Anybody else think its funny people try to act like food was scarce in the old west?

[Drain Bamage]

Food wasn't scarce at all.

Think about it - you had no refrigeration. So you kill a cow, you need to eat the whole thing before it spoils. And do you know how easy it was to find one cow or deer back in those days? They were everywhere. You could hunt blind.

The funny thing is people didn't start going hungry until electricity and refrigeration was invented. Isn't that funny?

 

[raty tat tat]

Food wasn't scarce at all.

Think about it - you had no refrigeration. So you kill a cow, you need to eat the whole thing before it spoils. And do you know how easy it was to find one cow or deer back in those days? They were everywhere. You could hunt blind.

The funny thing is people didn't start going hungry until electricity and refrigeration was invented. Isn't that funny?

Give up all your modern tech go back living off
the land and see if it's easy.

Personally I think it would be hard.

 

[Get To Da Choppa]

The funny thing is people didn't start going hungry until electricity and refrigeration was invented. Isn't that funny?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famines

 

[Pliny Pete]

do you know how easy it was to find one cow or deer back in those days? They were everywhere. You could hunt blind.

They were everywhere until whitey got there and started putting fences around shit and acting like they owned the place

 

[Drain Bamage]

Give up all your modern tech go back living off
the land and see if it's easy.

Personally I think it would be hard.

Well the times we live in is no longer suited to that. But if you put me back in the late 19th century, I think Id do pretty well. I have good work ethic.

 

[witt1021]

the amount of parasites living in and on most mammals we consume is staggering in the summer days. in winter its nearly all safe. there is a reason rabbit season is in the fall/winter. may have not been scarse but sure was dangerous to eat. guess thats a reason why our peak life expectancy was around 30 back then.

 

[avenue94]

People don't usually starve because of a lack of food, it's more allocation issues. Whether it's just market fuck ups or not being able to afford it.

 

[hohner]

Anyone who has ever starved to death is an idiot. Have you seen how much food they have at the grocery store? Just go get some for fucks' sake.

 

[Merlotte's]

Hand to hand man to man I’d knock Wyatt Earp right off his feet and take whatever beef jerky he had.

 

[Mr. 4K]

Anyone who has ever starved to death is an idiot. Have you seen how much food they have at the grocery store? Just go get some for fucks' sake.

 

[Texan6533]

Actually there were several preservation techniques that were used back then to keep meat / dairy from spoiling too early. Usually involving cellars / salt / smoking / etc. They weren’t completely helpless if they couldn’t eat everything in one go….

 

[hohner]

Actually there were several preservation techniques that were used back then to keep meat / dairy from spoiling too early. Usually involving cellars / salt / smoking / etc. They weren’t completely helpless if they couldn’t eat everything in one go….

Wow, they sound pretty stupid. You could just shoot a gun in any direction and kill a deer and/or cow any time you wanted a snack.

 

[Halifax]

Food wasn't scarce at all.

Think about it - you had no refrigeration. So you kill a cow, you need to eat the whole thing before it spoils. And do you know how easy it was to find one cow or deer back in those days? They were everywhere. You could hunt blind.

The funny thing is people didn't start going hungry until electricity and refrigeration was invented. Isn't that funny?

Cows were not native to the America's. They were imported by Spain and England and bred in the 1600s. And cattle rustling was a thing because they weren't plentiful.

 

[I Am Legion]

Yes, I run into people all day arguing that people were starving in the old west......

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

Ah yes, hunting wild cow in the old west. What a time to be alive that would have been…

 

[Texan6533]

Wow, they sound pretty stupid. You could just shoot a gun in any direction and kill a deer and/or cow any time you wanted a snack.

I’m assuming that was being sarcastic, but in case not:

They probably did at times, but dressing and transporting large game probably wasn’t as easy as it is today, so maintaining food as long as you could was important. Plus, a cow (and a large deer to an extent) is absolutely HUGE with a ton of meat. There’s no way you could eat all the meat in one, two, or three sittings. Preservation was crucial to long term survival.

 

[Stranger Come Knocking]

There was a day when the noble cow once roamed these lands free.

 

[Vergilius]

I get you bro. People also claim there was lots of crime back then, when you could literally just shoot any criminal you wanted with your six gun. It's only after the invention of police that crime started to become a problem.

 

[The Talent]

Most people died of dysentery. At least that's what the Oregon Trail game said.

 

[ChickenBrother]

TS is getting a lot of heat but he's not completely off. In the U.S. in the 1800's, over half the population was employed in farming and agriculture and the % was much higher than that in some states vs. a tiny fraction of the population today. So food was "everywhere" because chances are you raised your own chickens, goats, produce, etc. on your farm or lived near someone who did.

And due to the ubiquity of farms and rural living, common people knew how to procure and process food. It's not like today where 90% of the population would be screwed if they didn't have a Walmart 10 minutes drive away on their horseless carriage.

Of course, the average standard of living was much lower back then, even if you had enough food.