<![CDATA[A thing I can't unsee now: "subsistence farming" doesn't mean what I once thought it meant and what you might think.]]>A thing I can't unsee now: "subsistence farming" doesn't mean what I once thought it meant and what you might think. It's not "poor farmers" who are only just subsisting on what they grow; instead, it's about why you farm, as the opposite to "market farming". It's farming for your own needs first, not to sell to the market.

Cite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsistence_agriculture but I learned this from https://acoup.blog/ (because historically most peasants farmed for themselves/their community first and foremost).

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/topic/0c8b8298-75eb-4b10-a3b0-ba4c20fe7362/a-thing-i-can-t-unsee-now-subsistence-farming-doesn-t-mean-what-i-once-thought-it-meant-and-what-you-might-think.RSS for NodeSun, 14 Jun 2026 15:01:10 GMTSun, 31 May 2026 00:44:56 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to A thing I can't unsee now: "subsistence farming" doesn't mean what I once thought it meant and what you might think. on Sun, 31 May 2026 08:33:37 GMT]]>@cks It's funny, because subsistence farming has always been like this.

I grew up in the global south, and the markets are full of "subsistence farmers" growing one or two crops and selling it.

Hell, there subsistence farmers growing cannabis to smoke in Cambodia, and we all knew where their stalls were: psar toul tom pong (The Russian Market)

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://beige.party/users/sortius/statuses/116668263135034970https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://beige.party/users/sortius/statuses/116668263135034970Sun, 31 May 2026 08:33:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to A thing I can't unsee now: "subsistence farming" doesn't mean what I once thought it meant and what you might think. on Sun, 31 May 2026 02:00:19 GMT]]>@cks Huh, yup that tracks 😹 my father never wanted to sell anything (mostly because he didn’t want to deal with people) and nearly everything we grew and raised was for our own needs (with plenty to spare in case of crop failures 🤣) so, yeah, we weren’t really “poor” but that was because we spent very little money on food, it was a whole lot of damn hard work though!😹😅.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/em_and_future_cats/statuses/116666716592292379https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/em_and_future_cats/statuses/116666716592292379Sun, 31 May 2026 02:00:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to A thing I can't unsee now: "subsistence farming" doesn't mean what I once thought it meant and what you might think. on Sun, 31 May 2026 01:20:43 GMT]]>@cks

> In 2015, about 2 billion people (slightly more than 25% of the world's population) in 500 million households living in rural areas of developing nations survive as "smallholder" farmers, working less than 2 hectares (5 acres) of land.

Wow!

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/carapace/statuses/116666560931238830https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/carapace/statuses/116666560931238830Sun, 31 May 2026 01:20:43 GMT