Homesteading philosophical thoughts
Controversial topic here. Please be kind.
When people dream of homesteading, they envision cows, chickens, horses, goats, pigs, and all other manner of farm animals. Raising livestock is tremendously difficult, not to mention expensive. Even keeping one of these farm animals while tending a garden and maintaining a house and/or barn can eat up all ones time and money. Many people, but not all, trial the lifestyle, get burnt out, and then return to the city defeated.
Animal husbandry is so much work. Another problem I see is that, as soon as you own animals, you have to protect them from every wild predator out there. You immediately become the enemy of every coyote, mt lion, fox, snake, hawk, wolf, or bear. When you constantly have to protect your animals, you may consider getting a livestock guardian dog or two, then you need to train them and feed them. The costs add up. I have been contemplating this problem and I have a few ideas for solutions.
What if we tended the land to encourage more wild animals, including deer, moose, elk, and, if there's enough space, wild bison? What if more people worked to build up habitat for wild animals, wild-flowers, wild edible native plants/herbs, and wild spaces, so that the food just grows itself? Then we just hunt and forage what we need to fill the freezer/pantry for a year. It takes so much less work, and its better for natural ecosystems. Of course all this requires more acreage, and while some people have huge lots, I recognize not everyone does. So maybe it doesn't workas well if you only have an acre. I'm not saying that everyone should adopt this lifestyle, but I am suggesting we should consider it before buying a cow or flock of chickens. I don't think it's for everyone, but I do think the world would be a more beautiful place if more people lived like this.
Pros: significantly less work, more free time. Less ticks, because more birds and insectivores means they can eat more of the wild ticks. More bio-diversity, more wild flowers, more native species (farm animals aren't native). Native grazers like bison, aerate the soil and promote the survival of more native wild animals. No livestock guardian dogs, no milking the cows, no watering the chickens or building a coop. No problems with flock parasites (caused by crowding). Hunting, fishing, and foraging can be super fun and healthy.
Cons: Humans historically would be nomadic to hunt grazing animals like bison and elk-- if the animals are not around then you would have to travel to wherever they are to get the meat and bring it home. If you live in a very developed country, or you only have small acrage, it may be difficult to get enough space to make all this happen. You would have to change your diet, so that would mean less eggs and less dairy. You would need to get a hunting license and learn to shoot, if you didn't already. It requires a totally different set of skills to hunt and forage, this would require time and practice, possibly for a lifetime.
Final thoughts:
I often wonder, what is the best way to live on this Earth. If you believe in the Christian Bible, then maybe you believe the best way to live is having a farm homestead. Personally, I look to indigenous practices for inspiration. They have been tending the land of North American for hundreds of thousands of years if not longer. I think they knew something about how to make this earth beautiful because there were many more wild foods and gorgeous wild forests here before it was colonized. Millions of bison roamed across the continent just a few hundred years ago. Water was cleaner. Fish were more plentiful. After just a few generations of colonization, we have strip malls and superfund sites. We need to be better humans, and I'd bet that's part of what draws us to homesteading. I think we need to also be asking ourselves how can we be the best humans for the beautiful wild world around us?