With many economic, agricultural, and water systems in crisis, it makes sense to develop self-sufficiency. Throughout human history, individuals and communities provided basic needs for themselves. Over the last 100 years, the basic necessities have been consigned to centralized institutions. The majority of the world’s population are now dependent on monolithic systems for their water, food, heat, and medicine. When these systems fail, the masses will be unable to meet their basic needs. To thrive when a global or personal crisis strikes, you need to create resilient systems that allow the fulfilment of basic needs.
Water is the essential building block for developing self-sufficiency. Often overlooked, water is needed sustain human life and nourish crops and livestock. In the present, there is increasing water insecurity. Droughts and poor water management have led to scarcity of our most precious resource. Given recent trends, municipal water sources will become more unreliable, especially in dry, arid climates. Companies like Nestle have expressed desire to further privatize water. If Nestle gets its way, we will all be paying for water like we do for oil. Now is the time cut the cord of municipal and corporate water supplies.
In the modern water dichotomy, we are given a choice between tap water and bottled water. Most town and city water systems are full of harmful chemicals such as arsenic, chlorine, and fluoride. Even trace amounts of pharmaceuticals are found, interfering with our hormones. Bottled water is the commercial alternative to tap water. Bottled water companies usually portray their products as coming straight from a mountain spring. In reality, 40% of bottled water is repackaged tap water. The bottled waters that really do contain spring water have been sitting in plastic containers for months before they leave the store. Over time the plastic leaches into the water, adding a host of unwanted chemicals. Bottled water has been found to contain 24,500 chemicals that disrupt hormones and endocrine system. The production of billions of individual sized water bottles is clearly unsustainable for the planet.
Healthy and sustainable solutions to centralized water include well-water, rainwater, and spring water. Having a well drilled is the most practical solution if you have land with sufficient ground water. Well water is relatively clean as it has been filtered through the soil. A rainwater collection system is another method to bypass centralized water. Harvesting rainwater might seem impractical, but the average roof collects 600 gallons for every inch of rain. With an efficient rain water harvesting system, there will enough water for both drinking and irrigation.
Spring water is often the most impractical water source, but it is also the healthiest for consumption. Springs are water that flows naturally upward from aquifers. Real spring water is largely uncontaminated by industrial pollutants. Spring water has a higher PH than regular water and contains trace minerals. Fresh spring water is arguably the most healthful to drink. Water is often overlooked in modern diets, but it makes up 75% of our bodies. Websites like www.findaspring.com can help you locate a nearby spring.
To achieve food sovereignty, it would be best to employ a combination of gardening, food forests, and wild foraging. If you have a lawn, dig it up and create a garden. Lawns require maintenance and produce nothing in return. You might as well use the space for growing food. If you have a forest, encourage the growth of edible plants. Gardening and food forests can provide the bulk of your calories, while foraging in the wild can help with food shortages, especially in the spring. Many wild foods are available in spring, while your seedlings in the garden are still growing. Wild foods can provide extra nutrition and calories the rest of the year.
Medicine is another area to develop self-sufficiency. Dangerous micro-organisms have increasingly become resistant to pharmaceutical antibiotics. This is just after a century of their use, how many micro-organisms will be resistant after two or three centuries of antibiotic use. Pharmaceutical antibiotics are powerful isolated medicines, however this makes them unsustainable in the long run. The chemical isolation is the pharmaceuticals greatest strength and greatest weakness. The drugs have only one mechanism which makes it easy for bacteria to adapt. Medicinal plants and mushrooms have been used by humans as least as long as 5,000 years ago. Medicinal plants and mushrooms have are not isolated chemicals and therefore very few bacteria have become resistant over 5,000 years of use. Medicinal plants can be grown at home and wild harvested. They can be drying and used in teas or used in alcoholic tinctures. Medicinal plants are abundance and are effective if used correctly. However, both medicinal plants and mushrooms are slower to produce results than pharmaceuticals. When dealing with a cold for example, you use traditional cold fighting herbs such as Echinacea, garlic, and thyme in combination with an immunomodulation mushroom like reishi or chaga. When faced with a health problem more severe than a cold, most people turn to pharmaceuticals.
Today, most people in cold climates rely on fossil fuels for heat. Propane and natural gas are frequently used to provide heat in cold climates. However with proper storage and drying, wood heat can be an efficient alternative. While processing wood takes a considerable amount of work, it gives a certain primordial satisfaction. Splitting and stacking wood provides much needed physical exertion to daily life. The old saying is “Chop your wood and it will heat you twice”. Nevertheless, only heat you once if you don’t let it dry. Proper drying of firewood is necessary to maximize the resource. The moisture content of green wood is around 50% percent. Well-seasoned wood should have a moisture content of around 20%. Seasoning takes anywhere from 6 months to 2 years depending on the wood and climate. Wood should be stacked and covered at the top with a sloping piece of wood or roofing. The sides should be exposed to sun and wind. A wood shed can also be built from scrap lumber, if you are feeling ambitious. If you don’t have a woodlot, sawed wood can be often be found along roadsides left over from tree cutters. Don’t be afraid to ask neighbors with large woodlots for extra wood.
Resources
https://www.prevention.com/food/healthy-eating-tips/your-bottled-water-has-24500-chemicals
