Email a copy of 'Key Elements for Self-Sufficient Gardening - Part 3, by B.C.' to a friend
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1) One problem I see with self-sufficient gardening in the long run is fertilizer. What comes out with crop harvests has to be replaced. You need large amounts of potassium, phosphate and nitrogen. Potassium is available from wood/plant ashes but Phosphate is mined(Florida, Idaho, North Carolina).
2) In the colonial period, Nitrogen used to be available largely from horse manure . In the nineteenth century, islands with guano (bird manure ) deposits became strategic resources over which wars were fought and threatened. Later, saltpeter from Chile became a major source but at the beginning of the 20th century it was projected that those natural supplies would run out –threatening the food supply of the USA and Europe.
3) The Germans developed the Haber Bosch process for producing ammonia from the nitrogen in the air and natural gas, which saved mankind — for the moment. But US elites stupidly triggered a massive population explosion in Asia and central America with the Green Revolution — the supply of hybrid seeds, fertilizer and pesticides — without any form of birth control. As a result, the population of Asia exploded from 1.5 billion in the 1950s to over 4 billion today and similar growth occurred in Mexico and central America. Whereas US population has remained largely flat if you deducted immigration.
4) I concur that it is worthwhile to develop a self-sufficient food supply but most methods are only good for a few years absent outside supplies and massive government interventions. Without runs to Home Depot, the long term outlook is grim.
You seem to be forgetting the power of composting. As long as you are eating and composting what you produce on your property you create a closed loop so you shouldn’t be losing any nutrients (think of how nature does it).
Proper composting eliminates the need for outside fertalizer assuming you start with good soil of course
PS I forgot to note — while flood plains, slash/burn agriculture and horse manure fed American populations 200-500 years ago, those populations were very small. Such methods would not suffice to feed todays 320 million Americans– much less provide the large surplus needed for specialists to sustain civilization. knowledge and 19th century level of technology. Especially absent the large herds of horses and mules we once had.