Guinea Pigs try for a complete solution.

I haven't had time to get into the details but it looks interesting. Seems they have food and fuel covered.

http://wanderinggaia.com/2010/09/05/guinea-pig-power/

Is this a viable long-term solution? Thoughts?

While a potentially useful puzzle part in sustainable living, be aware that one of the major animal allergies is to guinea pigs. Individuals who are prone to developing allergies to animal dander and other proteins should be wary of working with this species, especially with large numbers of animals. Other issues may include restrictions in zoning laws, waste disposal and runoff management.

Pete

Yeah, my DD1 has a horrible allergic reaction to guinea pigs. Her eyes swell up, her face breaks out in hives, and her nose get starts running. True, this is just one person's reaction but it's worth checking out yourself before investing in the pigs.

Sidenote: there's quite a bit of evidence that Native Americans cultivated giant rag weed for the edible seeds. However about 1400 years ago they stopped doing this. The working theory as to why they stopped was that too many of them became allergic to the ragweed pollen.

-Blast

This concept is as old as agriculture itself. It's called "mixed farming." My great-grandparents and grandparents operated this way; and my parents also, to a lesser extent. Different animals, of course, but the same principles. Mixed farming is much closer to subsistence farming than the more industrial model that has been made possible by fossil fuels/fertilizers.

I'm always amused when it is "rediscovered." There's nothing really new here. But, that said, it may be new to the locals. And if it can lift people out of poverty and food insecurity, that's magnificent.

I get the distinct impression that there's a large source of waste biomass that comes to this operation from the outside. I don't believe it's self-sufficient in and of itself. Though that's not really a deal-breaker; there is extra biomass all over the place, ready for the taking, from my POV.

The most interesting thing is the anaerobic digester. This is being installed by free-enterprising farmers in all sorts of operations. It controls odour by burning it in an internal combustion engine, which BTW is the only way to make use of low-grade, high moisture biogas. The output is heat and torque, usually meaning electricity.

(Aside: 15 years ago, I did work for a gas-fired power plant. The old style, boiler and turbine. They were piping landfill gas in. People thought they were using it to generate electricity. Nope, said the engineers: we're incinerating low-grade biogas using high-quality natural gas. It's a CO2 vs. methane impact thing. They have now repiped the landfill gas to a bank of massive internal combustion engines and are contributing juice to the grid.)

My big question is how their low-tech digester generates enough pressure to make the methane flow at a useful rate. They're not using boost pumps; yet they must be generating 5-10 psi to fill tractor tire tubes. I don't see any seals. Perhaps it's the internal design of the chamber?

It's viable for Peru. Mainly, it shows what some consolidated thinking can do.

The U.S. is barely breaking out of the narrow-focus, single-use, mechanized mindset of the last 75 years.

Making the most from a small plot of land must involve the local conditions. Importing an animal from the tropics, having to heat their quarters and buy food in winter, and trying to find a restaurant that sells a 'different' meat would be an exercise in automatic failure here.

There isn't much in that article that can't be done with other types of livestock, but you would have to restructure your thinking to do it.

If it interests you, start by reading Joel Salatin's books. He's a thinking farmer of the 'work smarter, not harder' school of thought.

Sue

Whilst times are normal, I feel that many neighbours or friends would object to the raising of guinea pigs for eating.
These animals are widely kept as pets in the West, and are regarded as "cute, cuddly, or friendly" and therefore not to be eaten.
Who cares after TSHTF, but perhaps not the best choice whilst times are normal.

Morally, I dont think that eating a guinea pig is different from eating a chicken or a rabbit, but many dont see it like that.

A neighbor raises rabbits. Some get sold to pet shops. Some get invited to lunch. A few are kept as pets. He has a shed behind the house. The family doesn't advertise that they raise, and eat, rabbits. Nobody who eats dinner there seems to notice that the 'chicken' had large, meaty, legs, and there are no wings.

When I was in Peru, I saw some folks in the country raising them in a blocked-off pen very like the one shown in the link, but it was just one big pen with probably 150 guinea pigs in it. I had wondered why the Peruvians call them cuy - but when you get that many together, it makes sense - they say "Coo-EE!" over and over again to each other.

I only tried one once in a restaurant - a medium-fancy restaurant, and whatever herbs they roasted in the body cavity gave it a really overpowering anise/licorice taste - I couldn't enjoy it. But I bet it does taste good when prepared in a different way.

it was a common meal when I was in Ecuador. They used it much like we would use chicken. Meaning lots of different way to cook it with many different flavors.

It was considered a special meal as they did not use meat in the quantities we do. I rather liked most of the flavors. Some were spiced a bit strong for me, but I tend to like minimal spices in my food.

One animal was a meal for one person. It takes a lot of them to feed a family.

Nomad.

i've often wondered why gobar gas systems and the like haven't taken off in more '3rd world' areas...gobar + aquaponics could feed MANY, MANY people...

Ah, yet another one of my personal problems that I now can blame on someone else. Thanks!