Milesofalaska, loved your whole post.
I live in a 100% urban environment but I have a shop (shared with a few more friends) in a rural area about 30 minutes drive from here. We rented the place (old chicken farm). I get along very well with the owner and sometimes asks for a few things done here and there (mostly metalworking stuff, welding implements or mechanics in the tractors). I never charge anything but he is always quick to offer compensation in the form of groceries, sausage, etc... Also, when my daughter joins me during shop days (she is 7) she enjoys the area a lot. As soon as he arrives he goes looking for the owner and asks him permission to go gather some oranges, tomatoes, carrots, whatever... the joy is getting something out of a tree/plant and eating it.
All this makes me think that if something was to happen... the only way we could be self sufficient is being in a rural area and adopt trading goods as THE only way to move forward. I, for instance, know nothing about hunting, but I do spearfishing (freediving) and I a pretty proficient at doing so. That would be my most feasible contribution to the system. I don't think I would have any problem putting food on the table daily. But I cannot spear potatoes!
The problem in heavily populated areas is that we 100% rely on resources that come from far away since we don't have the means to generate them locally.
Mikel
Hello Mikel
I think just because someone lives in a city does not have to mean there can be no such think as dependance on the land, only dependance on each other and ‘the system.’ Some weeds grow ‘everywhere’ and have use. Who can live on weeds! You have to add a lot of sources to meet needs. There are ways to live off acorns if you know how to prepare them. Indians once made flour. I saw a special on city folks who grow a small garden in places like—the tops of skyscrapers, the trunks of abandoned vehicles, get permission for community garden in old parking lots or abandoned property say up for back taxes. In my small community for example a church donates land for community garden and in return the city gives the church and garden free water. Food can be grown a lot of places! Hydroponics even. I grow in trays on bookshelves and auto water and lights with timers off small hoses run off my water pipes. It is possible to grow enough to survive with only a few square feet of area. How hard is that to come up with?
I have commented to the wife when passing through hard areas of the city, “These people are not starving to death, look at all the pigeons still on sidewalk!” Before I gave up, I’d be snaffling pigeons! The old song “4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie.” Read ‘pigeons.’ Before I starved or gave up I’d find a recipe for dogs cats and rats bats squirrels rabbits, racoons, possum, any source of protein. Raise them for food if I had to. No, the squeamish may not be among the survivors. Raise or get herbs that make gamey meat taste better. Curry is one of the best. In the poor countries of the world these foods are normal diet and they can be for you if you end up in survival mode. Learn to make jerky can, dehydrate, sell trade this end product.
Something like mushrooms can be grown in a damp dark area about anyplace. An apartment complex furnace room. I can add, I once lived a winter free in an apartment furnace room. Put my own lock on. Everyone figured I was the maintenance man and I smiled and nodded “Indeed.” Get creative. Sell trade the mushrooms for other necessities. Some trees grow edibles, not just ornamental. Before it is an emergency plant trees that feed you. Even in a pot on a doorstep, next to the mailbox. Anyplace. I even once grew vines in the shower stall and the plants loved the mist as I took a shower, like bathing in a waterfalls with greenery all around. Hang vines out the window of an apartment. Cucumbers tomatoes for example.
Once the city dug up some land with a bulldozer and I knew the next phase would take a few weeks to complete. I planted an acre of potatoes. No one knew. No one knew what that plant was growing, looked like weeds. I saw the grader coming one day a few months later, and said I had potatoes here! Driver laughed and waited half an hour- took a lunch break, while I harvested a years worth of potatoes. I gave some to the grader driver in appreciation.
Stuff like electric you can use solar panels in the city for your own use. You can drive a Sandpoint or dig a well for your own water. Best to do it in advance before emergencies just to have. Good water? Depends where you live. Treat it yourself. The city does. Own a woodstove in case there is no oil for the furnace. Locate ahead of time where to get scrap wood like pallets, transfer station junk furniture, the dump. Legal may or may not be important, relevant, depending on the emergency. Stealing from the dump. Eating meat, digging a well without a permit will be a minor issue if people are dying. Important in my view is keep stuff in mind. Some level of preparedness. Own a few rat traps. (that also catch birds). Own a snare or two and know how they work. Own a hand water pump- woodstove get all this while it is cheap at garage sales if you are poor. Have some simple knowledge about dandelions, growing mushrooms. Have some heirloom seeds like tomatoes cucumber squash. It is a way to think. We have options besides “I am totally screwed.” Since this is a subcategory of a knife forum… I make knives and that is very tradable as a survival tool anywhere in any level of life. Let other people grow the mushrooms, dig the well. I trade a blank blades or a finished knife.
Mistwalker
I appreciate your point of view, especially as it is backed up by a long life experience. I admit it can really work for a substantial part of the diet but, in my opinion, the problem with urban foraging (applies also to "foraging in easily accessible parts of nature") is, beyond the absolutely needed plant knowledge, the pollution the plants are subjected to. From exhaust gases and acid rains to toxical spills and biologic pollution, like human, dog or fox piss... I'll leave it to that.
herisson
I get what you're saying, and no I don't harvest from inner city alleyways or the sides of inner city streets. We have thousands of acres of greenway dozens of miles long here, where motorized vehicles are not allowed to travel. Much of it passes through what was once large farms converted to public space. I've picked and eaten a lot of blackberries, mulberries, wild garlic scapes, ground cherries, and could harvest game in a pinch if i were to be that hungry. But as far as urine goes, I'd say their is probably more avian, wild canine, and wild porcine urine and excrement landing on commercially grown crops than some people would want to think about for too long.
