10 Reasons to Become More Self-Sufficient

Becoming more self sufficient isn’t all about raising chickens, or getting up at 4:00AM. It’s about consuming smarter and producing for your own daily needs. And that might mean you choose to raise chickens and get up at 4:00AM, but it doesn’t mean you have to. If you need any convincing simply read below.

10 Reasons to Become Self-Sufficient

1. Increasing health and wellness – Alot of the “organic” items you see in the grocery store have been falsely labeled. Add to that a large precentage of  brands that claim to be “GMO-free” are NOT and you really don’t know what you’re eating anymore. GMO food lacks the nutritional value of what can grow yourself. GMO mega-corporation, Monsanto, has a sordid history of lies, corruption, and has downright been plain evil in every sense of the word. They continuously trampled on our trust, showing through their actions that they would rather make a few more dollars than help save millions (billions?) of starving people on this planet (some right here in the United States). Growing food for yourself makes you healthier and takes companies like Monsanto out of your loop.
2. Working for yourself – Lets face it, being someone elses paid slave sucks. Working hours are increasing, pay is decreasing (thank you inflation), and corporate executives are taking bigger bonuses than ever. The middle class is turning into the poor class as the executives in charge are the only ones that can afford to retire. This is leading to a prevailing disgust, as people are being forced to admit that they are living lives of near slaves to their next paycheck, their boss, and their debt. Even for those not working in corporations, working for someone else is (VERY) rarely as satisfying as creating and working for something where every minute you spend is yours alone.
3. Having more free time – Life on a farm has been portrayed arduous sun up sun down drudgery where you collapse at the end of the day. This picture mostly comes from the 50′s, the 1850′s! This is not the case anymore. As technology has changed everything else, so as it changed farming and homesteading. Sure, the setup of any farm or homestead is often time-consuming and laborious, but new technologies and new skills of manufacturing food via permaculture and aquaponics are offering low-cost start up and minimal maintenance. You can easily live on 15 acres of land nearly 100% self sustained, with only 1 of those acres actually needing what most consider “farm work”. Some people even do it on 1/4 of an acre, total! 
4. Generating food and energy - Our coal and oil-soaked way of life could run out rather soon. While the time we have left varies from study to study from 30 years to 100, nearly every scientists in the world agrees that the next generation or two will see the end of oil and a return to life as it was post-oil (and gas, and fertilizer, and plastic, and everything else petroleum based). By using solar and wind power you can wean yourself from the energy grid.
5. Hedging against inflation – Have you noticed the price of gold lately? What about groceries? Even Wal-Mart and Costco are raising their prices. The current increases are sign of hyperinflation and there is no signs of change in the foreseeable future. People might have a choice whether or not to buy stocks or gold, but we must eat. Coming corn and grain shortages could make the problem much worse.
6. Freedom from market manipulation - Capatilism is a great economical system, and it’s what makes America great. The problem arises when traders and banking institutions begin controlling the vast majority of the system as they do now. The debacle of the private Federal Reserve Bank is just the icing on the cake to a previous decade full of Ponzi-type schemes. Now, the institutionalized looting of retirement money is being planned.
7. Building family strength –  In these trying times, it is your family that can offer the best support. 60-hour work weeks and grabbing fast food meals on the go take us away from our loves ones, mentally and physically. With no time to interact with our immediate family, it is no wonder why many people report feeling disconnected and unloved.
8. Becoming a producer, not a consumer – This is the best way to reduce your cost of living and increase your self-sufficiency. In the past 30 years we have seen corporations race to find the lowest cost production overseas  despite desperate people here in America desperate for jobs. Every single one of us has exploited the Third World to clothe, feed, and entertain us and at the same time we are supporting middle-class job being taken from Americans (ever shop at wal-mart? buy a pair of tennis shoes? buy ANYTHING made in china?). The further we walk away from this lifestyle the more we will be rewarded, that is a truth you can hang your hat on.
9. Restoring balance – It seems like everything in our socity is on the edge about to tip over. The systems we have in place to check these balanaces has long fell into corruption and dissarray. We have to take it upon ourselves to restore these balances. We may not be able to keep everyone from falling over the edge, but we can protect ourselves by stepping away from the “cliff” and taking on a more self-sustained lifestyle.
10. Acquiring an appreciation for life - Creating a garden, working hard to select the best for harvest, and prepared food for your family that you have grown yourself is one of the great joys in life. While a window garden can give you a tiny piece of this world, you can not truely appreicate it until you step outside and transform a small part of your backyard into a beautiful garden.