It doesn't have to be like that. I've done it on 6 acres on the edge of a town, 3 minutes from groceries, all my kids walked to school. You also don't have to do livestock - you can just grow plants. "Homesteading" does not have to be "farm life". There are huge middle grounds.

That being said, no matter where you land, it will be work. Probably more than people think. The weather will dictate what you do. And for the first couple years as you build skills, tools, and infrastructure, your "free" food will be the most expensive food you've ever had.

Can you get enough protein without animals?

Is it really homesteading if you can walk to a grocery store?

When is a Scotsman a true Scotsman? It's not the etymology that counts, but rather what someone is trying to accomplish.

I don't know where exactly the dividing line is, but homesteading and hobby farming differentiate at some point. If you are regularly buying groceries, it's probably a hobby farm.

By your definition, all the full-time farmers I know would be hobby farmers because they buy all their groceries despite farming acreages in the thousands. People trying to be self-sustainable on a couple acres and getting 80% of the way there will also still regularly buy groceries.

I'm not sure that the labels matter. Different people make different choices in what they choose to grow, raise, buy, or barter. At the end of the day, many people produce some of their own food, and that is a good thing whether it is a hobby farm, a homestead, or a garden box on an urban apartment balcony.

Then you are over-reacting to partial information you have received, and assuming things that cannot actually be assumed by what was stated.

Farmers primarily farm for other people, and live off the money they they make from doing it. Their goods are grown/raised specifically to be converted into money. That money is the commodity that the household lives off of.

With this in mind, let's look at the difference between hobby farming and homesteading, which is solely what I was doing in my original comment:

Hobby farmers farm for their enjoyment, and not strictly for a living (except in the case of petting zoos, etc, but that is far and away from commodity farming), and require groceries to maintain themselves. The key is the word "hobby" in the title. It's not commercial, and it is not their primary way of survival. What they grow/raise is for the hobby aspect, and any commodity aspect is extra - something additional. It's the difference between a professional and a hobby skier. One skis for fun. The other skis for money. One can become the other, but the difference between them is still pretty clear.

Homesteaders literally live off the land, off the grid, etc., and thereby are differentiated from hobby farmers. They grow food for their own consumption. Only excess is traded, and it is nearly never a commercial venture. If we had to cram in the ski metaphor, then to a homesteader, skiing becomes a form of transportation. And just the same, skiing could get you to your neighbor's farm efficiently, but you could also do it as a hobby. Oh, there's that word again! But surely you see the difference now. Intent and purpose have everything to do with the difference.

There is cross over between homesteading and hobby farming, but they are not the same thing. This is precisely what I said in my previous comment. There was nothing mentioned in any way about profession commodity farming. You pulled that one out of nowhere.

God I love HN :)

Google vegan bodybuilders and see Bill Pearl.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Pearl

Okay, eggs and milk are from animals, but they are not meat, at least.

Indeed. It think a lot of people romanticize this sort of thing without actually looking at it clearly. But props to the OP for at least asking.