AN ENERGY ANALYSIS OF THE DAN TAYLOR FAMILY'S OZARK FARM

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A hardworking homesteader eats more than most folks (and doesn't mind recycling some of the food he or she has grown through the compost pile). The four Taylors consume a total of approximately six million kcal of food a year. Their three-acre garden supplies the largest percentage of this input, milk and milk products are next, and grains and meat together add up to slightly less of the family's total diet than the milk and milk products they consume. This could be interpreted as another vote in favor of at least one homestead animal: the family milk cow.

About half of the food energy consumed by the Taylors goes back into the system in the form of farmwork. They do more work than even their oxen. And, in addition to human and animal input, work on the Taylor homestead consumes 3.7 million kcal of burned wood every year and 13.4 million kcal of purchased fossil fuels. The amount of purchased energy should be drastically reduced once the family has its woodburning steam-powered generators up and running.

As things now stand (even without the steam engines), however, the Taylors have done an impressive job of reducing their fossil fuel energy consumption. As noted, they purchase only about $2,900 worth of goods and services from the main economy each year. And each dollar that they or any one of us now spends in that economy represents roughly 19,000 kcal of fossil fuel energy. Which means that the family is dependent on the main economy for 55.1 million kcal of coal equivalents (CE).

How does that compare to a "typical" U.S. family? Well, on the average, fossil fuel energy equivalent to 12 tons of coal is burned each year to support each man, woman, and child living in this country. The Taylors, on the other hand, require only 1-3/4 tons of coal consumption for each member of their family. Which means that they need only 15% of the average to support their way of life! When it comes to fossil fuel energy consumption, the Taylors are living 6.6 times more lightly on the earth than the average American family of four!

All in all, then, the Taylors have done quite a job of building a domesticated ecosystem with energy flows that, in many respects, parallel the energy flows of a natural ecosystem.

Energy from both natural and fossil fuel sources flows through their homestead and is degraded into waste heat. Materials cycle around their system's loops, driven by that flow of energy. Sunlight is captured by plants ... some of which (trees) are burned, some of which (garden and other crops) are eaten by the family, and some of which (pasture and crops) are converted into high-quality protein by the farm!s animals.

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