I suspect you're conflating/confusing subsistence farming with industrial "farming". As someone who has lived a "subsistence" lifestyle for a long time, now (de

I suspect you're conflating/confusing subsistence farming with industrial "farming". As someone who has lived a "subsistence" lifestyle for a long time, now (decades) one can live really quite well on a "sub-poverty-level income" simply because you're quite decoupled from conventional-money economies. I've heard it called "abundance poverty" (not "abundant poverty", to be sure! :) ) It's worth a disclaimer, though: I practise this subsistence (aka "self-sufficiency") living outside the USA. USmmv.