Self-sufficiency
Before describing the methodology we will follow, we need to establish our core goals. These goals fall nicely under the word "self-sufficiency", but just that word is a bit too broad to cover everything. We previously defined self-sufficiency very briefly, but we need to dive a bit deeper into what we mean by it.
Feel free to re-read the "Self-sufficient" section in the Terms chapter, but to recap what was already said:
Self-sufficiency is a group freeing itself from critical dependence on outside sources.
- We want self-sufficiency as a buffer against hard times and instability that a national community may face. If we are secure, we are in a better place to help those outside our community.
- We want our self-sufficiency to cover:
- Basic needs of food, water, health, and shelter.
- Create and maintain the tools needed to reasonably provide those items.
- Ability to provide for Innovation and Luxury items and activities, both in materials and time.
- Production of a few marketable products and/or services to make money for emergencies and goods we cannot reasonably produce ourselves.
- We want our technology level to remain comparable to modern society, even advancing as we work to improve it.
Lets look at this definition a bit closer, then cover each goal in more depth.
A Group, Outside Sources
In general, self-sufficiency as defined here can apply to a country, state, community, or homestead. Any of these groups can meet their core needs, while still trading outside the group for luxury type goods. Though smaller groups are harder to make self-sufficient due to lacking in division of labor. To allow self-sufficiency to work on smaller groups, people need to re-examine the technologies that work well for the national and global communities and scale it down or redesign it to function for smaller communities.
As for outside sources, it simply indicates any source outside the lines drawn for the intentional community.
Freeing Itself from Critical Dependence
By critical dependence, we mean the basic things that keep us alive. So food, water, shelter, and basic health needs. And by extension, we include the ability to build and maintain the tools to provide for those needs. Other things that are not as critical can still be depended on from other sources as they can be cut without the community coming to great harm. These are also often going to be difficult for the community to produce. And if the group produces a little extra, they can make money to acquire what is difficult or impossible to produce themselves. However, the goal is for the "difficult to produce" items to fall under luxury goods and that we focus on making production of our basic needs as easy as possible.
The Goals
A Buffer Against Instability
The world is a very connected place providing both benefits and drawbacks. On the one hand, we can produce stuff where it is easiest to make, then ship it around the world. This is the whole point of trade, cheap efficient production in one place providing cheap, solid goods where they are needed most.
On the other hand, whenever you centralize things they become more fragile. When the production of a particular product becomes concentrated in one place, it becomes easier for a single entity to control it. Likewise a single event is also more likely to disrupt the product, either at the point of production or during transport. While it is beneficial to produce products cheaply, it's also important to not have all the eggs in one basket, since if the basket gets dropped we will go hungry.
As such it is important that each area of the world be capable of providing for their basic critical needs. If a shipment is delayed, we can wait out the resulting shortage of cell phones, we cannot necessarily wait out the shortage of insulin, food, or any other such critical good.
Providing Our Needs
The basic needs are described as food, water, health, and shelter.
When we say "basic food", we are not talking about being able to provide everyone their favorite food, or even a variety of foods. Those both fall under Luxury. However, we also don't mean making enough of a single food to fill us each day, like how rice is used in many Asian countries. What we mean is the ability to provide nutritionally balanced meals each day that can allow people to grow up and live healthily, with enough variety to work around food allergies. Anything beyond that requires individuals to put in extra work during their free time to provide.
When we talk about "basic water", we mean both potable water that is safe to drink, as well as sufficient water for growing plants and tending to animals.
When we say "basic health", we are talking about the ability to tend to common and long-term critical ailments. Not just disinfecting and binding cuts, tending to bruises, antibiotics for bacterial diseases, and the ability to identify these issues, but also things like providing insulin and other basic drugs that are well known preventative measures for long standing illnesses. However, we are not expecting to be able to handle complicated surgeries or developing vaccines. Even so this point will probably be the hardest to do well and safely.
When we talk about "basic shelter", we are not simply meaning a roof over one's head. It is important that we can build our own structures that are strong and able to house us, our animals, and our tools. But we are also talking about the ability to ward off all the elements. The ability to both heat and cool our interior spaces as well as the ability to control dust, pollen, and other air quality issues. Finally, protection from others is also included under shelter with being able to fence in our community and produce weapons.
The Tools to Provide
Providing these basic needs is critical. But it's also important that you can make the tools that produce those needs. You can get away without this, but it could be a bit rough. For one some companies, especially for things like tractors, have been trying to restrict people from repairing the products themselves, demanding "qualified technicians" in the employ of the company be the only legal way to repair. Essentially they are trying to place a monopoly on the repair market. Another point to consider is the fact that we are adjusting the technologies we use to better fit a small community, which is likely to use at least some parts that cannot simply be acquired off the shelf. Finally, it further builds up that safety buffer if we are able to fabricate our own tools.
To put it simply, it's likely a good idea to include the ability to build one's own tools, but if necessary a community could manage without this.
Innovation and Luxury
Innovation is important so we don't stay stagnant. We should constantly work to improve the technologies we use, bit by bit. Making our tools and toys more efficient and easier to use.
Likewise Luxury is important. When we say Luxury we mean things not core to survival like free time and one's favorite food. In short production of nonessential items and leisure time.
Marketable Products/Services
We don't expect it to be possible to make everything. Beyond that, we also have things that would be too dangerous to handle ourselves, for example delicate surgeries or dealing with especially dangerous substances. For both of these we will need to produce a product or service we can sell outside the community. This can be most anything, from art to video games to farm fresh produce, but whatever it is it would be beneficial if the group did it together as another method to grow together.
In addition if the community uses money internally to facilitate interactions between members, this is a useful way to add more to the pool.
Level of Technology
Free time is very important to the ability of people to take part in Innovation and Luxury. By maintaining a high level of technology, each person will be-able to work less and have a bit more free time to peruse secondary concerns. In addition, keeping a more advanced level of technology is safer. It will allow us to treat illnesses and accomplish otherwise dangerous tasks with greater safely.
Note: A Christian View of Self-sufficiency
From a Christian perspective, "Self-sufficient" or "self-dependent" are used as negative terms applying to people who attempt to live without God. However, by using the term self-sufficient in the context of this project we intend to make a temporal (human-human) statement not spiritual (human-God). Hopefully this would actually push one to be more reliant on God, since individuals can work closer to God’s creation instead of being constantly surrounded by sub-creation, that which is made by man, but knowing human nature this can easily be twisted into pride of one's own accomplishments and is an issue of which Christians must be careful.