Self-sufficiency

Self-sufficiency refers to the state of not requiring any outside aid, support, or interaction, for survival; it is therefore a type of personal or collective autonomy. On a national scale, a totally self-sufficient economy that does not trade with the outside world is called an autarky.

The term 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 simple living, homesteading, off-the-grid, survivalism, DIY ethic and the back-to-the-land movement.

Practices that enable or aid self-sufficiency include autonomous building, permaculture, sustainable agriculture, and renewable energy.

The term is also applied to limited forms of self-sufficiency, for example growing one's own food or becoming economically independent of state subsidies.

Influential people

See also

• In-situ resource utilization
• Self-sustainability
• Simple living
• Sustainable living

References

External links

• Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America
• Five acres and independence, 1973 book, by Maurice Grenville Kains, Dover books. ISBN 0486209741
• Countryfarm Lifestyles