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I'm not a theoretician of self-sufficiency and basic agriculture. I was born to, I grew up with traditional subsistence "farming" (the word "farm" implies that you must sell in order to live (own), subsistence farm is something else). I'm speaking of direct experience. The only way to sustain subsistence agriculture (without input of chemistry and fossils) is to have access to much larger land mass to provide hay, straw, fuel, etc., etc., etc., all those things end up in your field/garden soil. Yes, larger land mass suffers, but it has a better chance to recover. Subsistence "farming" I grew up with required large chunks of public lands. As "freedom" conquers the world, formerly public lands became private, subsistence farming became impossible to sustain since cash poor "peasants" must pay exorbitant fees to get stuff they formerly got for (almost) free.
Honestly I feel as a caged animal in the USA (and my former motherland) where public use lands are almost nonexistent. I don't mean park land for metro-sexual recreation, I mean old fashioned concept of "commons" that almost extinct. IMHO, it's impossible for a 5 acre homesteader to make impact on anything without revival of those ancient concepts of commons and communities. I don't feel that me digging in on my 19 acres and growing some food has any potential for larger "change". It's a private escape (expensive one, since I cannot work from home), nothing more and nothing else. Besides, my ownership rights on an escape are conditional, an unemployment spell, a debilitating illness and I would join the rest.
There are no larger social solutions in the private escapes, it's the biggest lie perpetrated by Al Gore.
I'm not a theoretician of self-sufficiency and basic agriculture. I was born to, I grew up with traditional subsistence "farming" (the word "farm" implies that you must sell in order to live (own), subsistence farm is something else). I'm speaking of direct experience. The only way to sustain subsistence agriculture (without input of chemistry and fossils) is to have access to much larger land mass to provide hay, straw, fuel, etc., etc., etc., all those things end up in your field/garden soil. Yes, larger land mass suffers, but it has a better chance to recover. Subsistence "farming" I grew up with required large chunks of public lands. As "freedom" conquers the world, formerly public lands became private, subsistence farming became impossible to sustain since cash poor "peasants" must pay exorbitant fees to get stuff they formerly got for (almost) free.
Honestly I feel as a caged animal in the USA (and my former motherland) where public use lands are almost nonexistent. I don't mean park land for metro-sexual recreation, I mean old fashioned concept of "commons" that almost extinct. IMHO, it's impossible for a 5 acre homesteader to make impact on anything without revival of those ancient concepts of commons and communities. I don't feel that me digging in on my 19 acres and growing some food has any potential for larger "change". It's a private escape (expensive one, since I cannot work from home), nothing more and nothing else. Besides, my ownership rights on an escape are conditional, an unemployment spell, a debilitating illness and I would join the rest.
There are no larger social solutions in the private escapes, it's the biggest lie perpetrated by Al Gore.
You are right, but you have to do what you can within the system you live in. I come from Eastern Europe and a lot of people there still live as rural farmers on small plots of land just fine. However, the whole system is structured in a different way and yes, if they got sick, they got free health care so they will not lose their land. You are also right about rural living being an expensive proposition to start. However, there are people who have been smart about their lives since early age, got college degrees, made money and stayed out of debt, ending up with considerable savings. For them, it is not a bad deal.
Vist the Hayden Planetarium at the Natural History Museum in NYC and sit through the history of the universe show. And you will find "all of the above" posts irrelavent. We are all insignificant, so enjoy your life.
You have not told us where you live so detailed advice is impossible. However I suggest you look for local of county high school level trade schiools. They may have programs in both agriculture as well as how to build things. Sustainable living will still require cash so knowing how to build things like houses, sheds and barns as well as repair used machinery can be very useful.
I was about to suggest volunteering with Habitat for Humanity to learn building and plumbing skills etc.
Hello everyone, recently I read a book online about moneyless living, and it got me thinking about a lot of things I had never thought about before. First of all, it made me realize just how much my family wastes every day. Second, it made me realize how, as a fifteen year old, I am completely dependent on other people. From there, I started reading all about organic gardening, sustainable living, and self sufficiency. All of these things interest me greatly. I believe that as the next generation, it is my responsibility to help get people off of the track of blind consumerism and onto the path of sustainability and respect for the earth. The only place to start is with myself. But now I'm looking for something I can do to take that first step towards self sufficiency. I've looked into community gardening for a hands on introduction into organic gardening, but there aren't any community gardens where I live. I've read all about WWOOFing and HelpX and Ecovillages, and I'm very interested in that kind of thing, but the problem is I'm still in school. Is there anything I can do today to start learning skills that will one day help me become self sufficient? A club, a class, somewhere I can volunteer, any and all ideas are welcome and greatly appreciated. I just want something that will be that stepping stone from thought and theory to having the skills to take action and make a difference.
My husband and I took a class in how to grow an organic lawn at our local botanical garden. If you live near a city that has a botanical garden, they will almost certainly be doing organic gardening there. Contact them!
Vist the Hayden Planetarium at the Natural History Museum in NYC and sit through the history of the universe show. And you will find "all of the above" posts irrelavent. We are all insignificant, so enjoy your life.
So let's just hunt everything to extinction, s*it all over the planet and frack the heck out of the ground...
If you have a child you may have had this dialog before: "Parent: Clean your room. Child: Why, it's only going to get dirty again, what's the use?"
OD
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