Homesteading

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Broadly, homesteading is a lifestyle of agrarian self-sufficiency.

In the United States, the Homestead Act (1862) allowed anyone to claim up to 160 acres (647,000 m²) of land. After clearing and working the land for five years, the homesteader would receive title to the land from the government. In this sense, homesteading provided a legal and viable means of obtaining land and precluded widespread squatting on the frontiers, and was the most important and prevalent means of settlement in the late 19th century. The Act was an embodiment of the broader legal homestead principle. Daniel Freeman (1826–1908) was the first person to file for a claim under Homestead Act of 1862. Similar provisions were in place for what is now Western Canada (see Last best West).

Currently the term homesteading applies to anyone who is a part of the back to the land movement and who chooses to live a sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle. While land is no longer freely available in most areas of the world, homesteading remains as a way of life. A new movement, called "urban homesteading," can be viewed as a simple living lifestyle, incorporating small-scale agriculture, sustainable and permaculture gardening, and home food production and storage into suburban or city living.

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