Appropriate Self-Sufficiency

Those of you who have read my books or blog know that I frequently use the word “self-sufficiency.” It’s a hold-over term from my back-to-the-land days, when it was a widely used term to describe the goal of the movement. When I started my homestead blog back in 2009, I picked up the familiar term to describe our primary goal. What surprised me at the time, was how people reacted to it. Some people got it, but it was almost startling that so many others scolded me for it, declaring it was impossible or isolationist (in their thinking). Then, I found myself trying to explain how I was using the word and started to say “as self-sufficient as we are able.” Eventually, I switched to “self-reliant” which seemed acceptable, even though it meant the same thing to me. 

Recently, I’ve been reading Carol Deppe’s The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times. Here, I was introduced to the term “appropriate self-sufficiency.” Brilliant! Except that she never exactly defines it, other than to distinguish personal independence from “honorable interdependence,” i.e. developing skills that will be useful to an interconnected community. That’s great if one has such a community. Unfortunately, many of us who seek a less consumer dependent lifestyle are often considered oddballs by those around us. Because of that, I want appropriate self-sufficiency to be applicable to me too.

What came to mind is the term “appropriate technology,” which Merriam-Webster defines as “technology that is suitable to the social and economic conditions of the geographic area in which it is to be applied, is environmentally sound, and promotes self-sufficiency on the part of those using it.” Other definers relegate it to third world scenarios, but those of us who understand that hard times happen everywhere, may rightfully define the geographic area as being our own homestead, even our own backyard. Dan and I certainly do, and is why we make lifestyle choices that we feel are environmentally and economically reasonable (for us), though others think our choices are nuts. A good example would be our decision to give up air conditioning. 

How could we define appropriate self-sufficiency? Perhaps as self-sufficiency that is suitable to my economic conditions and social concerns within the geographic area in which it is to be applied (i.e. my homestead). I think one thing adding “appropriate” does, is allow the term to be customized according to individual goals. What’s appropriate for me, may be entirely different for you. 

If appropriate self-sufficiency allows me to define my own parameters, then what would they be? Certainly, that would include anything that allows us to live in relative security and comfort during hard times, whether those hard times are related to weather, health, income, political upheaval, or economic disaster. What areas are realistic for me to consider?

• Food?
• Shelter?
• Water?
• Energy?
• Safety?

So, how do I go about achieving greater self-reliance in all of these areas? Well, that’s what I’ve spent the past 12 years writing about. That’s what fills the pages of my books and the posts of my blog. Most of it isn’t spectacular, profound, alarmist, or even emotionally motivating. Most of it is a rather slow, mundane plodding in a particular direction that isn’t of much interest to the majority of folks. Yet, I do it—Dan and I do it—because learning to be less dependent on a dubious consumer system and fickle government feels like the prudent thing to do. 

On the one hand, it’s kind of fun to find a word that fits my world so well. On the other hand, so what? Words are constantly evolving; sometimes arbitrarily, sometimes deliberately. How they are perceived can make communication easy or difficult, but it doesn’t really change me. As a writer, of course I always hope to use words in ways that have meaning to others and encourage them. I don’t always expect to succeed, but I enjoy trying.