Self-Sufficient or Self-Productive?

This is the debate that anyone who gets into farming has to answer. Should your farm be Self-Sufficient or Self-Productive? What's the difference? Time, Money, Space, Effert, and Output.

In the true defination of Self-Sufficient you farm and it's land should be able to produce everything your family and livestock needs to survive. It involves establishing a constent cycle. You must always be harvesting something, if the garden isn't producing, than the chickens need to be laying eats, if the chickens are molting than the rabbits need to be harvest. Understand this first cycle is key to immediat survival. But understanding the nitrigen cycle is what will keep you living on the farm forever. This cycle involves understanding that you need to compost and you need to put back into the land what ever you take out (water, trees, animals, ect). Easy cycles to understand but hard to practise. But Master them and Self-Sufficient is the ultimite living like a king on a dime. It is one of the Amarican dreams, the ability to leave the rat race and crowds behind. This dream is possible but it takes a lot of land, quite a bit of start up cash, lots of time to get the cycle rolling and a solid plan.

Now Self-Productive is the "easier" way of life. Self-Productive means you produce what you need, mostly it refers to what your family needs in the way of calories. Instead of growing wheat, corn, soy, and other grains to feed to your livestock you just swing over to the nearest farm supply store and buy a bag of cow, pig, rabbit or chicken food. Instead of working a nitrogen cycle you buy fertilizer and bags of soil. The method of Self-Productive takes very little land one account I was reading talks about how on average they product 1400 eggs, 50 pounds of wheat, 60 pounds of fruit, 2000 pounds of vegetables, 280 pounds of meat all from a quarter acre of land (source: The Backyard Homestead edited by Carleen Madigan). It takes less cast to start up (but continues cash to keep rolling) but production levels will be higher to start than when compare to Self-Sufficient. The huge down side is that you will be adding a bunch of by-products to your food that some people veiw as dangerous. Also if your a tree hugger this method is veiwed as distructive to mother earth.

I want to hit some where in the middle with my Urban farm. I would love to have a true Self-Sufficient farm but i know I don't have the land needed and living in a place that has a longer growing season wouldn't hurt either. I'm going to be forced to buy the feed for my animals. But I'm hoping to set up a system of soil recycling or on-plot composting (more later). I'm also going to try not to by any outside top soil and just use what I have onsite (this will make the next few years outputs low but if my plan works my whole yard will benifit in the long run).