Hunterfarmer

Hunterfarmer is a compound term used to describe a person who combines hunting and farming as principal activities. In this framing, hunting provides meat and wildlife management, while farming yields crops and other resources, with the two activities reinforcing each other through seasonal planning and sustainable practice. The term is informal and appears in rural discussions, survivalist writing, and some literary contexts to characterize a lifestyle oriented toward subsistence and land stewardship.

Typical hunterfarmers pursue game within legal seasons, process and preserve meat, grow crops, and manage pastures or orchards. They may use the harvest cycle to guide crop planning and pest control, while maintaining habitat for wildlife. Essential skills include tracking and fieldcraft, weapons and safety training, food preservation, soil health, and crop rotation. Economic aspects vary, with some hunterfarmers supplementing income through local sales of meat, produce, or value-added products.

Historically, many agrarian communities relied on both hunting and farming, and some cultures maintained hunter-farmer traditions as a practical response to resource availability. In contemporary contexts, the concept is often associated with self-sufficiency, conservation-minded land stewardship, and rural resilience. It also appears as a character type in fiction and as a hypothetical archetype in discussions of sustainable living.

Related topics include subsistence farming, smallholders, wildlife management, and sustainable agriculture.