A Seemingly Unattainable Vision
All of my life I had visions of life with pasture, cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, and various crops spread on my land as far as I could see. The main problem has always been: I don't have any land, no cattle, no sheep, no goats, and too many dogs. I have no clue how to make this vision a reality. I am sure many people are out there like myself who want to homestead, who want to raise animals and their own food, and who hope to lead a more agrarian lifestyle, but who have no idea where to start, what to do, or who to do it. The Dream Lab will track my journey of moving my life towards this vision, and I invite you to join me as I try to solve the 3-Fold Problem of becoming a homesteader/farmer.
The 3-Fold Problem
- High Barrier to Entry For New Farmers and Home Steaders.
- The financial entrypoint into land ownership required for large livestock (that also has housing infrastructure) is extremely high.
- Knowledge Acquisition has been historically very difficult, even still it is hard to acquire practical knowledge (Article being posted soon!).
- (how can you learn to drive a tractor if nobody you know owns one, or how can you learn to raise sheep well if you don't know anyone with sheep?)
- Low ROI
- The ROI on growing your own food does not make financial sense (usually)
- Animals are living creatures prone to death and disease (see my discuss on Adam Smith (Article being posted soon!))
- This means you have a high risk, and the reward is likely negligible if you "just want to save on groceries".
- Agrarian lifestyles are romantic, but difficult and dirty
- Animals stink, they roll in nasty stuff (sometimes their own shit), and they do the stupidest things at the most inconvenient times.
- Corporate work is signficantly more stable and comfortable than homesteading, farming, etc.
One Problem with 3 Parts
I was very careful to not suggest this is 3 problems, and also tried to summarize the 3 parts of the problem as succinctly as I could. But I emphasize here that the 3 parts to this one problem are deeply entangled into one problem because if any one part of these is solved, well, you still got a problem. So what do I mean... say, you have the money to buy all the land and tools you need and that you don't need the farm to work to pay for the farm; why would you invest that money in homesteading and farming when a 3-fund portfolio and careful financial planning could probably retire you early the ROI isn't there. Let's say you have the money to buy the land and tools, but you still need the farm to be able to pay for itself and eventually replace your income? How can you reasonably transition when farming and homesteading is so labor intensive, and yet your job is also likely demanding? On the other end, if you have no money, but all the time in the world, and happy to get your hands dirty, how can you get started without capital? There is some very difficult to untangle problem with farming and homesteading that requires you to want the lifestyle, balance the financial startup, while also accepting the payoffs won't financially match what you can do elsewhere. It is high-risk, low-(financial)-reward, and hard work. (Digression done)
And yet...
Isn't there just something appealing about the idea of owning your own land, having animals (and hopefully your family) running around living?
I think anyone who stumbles across The Dream Lab Journey is going to be similar to my wife and I: you likely see the cracks in the infrastructure of your life socially, financially, "healthily", and so on. We see the effects of industrialization are not sustainable - hypoxic dead zones in several important water bodies from farm run off. Dependence on capital (mostly acquired through globalized corporations) to support "your lifestyle". Very important to us: distortion of dog breeds to support suburban living, and similarly, distoring of human lifestyles to support the aforementioned capital generation of corporations (such as sitting at a desk all day isolated from natural environments). To me it seems the appeal of a homestead and farming lifestyle is this: a chance to solve the chronic under-socialization of corporate life (be sure to read "what I mean by socialization") whereby we can experience natural environments; we can solve (hopefully) the financial dependence on corporate bodies that treat employees as a resource (who can be laid off); and, lastly, experience the health benefits of "life on the farm".
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