I wrote about this in some previous posts and in comments. Bébé Mélange mentioned it in one of my previous gardening posts, so while I cannot do much in the garden, I decided to write my thoughts about it in a series of somewhat organized blog posts. Please be aware that I still deeply care about social justice and current events. I am currently writing mostly about gardening as a form of self-care, a way of getting my thoughts away from the shit that goes on in the world, with the spewhole for said shit being currently the USA.
Self-sustainability is a modern fad on YouTube. I am highly skeptical of any videos that have it in either the title or the channel name, although I do watch some of them – they do, occasionally, contain good gardening tips. Some are probably delusional bullshit. I do not know for sure since I am highly selective about what I actually watch.
Because true self-sustainability is a myth; it is not possible, and it was not possible probably from around the time humans started to use stone tools and fire, i.e., from around the time of Homo habilis or just after. Some stone tools are made from materials that are not found in the vicinity of where they were used, suggesting, oftentimes, a long travel and therefore a form of early trade. Even today, so-called primitive hunter-gatherer tribes or communities do not consist of self-sustaining individuals – people do specialize in different skills and perform different tasks. Even the communities as a whole still engage in some form of trade for things they cannot obtain locally. For example, for steel tools, fabrics, and salt. etc.
Usually, the term is used in a very limited sense, with regard to just food and, sometimes, firewood. Those two things can almost, but still not entirely, be obtained on one’s own, provided some prerequisites are met. And it is about those prerequisites that the subsequent posts will be. I will be mostly writing from the top of my head, although most of what I write should have a solid basis in both my personal experience and the scientific knowledge that I got from my books and scientific studies. So stay tuned, if you are interested.
Will be interested in your writing. I live in a city, and spend about a quarter of my time on 10 wooded acres in the country. The rural land is easily self-sustaining in firewood. Used to share a large garden, where it was easy to do some plants, like potatoes and dried beans, but most things were supplements, not mainstays. My mother grew up on a farm in the depression, so closer to it, and she brought a lot of those skills into my childhood, so I know that preserving the food, quite apart from growing it, is a major chore.