Research Paper Outline

My Research Paper Outline

The Simplicity and Necessity of Self-Sufficient Food Production

Thesis: Having self-sufficiency (specifically with food production) is not only potentially life-saving and fiscally responsible but also much more simple and attainable than many people are aware.

Introduction

Humans are an extremely social species. Being so social allows us to cooperate and to collaborate on many separate tasks. Out of the intelligence and capacity for critical thinking of the modern human ancestor rose spoken language, a highly complex way of communicating complex thoughts. Complex communication is not possible with the limited sounds that most animals can make. From language arose writing, a way of communicating ideas exactly as they were conceived, rather than having to pass said information verbally which would cause a loss of the specifics only the individual would be able to recall off-hand. Humankind’s ability to communicate these ideas along the ability to spread information through written works has in turn lead to the invention of more and more complex ideas, concepts, and technologies. Some technology and concepts which are very commonplace today such as: laptops, vehicles, and, central to the point of this paper, the ability for a massively scaled agricultural industry. While many of the amenities offered by modern society are without a doubt a major convenience, letting us engage in activities which we consider worth our time or consider inherently enjoyable, most of them are not necessities to one’s survival as an individual organism. Some of the benefits of industrial society have become essential to the survival of modern civilization as we know it. I’m specifically thinking about our reliance on the mass production and manufacturing of food. Typical suburban Americans are so reliant on it, in fact, that many people have no idea how to provide for themselves should these Temples of Modernity cease their function. In fact, barely more than a third of the United States has a food garden (Home gardening in the U.S.). The ownership of a cultivated plot of land is not only educational for the individual as a potential means of self-sufficiency, but it gives a national return of approximately $21 billion dollars (Home gardening in the U.S.). While there are many means of increasing one’s capacity for self-sufficiency, I’m going to write specifically about the food aspect of it, something that is a very basic human need for survival. Of this topic, I will be examining some of the aspects of agriculture that some people may not consider should they seek to attain complete independence such as: What sort of crops produce the best yield, how much space one would need, how much one would need to grow per person, and the amount of labor that would be required. FP#1 Having self-sufficiency, specifically with food production, is not only potentially life-saving and fiscally responsible but also much more simple and attainable than many people are aware. To understand the most sustainable and stationary means of food production, agriculture, we will need to understand what is necessary for a self-sustaining farm or plot.

Supporting Points I will go over:

(The points I will go over are all simple things that individuals can do without the use of machinery or industrial equipment or techniques.)

1. The fact that there are climate specific crops and there are different requirements for different plants. I will go over Coloradan climate specifically.
2. Terrain and soil considerations. I will be going over how to manage soil quality through simplistic means. It also addresses some of the different soil requirements for different plants
3. Managing mountainous terrain. This will be to describe how to manage sloped terrain, establishing that you are able to set a plot of land in more or less any topographical environment,
4. My next point will be an evaluation of the average calorie expenditure of humans so that we are able to establish how much land is necessary for self-sufficiency.
5. My next point will be about the yield of 100 square feet of land in order to establish an easily workable unit. The yield will be represented in pounds so that there will be able to be a calculation of total calorie yield.
6. The next part will be to crunch the math and give the results of the research. I cover the approximate yield of an acre of land
7. My next consideration is livestock rather than crops

Conclusion

The purpose of this extensive examination is very simple and two-fold. A reason modern frugality as well as a reason of preparatory foresight. First, the ability to make one’s own food in today’s world can provide significant monetary savings, which as stated earlier was as high as $21 billion dollars nationwide. Second, self-sufficiency, while currently unnecessary as far as the ability to provide food for oneself, could potentially be incredibly important to the survival of many communities large and small. As has been discovered it does not take as much land or resources as is often thought of when the idea of a farm comes to mind. Much of what is considered necessary today by modern American culture is altogether non-essential to the overall survival of the human species or many individuals. It is because of this that I have examined a means of sustainably providing enough food for a small group of people. Many individuals, should the current means of providing food for the average citizen be disrupted or dissolved, may not know how to provide food for themselves or their families. If this is what happens to The United States or the world, individual conflict is inevitable as people will fight for what resources there are left available to the average citizen. With the knowledge of how to cultivate enough food, as well as the land requirements to do so, it is possible to spare oneself from some of the desperation and starvation that is so prevalent in the event of societal collapse. It is for this reason that there must be a dissemination of an understanding of how to be self-sufficient. If each person has the capacity to fend for themselves without the need of outside resources then there can be a great amount of conflict avoided. FB #2 Having self-sufficient food production requires less land than one would imagine and the methods necessary require no industrial assistance. Finally, I will end with a quote which I find to have some amount of personal truth. “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.” (Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Good Reads).