Rick Austin works with sustainable food forests. He uses ancient practices with no chemicals to grow all of his products.

 

There are lots of reasons to grow your own food. Food is grown today using mechanized monocrop farming methods. This destroys the natural way that food grows. There are no symbiotic plant relationships and chemicals have to fill the void this absence leaves. Chemicals also control the pests and weeks. These are poisons that fill your food and you.

 

In 1974 gylphosphate was manufactured into a product known as Roundup. It is now the most commonly used gardening chemical in the world. It is highly toxic and can be found in most of our bodies. This chemical bonds to gluten and makes gluten very hard to digest, resulting in thousands of cases of gluten allergies. It can be found in the main components of American diets, including: sugar, corn, soy and wheat. Glyphosphate causes all kinds of cancer and kills healthy gut bacteria.

 

 

The United States of America has the best doctors and medical systems in the world yet we rank lowest in health quality. This result from high ranking multi-million dollar farming companies working for the company, the FDA and the EPA. They ensure that the practices they are using are not restricted by the government, regardless of the cost to society.

 

The food pyramid we were all taught is wrong. You should not be eating a lot of grains. The gentleman who developed it had not scientific reasoning for his basis. This diet restricts good fat which is not bad for you. Protein is also restricted but should be a major part of your diet. A natural dies consists of meat or protein with fruits, vegetables and nuts , basically anything people could hunt or forage as they walked through the forest.

 

When animals are raised on mega farms for consumer consumption, their movements are extremely limited. The beaks are cut off of chickens and they wallow in their own excrement. These farms use antibiotics as preventative medicine because animals raised in this fashion are more susceptible to disease. These antibiotics are transferred to the consumers body when you consume these animals. This is bad because these antibiotics can kill the good bacteria in your system.

 

Monocrop farming and mass production of livestock has caused the nutrient value of our food to lose approximately one third of it's nutrient value when compared to foods of the past. Our bodies are telling us we are starving, due to this lack of nutrition. Even though we are eating astounding amounts and struggle with obesity. 

 

You can reap some huge rewards for getting off the "food grid." You will have the knowledge of knowing that your food is noon GMO. No pesticides or fertilizers were used to raise it. The cost savings of going off the food grid are much more lucrative than going off the power grid.

 

In Rick Austin's book, The Secret Garden of Survival, he explains how by using his system you will have fruits, nuts and vegetables. The majority of these items grow year after year without planting. Harnessing the symbiotic nature of the plant makes it possible to avoid pesticides and naturally repel bugs. There is no need to constantly weed or replant year after year.

 

Rick's book, The Secret Greenhouse of Survival, explains his greenhouse system that applies the same principles as his garden. The building is low profile and looks just like an add on to his home. It allows Rick to grow exotic plants, like coffee, in climates that would make that impossible. His baby animals and birds can be incubated there in the winter months. The building is composed of raised concrete beds which preserve the heat through the nighttime and prevents freezing. Plus, Rick heats his home and hot water by utilizing the natural heat provided by the greenhouse.

When looking into raising livestock, Rick applied the same principles. He wanted them to have a good return on investment. They needed to be low profile and they needed to be capable of living off the garden and greenhouse. Rick's barn is located directly adjacent of his home. This close proximity allows for better security and ease of access. The fertilizer can easily be transferred from the barn to his home. Rick's dogs also do their part to help with security.

 

Rabbits are the first animal Rick suggests raising. They are a great source of protein and breed continuously. Just three does (female rabbit) and one jack (male rabbit) will produce ninety rabbits in a year. Rabbits take about two months to get to market weight. There are a ton of great rabbit recipes to ward off food boredom. The rabbits are fed barley from the greenhouse. One pound of barley seed will turn into thirteen pounds of feed in just eight days. Some of the barely Rick lets go to seed to replenish the seed stock. Rabbit pee is very caustic and will eat through just about everything. Rick recommends using some plastic corrugated roofing to direct their natural supply of fertilizer towards a bucket. Rabbit excrement is on of the best natural fertilizers you can find. 

 

Honeybees are the second animal Rick suggests raising. They are easy to manage with modern equipment. The bottom big box is where the bees live, the queen lays her eggs, and the babies are born. The "Supers" at the top boxes where the bees store honey. Rick collects honey from his hive twice a year. The bees help pollinate the garden and the garden provides a nearby source of pollen. This allows the bees to make more short trips rather than long far trips so they can produce more honey. Bees are docile if handled correctly and the honey can be used as a preservative or sugar substitute. Honey is nature's perfect food aiding the body in many ways: digestion, allergy preventive, blood sugar stabilizer, cholesterol maintainer, kills some food born illnesses, plaque remover, dandruff remover, and so much more. You get about 60 Lbs of honey per hive per year and for a one time cost of $700 to purchase each hive. You can also utilize all of the wax that is left over.

 

Bees are in some serious danger right now. If the bees die humans will die as well. GMO's and Roundup are causing the colonies to die. The bees will develop dementia from consuming the pollen and no one will be left to take care of the queen. We should not be growing corn anymore. Ninety eight percent of all corn is genetically modified. Don't use Roundup anymore. It is killing the bees.

 

Ducks are the third type of animal Rick suggests. You need a small pond or water source so they can splash around. Peking ducks are a type of meat duck. They are slow and flightless. However, if you are looking for egg production the Khaki Campbell Duck is the best choice. They will lay about three hundred and twenty eggs per year. The eggs are bigger and have more protein than chicken eggs. They live off the garden and aren't given any feed. They eat the slugs and worms that are undesirable to us. Eggs can be preserved using dehydration. Take your eggs, scramble them, and then put them on a dehydrator tray. Once dehydrated they can be vacuumed sealed for easy transport and condensed storage. Once you add water to them, you will have scrambled eggs again. Once a year they incubate some eggs to restore their stock. After twenty eight days you can candle the egg to see if a baby is in there. If there isn't discard the egg. When the babies emerge they should not be assisted. Nature had developed a process and they must complete the process to tie off their umbilical cord if not the baby may bleed to death. You can process the duck and eat the meat when they are too old to be productive.

 

Dairy goats are next on the list of suggested survival animals. Rick raises Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats. They are small and don't take up a lot of space. They don't require pasture land and they don't eat grass. They browse on the woodland debris. In the fall Rick lets them into the garden and they naturally prune the trees and bushes. Rick grows about a half acre of alfalfa to feed them in the months were food is not plenty-full. One slice will feed about five goats a day. Compare that to a cow that requires forty pounds of food per day. The goats eat the weeds that are pulled during landscaping. They do require milking twice a day and the milk can be used to make cheese, ice cream, cheesecake, etc. In order to have milk the mamma goats have to have babies. Once mamma is no longer producing colostrum the baby is removed and fed milk that is milked from mamma. This acclimates the babies to people and allows the people to collect the milk. 

Rick raises fish in his pond and the pond water is also pumped into the greenhouse to create a long range aquaponics system. 

Rick doesn't like to raise chickens but they do. Chickens are more susceptible to disease. They scratch everything up. They are loud. If you are going to raise chickens he suggests a road island red because they are a duel bird, meaning you can get eggs and meat from them.

Pigs are next on the list. Pigs will root everything up and must be put in a pasture. They will eat acorns from the forest and just about everything else. There are a lot of different kinds but a heritage pig will live longer than one that has been bred for meat. These pigs usually only have about a two year life span. One downside to harvesting an animal this big is there is a lot of meat to process very quickly. You will need a team of helpers if you want to do it efficiently. 

To keep wild animals and potential intruders away from his garden and property Rick makes a thing called tangle foot on the other side of his fence. Small branches and picker vines are thrown on the other side of the fence forming a mass of material that is difficult to walk through. This deters predators and provides a great warning system.

Rick does not recommend raising cows because they eat to much, need too much space, and create a big target in an SHTF situation. Turkeys are not recommended either because they are require a lot of care and feed. Geese are not susceptible to disease but they will attack everything, including you. Horses are costly and require a lot of feed and pasture. Sheep are "stupid" animals and clothes are made so well now-a-days that if you stock up properly you should not have to worry about them for a long time. Rick also does not recommend exotic animals like emus or ostriches. 

Rick's systems are ground breaking for the survival community. As he says they allow him to not just survive but thrive.