fishing with my kids (child labor) and urban farming I could make a difference in my annual food budget and it would all be free-range and organic!
So a few years ago I decided to make a challenge to myself. The challenge would be to try to live off the grid as much as possible while being an urban dweller. I haven't quantified all my data fully each year yet but I'm going to put it all into to a database and budget so I can keep an accurate measurement of my efforts and track the real change of ridding myself of the chains of consumerism.
Ultimately I want to use this blog to record, track, and document my experiences and I want to share knowledge and ideas with others. It would be great to be able to hunt, fish, farm, 100% of my own food but I think a realistic number would be around 80%. Currently I would estimate my supplemental production is around 10%. Even though that is a small percentage the experiences of fishing trips and being outdoors with my kids are an immeasurable number!
Ultimately I want to use this blog to record, track, and document my experiences and I want to share knowledge and ideas with others. It would be great to be able to hunt, fish, farm, 100% of my own food but I think a realistic number would be around 80%. Currently I would estimate my supplemental production is around 10%. Even though that is a small percentage the experiences of fishing trips and being outdoors with my kids are an immeasurable number!
