Importing

Getting food from your grocery store or even your local CSA is a great example of importing food (to your home).

Farming

Plants

Description: Using manual or automatic methods to assist and guide the growth of selected edible plants.

Benefits:

Can be grown outdoors, in greenhouses, or indoors

Drawbacks:

Often requires lots of manual labor
Often months from planted seed to edible food
Outdoor and greenhouse growing only works during warmer months

Animals

Description: Keeping, feeding, and protecting animals either for food they produce such as eggs or milk, or for using as meat.

Benefits:

Can be more reliable than hunting
Can multiply (reproduction)
“Free” entertainment

Drawbacks:

Need to provide food…to your food
Can be costly
Requires additional expenses for fencing and housing and miscellaneous supplies

Foraging

Description: Searching and locating safe wild edible plant or fungus based edibles.

Benefits:

Requires far less forethought

Drawbacks:

Bounty may be scarce or non-existent
Unless for critical survival, you should never take all of what you find because other wildlife likely thrive on this food source as well

Hunting

Description: Aquisition of a wild animal for meat, typically using tools. Bow and arrow, gun, trap, and spears are examples of tools often used

Benefits:

Can yield enough food to be worth preserving
Traps can work while you rest

Drawbacks:

Supplies like bullets and arrows are often not reusable (arrows have some reusability)
Often requires a high amount of human energy
Most areas require a license

Fishing

Description: Aquisition of fish, typically using bait and fishing rod+line+hook. Nets are another option often used in bigger fishing waters (where legal).

Benefits:

Low tech
Low amount of human energy can be required
Equipment is mostly all reusable

Drawbacks:

Need a clean water source and reasonable access to it
Need some equipment
Most areas require a license