List of subsistence techniques

This article is about subsistence techniques. For the 2006 video game, see Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.

Subsistence is the food necessary to sustain life.

The following is a list of subsistence techniques:

Hunting and Gathering techniques, also known as Foraging:
- freeganism — involves gathering of discarded food in the context of an urban environment (eg by dumpster diving, ...].
- gleaning — involves the gathering of food that traditional farmers have left behind in their fields.
Cultivation:
- Horticulture — plant cultivation, based on the use of simple tools.
- subsistence agriculture — agricultural cultivation involving continuous use of arable (crop) land, and is more labor-intensive than horticulture.
- Guerrilla gardening - plant cultivation on (unused) area's of land that is not owned by the cultivator himself, but is squat instead
Pastoralism, the raising of grazing animals:
- Pastoral nomadism — all members of the pastoral society follow the herd throughout the year.
- Transhumance or agro-pastoralism — part of the society follows the herd, while the other part maintains a home village.
- Ranch agriculture — non-nomadic pastoralism with a defined territory.

Distribution and Exchange:
- Redistribution
- Reciprocity — exchange between social equals.
- Potlatching — a widely studied ritual in which sponsors (helped by their entourages) gave away resources and manufactured wealth while generating prestige for themselves.
- LETS — Local Exchange Trading Systems.