Self-sufficiency
Self-sufficiency refers to the state of not requiring any outside aid, support, or (in hardline cases) interaction, for survival; it is therefore a type of extreme personal or collective (group-based)
autonomy.
Self-sufficiency is usually applied to varieties of
sustainable living in which nothing is consumed outside of what is produced by the self-sufficient individuals. Examples of attempts at self-sufficiency in
North America include
voluntary simplicity,
Luddism,
homesteading,
survivalism, and the
Back to the land movement.
Practices that enable or aid self-sufficiency include
autonomous building,
permaculture,
sustainable agriculture, and
renewable energy.
The existence of an effectively closed system makes self-sufficiency a necessity for any form of
space colonization. An extreme experimental example of self-sufficiency could therefore be said to be the
Biosphere 2 project.
The term is also applied to more limited forms of self-sufficiency, for example growing one's own food or becoming economically independent of state
subsidies or (in the case of larger political entities)
foreign aid.
*
Localism*
Simple living*
The Good Life*
Alain Saury*
Claire Wolfe*
TeachAManToFish - Self-Sufficiency in Education*
Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America*
Path to Freedom
