THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF SUFFICIENCY

Hello meat rabbit enthusiasts, homesteaders, sustainability junkies, preppers, and rabbit breeders! I hope you and your families are safe, and you are getting through this crisis. While COVID-19 is a tragic disaster, it is also a blessing in disguise. Right now, we are watching the industrialized food system, and global supply chains collapse. This is no surprise to advocates of sustainability and local agriculture. The good thing is that COVID-19 is finally showing the rest of America and the world that industrial agriculture is not only unethical, unsustainable, and unhealthy, but also ridiculously fragile.
There has never been a better time to break away from this nightmare and take control of your own food supply. With meat factories shutting down and bare grocery store shelves bare, I implore you for the planet, and your family’s sake to give producing your own food a try.
Many people will say that this is just a passing thing, and life will get back to normal soon enough. But the reality is that these kinds of disasters are only becoming more common. Inf fact the statistics show that the frequency of pandemics has been increasing rapidly since the 1940's. If you take into account the addition of climate change and its effects on extreme weather and fires, the data clearly shows the world becoming a more unstable place.
In this kind of environment, industrial agriculture, with its centralized production and global supply chains, will only become more unreliable. Even without all of the environmental damage that industrial agriculture causes, this unreliability alone should be enough to convince you to try and produce as much of your own food as possible.
If you have the necessary space and resources to raise larger livestock to support your protein and fiber needs, you are lucky, and I’m happy for you. But if you are one of the millions of Americans who want to produce their own meat, but don’t have enough space or money for traditional animals like poultry, cows, sheep, and swine, there is good news!
Meat rabbits are an independent American’s best friend! Meat rabbits are small, quiet, and inexpensive. Their care is extremely simple, and they require very little special equipment. Unlike chickens, rabbits are very quiet, and their manure is far less smelly. Also, they are much simpler to process than meat chickens; no plucking required! Meat rabbits are incredibly efficient at converting their food into meat. Unlike chickens, their feed is made primarily from hay and agricultural by-products, so they don’t compete with humans for valuable grain.
Meat rabbits also integrate seamlessly with intensive gardening! Because rabbits do not digest much of their food, their manure is rich in nutrients and organic material. When turned into compost, it will give your garden superpowers! You can also heavily supplement your rabbits’ diet with fresh grass, good quality hay, weeds, herbs, and vegetable scraps. This saves you money and also further reduces your impact on the environment.
Speaking of saving the planet, locally produced meat rabbits have virtually no carbon footprint. Their meat is higher in protein and lower in cholesterol and fat than almost any other meat (including chicken). You can expect about 3.5 pounds of meat form a well-bred 8-week-old fryer. You could theoretically expect a breeding doe to produce 210 pounds of meat a year! (6 litters of 10 rabbits each x 3.5 lb of meat at slaughter=210 lbs of meat).
Finally, if you are creative, you can also fashion your meat rabbits’ pelts into warm and beautiful pillows, blankets, and cloths!
With all this in mind, the question becomes, why wouldn’t you raise meat rabbits? Given the chaos of the modern world, there is no better time to take your food supply into your own hands!
 
If you want to know more about meat rabbits, please check back on my website as I will be posting a lot of new blogs. In addition, you can check out West Meadow Rabbits on YouTube, where I will be adding more videos. I am also currently working on an eBook, which you can expect to see soon.
Thanks for reading, and I wish you luck on your path to sustainable and secure food!