Hello colopatiron, and welcome to ATS!

I really wasn't planning to post in this; I just thought the title looked interesting and wanted to see what it was all about. But after reading some of the replies, I changed my mind.

You see, I understand the OP. I know what he is trying to say. It just was said very quickly, thanks to the character limit (next time I would suggest starting separate threads, each one focusing on one aspect). But in essence, what he said was true.

Food is free! At least, it is if you know where to look for it. That knowledge is free as well; it's splattered all over the pages of ATS. And yes, you can always grow it. Oh, wait, you do need land. So where are you living now? Is that dirt under your feet? Even if it isn't, can you go where there is dirt? Oh, you need seeds... yes, you do. Once. Every harvest produces more seeds for next year; all you have to do is save them. Oh, right, some of the plants are hybrids and you can't save seeds. So why grow those plants? Grow heirloom plants.

Oh, you need cultivation tools, fertilizer, pesticides... those things aren't free, are they? Well, yes and no. You can dig a hole with your hands. You can pull weeds with your hands. So yes, a cultivator will cost you, but you don't have to have one! It can be replaced with work.

Fertilizer, though... that's expensive! Of course, you don't need to buy it by the bag, either. Fertilizer comes in many shapes and sizes. Animal manure makes an excellent fertilizer! Right now there is a compost pile under my rabbit hutch, comprised of leftover hay and grasses, rabbit whizz, and rabbit droppings, that is so rich you could plant a spark plug and grow a car. Chicken droppings as well make an excellent fertilizer. Believe it or not, human waste is a fertilizer!

Pesticides are another problem. They're very expensive and absolutely necessary to growing food. Well, maybe not. Most people use pesticides whether they have pests or not. And even if you do, there are natural pesticides. Some plants repel bugs, and insectivores are very efficient. The good thing about these little bugs is they really can be free. They're all around me, and I never bought a single one. There are also common chemicals that can be used, and bought for literally pennies.

So food can be grown for free, if you have dirt, water, and are willing to work at it. Now the price of land has been mentioned. Yes, land is expensive. But not all land is expensive! I can, right now, buy 20 acres near me for under $5000.00! Not $5000.00 per acre, $5000.00 total. that's right, $250 per acre. What's the catch? It's unimproved land. There are no electric lines, no city water or sewer, no Pizza Hut on the corner, no anything except trees and brush and dirt. Now, I have been called everything except a miracle worker because I stated on another thread that I feed a family of 4 with $100 a week. Most people spend more, much more. So 1 year of food costs me $5200.00, and most people more. That pays for 20 acres of land to grow your own food on.

Oh, I should mention... that chicken manure I mentioned that is such a great fertilizer? Where do I expect someone to get that stuff? By raising chickens! It's easy; you feed them and try to keep other critters from eating them first, and in return you get eggs, chicken, and more little chicks. What do you feed them? Corn. Where do you get the corn? You grow it (and crack it, but that's pretty simple). What do you grow it in? Chicken manure! See how that works?

The fact is, the OP is absolutely correct. Everything one needs is there for the taking. The drawback, the reason we as a society seem bent on spending money on things that are actually free for the taking, is that we don't want them to be free. For us to live as our forefathers did, off the land, we would have to give up all those little gadgets and luxuries that we have come to know and love. And that's OK! To each his own! But don't ever forget there is another way... someday you might need another way...

Again, colopatiron, welcome to ATS!

TheRedneck