The Shocking Truth About Self-Sufficiency

FORT GARLAND, Colo. - April 16, 2014 - PRLog -- Do you know what it takes to be self-sufficient? It’s more than growing food, living off the grid and raising livestock. It’s a very sustainable way to live, but it isn’t self-sufficient.

In this month’s edition of the ASC Magazine, Travis Hughey wrote a great article on the Myths of self-sufficiency. Travis sums it up nicely with this quote; “Here we see this very American ideal of needing no one else at the end of the day but having full confidence in one’s own ability to take care of one’s self. One has to ask: Is this really possible?” It’s a good question isn’t it? Now ask yourself if past generation were self-sufficient?

Past generations lived in communities and helped one another. Farmers would exchange produce with one another. One community member might specialize in growing corn and beans, whilst another would grow wheat and barley. The women would often churn butter, make soaps and bake goods and exchange them with one another. When someone in the community got sick, other members helped out until they got on their feet again. It was a simple, sustainable lifestyle but none of them were self-sufficient.

https://www.facebook.com/AquaponicsSurvivalCommunities

Fast forward to today and it’s evident that we still need each other to survive. One person can’t do everything themselves. Look around your home and take stock of all the things you own. How much of what you own, did you make yourself? It really makes you rethink what it means to be self- sufficient doesn’t it? Maybe the focus should be on rebuilding sustainable communities and not on the ideals of self-sufficiency.