I grew up raising chickens and rabbits, tending large vegetable patches and living in homes built by my father. Neither frugality nor the pursuit of self-sufficiency motivated my parents: they did what they did because they had a bit of land, my father was a builder and we lived in a small town. Ours was not a "back-to-the-land" household of people who wanted to cut ties with the establishment and live independent of the system.
For many people, that household is the household that comes to mind, of course, when talk comes 'round to self-sufficient living: rural acreage, hand-hewn homes, Mason jars of sprouting seeds, home-schooled kids, maybe a clunker of a vehicle on its last wheels.
But what really is self-sufficiency in the 21st century? And what does it mean when half the world's population now lives in cities?
In the recently released The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Sufficient Living, author Jerome Belanger argues that while complete self-sufficiency is impossible on a personal level, it is a planetary imperative.
He says that, "the basic concept of self-sufficiency is simple enough: it means providing for your own needs. The main drawback is that it's impossible. Nobody can be truly self-sufficient and live anything remotely resembling a civilized life."
Using the earth spaceship analogy -- a populated craft with no knowledge of how long it has been gone, or when it will arrive, if ever, at its destination -- Belanger says that, as a planet, "we must be totally self-sufficient, or we won't survive. It's that simple."
Self-Sufficient Living contains many of the chapters and topics you would expect to see in a how-to book on living self-sufficiently: from the everyday, like gardening fundamentals, to the adventurous, like intentional bug consumption. "Red, orange, yellow, forget this fellow; black, green, brown, wolf it down."
In the first chapter, though, Belanger emphasizes that many of the things once considered cornerstones of self-sufficiency, and the hallmarks of subsistence farming, are now "a much smaller part of being self-sufficient in a world teetering on the brink of self-destruction."
Although long associated with land and livestock, as Belanger, and many others, point out, self-sufficiency can just as easily, and perhaps even more importantly, include the urban-dweller who consumes conservatively and conscientiously and grows organic herbs and a few veggies on a balcony 22 storeys above the street.
From backyard chickens to 100-mile diets, from rainwater harvesting to solar heating, self-sufficient living today comes in a variety of forms, and translates to different things for different people: a healthier life, a way to help protect the earth, or a way to save money. For one friend, it means leaving his West End digs, and a busy web development business, for ecological garden studies and a quiet spot on Cortes Island.
For another, it means learning to make yogurt in order to reduce her expose to hormone-disrupting plastic packaging.
While The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Sufficient Living is arguably most useful to those with, or aspiring to have, a bit of extra space and access to land, in chapters such as "Bloom Where You're Planted," Belanger reaches out to all the urban dwelling "landless peasants."
"Television mogul Ted Turner, the . . . largest private landowner (in the U.S.) with some two million acres, doesn't have any advantage over the studio dweller when it comes to recycling and conservation," he argues.
"It's important to be self-sufficient no matter where you live because where you live right now is the place to start."
You can make yogurt and cheese, grow sprouts, and conserve energy and water regardless of where or what size your homestead may be.
Looking at everything from carbon and water footprints to compound interest and Frank Lloyd Wright, Belanger entertainingly weaves the history and basics of "how to" with discussions about why self-sufficient living is important despite being nearly impossible to do.
He explores the topic not as a quaint lifestyle patterned after pioneer homesteaders, but as an essential, and satisfying, way to cope with many of the challenges facing society and the planet.
The book is the first in a series about self-sufficient living under the Complete Idiot's Guide rubric, with forthcoming topics to include how to raise chickens, compost, keep bees, raise goats, and even make natural soaps.
While the topics are hardly new, they do reflect the general public's growing interest in being more active participants in the production of the food and products they consume.
As Belanger writes, self-sufficiency is no longer just about providing for one's own needs. More and more people understand that it is about creating "sufficiency" on a planetary scale. The core of self-sufficiency is the survival for us all. Not to mention, a couple of barnyard birds can be fun too.
redkimwrites@gmail.com.
(Vancouver Sun)
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