lwheelr
Lovin' The Homestead
I don't know if any of you have heard of this:
http://www.bensoninstitute.org/
This site is the Benson Institute. It was created from knowledge and practices promoted by Ezra Taft Benson - one time Secretary of Agriculture and one of the Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Anyway, the Benson Institute works mostly with third world countries to reduce hunger by teaching self-sufficient farming skills (I have a friend who works with them). Benson said that there was no such thing as a shortage of land, just bad management.
The Benson Institute has proven that a family can be completely self-sufficient on a single hectare of land (about 2.5 acres). With good land, there is enough to raise all the meat, vegetables, fruit, and grains that a family needs, plus all the feed that those animals need, plus a small cash crop. And if you raise animals, you can generally MAKE good land if you don't have it to start with.
He recommends sustainable practices, in a synergistic system. The effectiveness has been proven in countries where the biggest challenge is that things DON'T grow well there. They have to start by putting in water supplies, then teaching people to get the land workable.
Now, the Benson Institute publishes that this is the answer to world hunger. That if small self-sufficient farming were practiced around the world, there would be no hunger. But Benson himself believed it was the answer to world Poverty as well. That no one need be poor if they have land they can work.
There is apparently quite a bit of information on the site if you dig for it, on just how to do this. Most of the work of the Institute is with third world countries, but the information is there for anyone who wants it, and the methods and concepts hold no matter where you are. He recommends the same small animals that many of us are raising, and careful use of the land that you have to work with.
I personally feel that this information and these methods are just as applicable to industrialized nations as to third world countries. Different dynamics, different circumstances, but the same issues - people are poor or hungry, and sometimes that hunger is due to food quality, not quantity.
So as I start really getting started with a plan for financial independence that is based on self-sufficiency first, and commercial sales second, I am struck with this concept. That the key to our financial success is to teach this kind of farming, and then to supply breeding stock that can thrive in that kind of environment better than standard production breeds, or mass produced "small farm" breeds that have none-the-less been bred for rapid propagation in poultry factories rather than truly raised to reproduce themselves under more natural circumstances.
The funny thing is, I started to feel inspired to do much of this, and THEN discovered the Benson Institute. Funny because the things I had reasoned out, and even some things that I could NOT find answers to online, so came up with my own answers, are exactly the same as what he is recommending. And funny because one of my web design clients, who informed me that he wanted his website taken down because his life was taking a different turn (at the same time mine was taking a turn), informed me, as I am telling him about the Benson institute and how it fits in with my plans, that HE is now working with that institution!
Anyway, I think there is a great key here - one not just for survival, but for prosperity.
And for anyone who wants it, there is some good info on that site, about how to make a small piece of land produce more than what most people think it can. I've not been through more than a small bit, another friend of mine has browsed more of it (and came to me one day for a scheme to raise chickens in small spaces, that he had read on that site, which was exactly the same as what I was already doing).
For our family, we are now making the change from promoting small business and strong families through website design, to now promoting small farming and strong families through preservation and improvement of heritage small animal breeds.
http://www.bensoninstitute.org/
This site is the Benson Institute. It was created from knowledge and practices promoted by Ezra Taft Benson - one time Secretary of Agriculture and one of the Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Anyway, the Benson Institute works mostly with third world countries to reduce hunger by teaching self-sufficient farming skills (I have a friend who works with them). Benson said that there was no such thing as a shortage of land, just bad management.
The Benson Institute has proven that a family can be completely self-sufficient on a single hectare of land (about 2.5 acres). With good land, there is enough to raise all the meat, vegetables, fruit, and grains that a family needs, plus all the feed that those animals need, plus a small cash crop. And if you raise animals, you can generally MAKE good land if you don't have it to start with.
He recommends sustainable practices, in a synergistic system. The effectiveness has been proven in countries where the biggest challenge is that things DON'T grow well there. They have to start by putting in water supplies, then teaching people to get the land workable.
Now, the Benson Institute publishes that this is the answer to world hunger. That if small self-sufficient farming were practiced around the world, there would be no hunger. But Benson himself believed it was the answer to world Poverty as well. That no one need be poor if they have land they can work.
There is apparently quite a bit of information on the site if you dig for it, on just how to do this. Most of the work of the Institute is with third world countries, but the information is there for anyone who wants it, and the methods and concepts hold no matter where you are. He recommends the same small animals that many of us are raising, and careful use of the land that you have to work with.
I personally feel that this information and these methods are just as applicable to industrialized nations as to third world countries. Different dynamics, different circumstances, but the same issues - people are poor or hungry, and sometimes that hunger is due to food quality, not quantity.
So as I start really getting started with a plan for financial independence that is based on self-sufficiency first, and commercial sales second, I am struck with this concept. That the key to our financial success is to teach this kind of farming, and then to supply breeding stock that can thrive in that kind of environment better than standard production breeds, or mass produced "small farm" breeds that have none-the-less been bred for rapid propagation in poultry factories rather than truly raised to reproduce themselves under more natural circumstances.
The funny thing is, I started to feel inspired to do much of this, and THEN discovered the Benson Institute. Funny because the things I had reasoned out, and even some things that I could NOT find answers to online, so came up with my own answers, are exactly the same as what he is recommending. And funny because one of my web design clients, who informed me that he wanted his website taken down because his life was taking a different turn (at the same time mine was taking a turn), informed me, as I am telling him about the Benson institute and how it fits in with my plans, that HE is now working with that institution!
Anyway, I think there is a great key here - one not just for survival, but for prosperity.
And for anyone who wants it, there is some good info on that site, about how to make a small piece of land produce more than what most people think it can. I've not been through more than a small bit, another friend of mine has browsed more of it (and came to me one day for a scheme to raise chickens in small spaces, that he had read on that site, which was exactly the same as what I was already doing).
For our family, we are now making the change from promoting small business and strong families through website design, to now promoting small farming and strong families through preservation and improvement of heritage small animal breeds.
