Self-sufficiency by classification is often a situation where anyone can easily self-sustain without using external resources. If you take that assertion literally, it’s almost impossible to acquire. The majority of every living person in the world is actually relying upon some outside resources in order to survive. For instance, just about all living things will need food to exist; most living things, with the exception of  humans, our pets and the animals raised for our food,  search and collect food as they have for hundreds or even millions of years ago.  The birds, deer and other wild animals forage to sustain and through natural selection, only the strongest have survived. The majority of humans however, count on other people to produce food. We are no longer hunters and gatherers, but alternatively consumers.  Most people acquire their own food through purchase as opposed to foraging or growing what they eat. What would our present day of life be like without the grocery store?  Of course, purchasing foods implies that we should have money. And in order to have money, most of us have to have a job. Therefore begins the limited repeated cycle which has become our lifestyle and we have abandoned the basic principals of survival on our own. We truly are born slaves to the present day monetary system whether we want to believe it or not.

Apart from food, we need other necessities as well;   water, protection and warmth. Again, many people nowadays rely on outside resources to offer these things. People obtain water from a faucet, conveniently piped to us by utility companies,  live in a mortgaged residence or rental apartment and also count on warmth through an electric or perhaps gasoline energy utility business. What exactly will becoming self-sufficient suggest in the current society? A society riddled with unrest, uncertainty and natural disasters occurring a rapid pace. Unemployment means no money for the basics and disparity is rampant. Getting back to basics and alternative energy may be the only choice we have to assure our family’s well being.

We can become self-sustaining by using our own mental and physical abilities to grow food and assure protection and warmth so that you can maintain your existence. It means not really relying on other people for things that that can be done yourself. It is a life-style in which decreases our dependency on external resources to be able to live. Self-sufficiency for many folks means restarting the relevant skills once popular by earlier generations: planting, growing and harvesting food, making and also fixing tools and equipment, cutting and also drying fire wood, sewing or creating garments and also building a home or maybe a barn. Installing alternative energy sources, hand-pumps on wells, raising chickens for eggs, rabbits to eat and hunting skills are all steps we can take to developing a more self-sustainable lifestyle.

This is by no means a straightforward feat. It requires much self-denial along with a determination not within most people. Especially in the current culture in which through the years we’ve grown accustomed to conveniences and reliance on others to provide for our basic needs. As science makes our existence “easier”, we grow further and further from the once valuable information that everyone had to know in order to survive.

What’s gained through self-sufficiency? A larger sense of resilience as well as a greater power over a person’s reality. You will also become more healthy knowing what went directly into growing as well as preparation of your own personal food. You’ll minimize your dependency on money requiring less demand on you to work just to pay the existing bills. Rather than pay a repairman to fix something, you take satisfaction in repairing it your self. Rather than giving hundreds monthly to an electric company, you might actually get the electric company to pay you.  You rest easy knowing that whatever natural disaster happens or in case of an economic collapse you and yours will survive.