There have always been people who prefer self-sufficiency over consumerism. But while the trend gained traction in the 1970s, there had been a dearth of palatable success stories—until recently, that is. Self-sufficiency is making a comeback, and not just with zero-waste heroes and climate activists. One reason centres on economics: people want to escape mortgages and debt. Another is the pandemic, which has triggered a slew of articles on the allure of self-sufficiency to escape crowded cities and enhance food security.
But self-sufficiency to any degree takes hard work and planning, and requires new skills, recipes, and inspiration. To get you started, here’s a list of 20 stories of real-life people and movements that have successfully forged that path.
Ron Finley: “Gangster Gardener”
Raised in the “food desert” of L.A., activist Ron Finley has been on a mission to bring the power of gardening to his community. He has built a parkway garden oasis in L.A. and speaks about the importance of reclaiming this space and showing people that they can take back control of their lives through connecting with nature and learning skills that boost self-sufficiency.
Why the “Gangster Gardener”? In his MasterClass intro, Finley explains, “To me, having knowledge is gangster.” His passion for gardening is infectious as he encourages everyone, whether they have a green thumb or tend to kill their plants, to empower themselves by learning to grow their own food.
Living off-grid in Lasqueti
Lasqueti Island, off the coast of Vancouver, B.C., is an off-the-grid haven that turned down the move to electricity in the 1970s, and hasn’t looked back. And while only “40% of the people who move over there end up being able to hack it,” those who stay are committed to the lifestyle. In an article from The Tyee, local islander Dave sheds light on life off-grid. He talks about building his home on the island, which is solar-powered, with a waterwheel and a 12,000-litre (3,000-gallon) water tank to keep things running.
Dave speaks to how living off-grid requires you to build new skills and have a better understanding of the relationship between nature and technology. But why did he decide to live this way? To leave a legacy of hard-earned skills and values to his daughter.
Marie-France Roy: The cozy cob life
Meet Marie-France Roy—a professional Canadian snowboarder who, when not on the mountains, lives in a cob house with a forest view on Vancouver Island. Her tiny home took five years to build by hand (and foot) and is shaped from earth, non-recyclable trash, and reclaimed materials. In an interview with Patagonia, Marie-France states: “I felt that building a smaller home, out of as many local, natural and recycled resources as possible, would be a wonderful way [...] to remain more connected and grounded.”
Want to learn more about her journey? Check out Marie-France’s 2014 film, The Little Things, featuring both her tiny-house story and tales from other environmentally conscious snowboarders.
Melissa Norris: Homesteading
Homesteading is all about leading a self-sufficient life through growing and preserving food, raising livestock, and generally taking care of your house, home, and community. And it’s gaining in popularity, with rising stars such as Melissa Norris teaching the rest of us how it’s done. Melissa, a fifth-generation homesteader in Washington state, has turned her way of life into a career, offering recipes and classes, and even a podcast (The Pioneering Today Podcast), on everything from canning and gardening, to creating your own bath and beauty products. While homesteading is traditionally done in the countryside, there is a growing movement around urban homesteading.
Naturhus
The concept of the Naturhus, which encases a home within a greenhouse, comes from Swedish eco-architect Bengt Warne, who built his first Naturhus in Sweden in the 1970s. Since then, the trend has caught on, with one home, built by engineer Anders Solvarm being featured in Apple TV’s new documentary, Home. Solvarm’s home is designed to cooperate with nature; it is nestled within a greenhouse, which feeds the family and is fed by the family’s wastewater, creating a self-sustaining ecosystem to live and thrive in.
Visible Mending
In 2015, textile practitioner Kate Sekules launched Visible Mending, a movement that seeks to encourage us to repair and wear our clothes for longer through turning our rips, tears and stains into something new. On Kate’s website, she provides tutorials, a menders directory, and plenty of inspiration for getting started.
How was Visible Mending born? Kate notes that it was actually Tom van Deijnen, wool-mender extraordinaire, who coined the term. Based out of the UK, Tom also volunteers at the Brighton Repair Café, and has made a name for himself, putting on talks and workshops across the UK, Europe, and beyond.
Jake and Nicole: The yurt life
In 2019, Jake and Nicole picked up their yurt from Pacific Yurts with a dream to live off-grid in the Canadian wilderness. Fast-forward a year or so, and they are still going strong, consistently posting videos of life off-grid in their yurt—bears, compost, flooding and all. They talk about the challenge of being far from family and starting from nothing, on a boat-access-only property. According to this couple, they are far from done with their journey, though, already planning what the next year will have in store.
Francis and Marie: Living off the grid in Quebec
About four years ago, Francis and Marie moved their family of three into an off-grid ‘earthship’ in Quebec, Canada. Their home is solar-powered, with rainwater collection, a compost toilet, a greenhouse, a garden and chickens on site. This couple was already well acquainted with urban gardening before leaving the city, and with most of their food now sourced from the land, Francis and Marie only spend about CA$30 per week (approx. US$22) on groceries in the summer. Not ones to turn away from a project, Francis and Marie are also known as Hempbassadors, advocating for the use of industrial hemp for everything from clothing and body care, to construction material and alternative energy.
Living Big in a Tiny House
If you’re a fan of tiny houses, make sure to check out Living Big in a Tiny House. This popular YouTube channel out of New Zealand is run by Bryce Langston and Rasa Pescud and showcases alternative living from around the globe. You can watch tiny-house tours and builds, space-saving hacks, and so much more on this gem of a show.
And as of 2019, Bryce has even finished his own tiny home, affectionately named The Seed of Life. On the building design, he says, “I wanted to build flexibility into the home”. So, everything is crafted with intention, taking into account design priorities, functionality, and livability.
Living Tiny and Green
Paul and Annett, the founders of Living Tiny and Green, are on a mission to “advocat[e] for a green, minimalist and sustainable lifestyle.” And they decided to document the journey. The story goes that in 2016, this couple drummed up a dream of living off-grid, away from the city, in a zero-emissions tiny house. They didn’t have a timeline but knew that they wanted a solar-powered space with a permaculture garden. Fast-forward to 2018, and a whole lot of hard work later, and Paul and Annett found themselves living the dream. Today, they continue to chronicle their journey through their blog and Instagram channel, teaching others how they built (and live in) a tiny home.
The Self-Sufficient Life
Self-sufficiency comes in all shapes and sizes, and often requires a solid combination of education, skills-building, and community—for emotional and labour support and communal learning, amongst other things. For those who are keen to learn about self-sufficiency or are starting their journey, there are communities out there for you! One is The Self Sufficient Life, which welcomes members to join their community to share their knowledge and their questions.
Regenerative agriculture
Regeneration International describes regenerative agriculture as a methodology that serves to “reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity.” This methodology makes use of various agricultural practices, including permaculture, crop rotation, and composting. One couple that’s doing an incredible job with their regenerative garden is Anthony and Kirra. These two dreamt of living in a tiny home for years and were inspired to create a space that centred on regenerative gardening.
Lauren Singer: The zero-waste life
In 2015, Laura Singer took the TEDxTeen stage to talk about her experience living a zero-waste lifestyle for the past three years. Laura talked about her journey to “quitting plastic” and how difficult it was to do. She learned how to make her own products, adjust her habits, and intentionally purchase from farmers’ markets, second-hand stores, and so much more.
Today, Laura is the founder of a Zero Waste editorial, Trash is for Tossers, and is the founder and CEO of Package Free, a shop that makes it easy to ditch the plastic in your purchasing decisions.
The floating home
Another feature from Exploring Alternatives, this time on water! This DIY off-grid floating home lives in Kootenay Lake in British Columbia, Canada, and has been designed and built by Jay Blackmore. In his interview, Jay talks about being inspired by his love of the water and wanting to build a life centred on this. After conceptualizing the dream some four years ago, Jay has plugged away at the build whenever he isn’t at work, crafting a 65-square-metre (700-square-foot) space that is solar-powered and heated by a pellet stove.
Slow journalism
The link between sustainability and slow movements isn’t always obvious, but essentially, the idea is that living slow is the antithesis of a culture of instant gratification that drives us to consume without intentionality. According to Slow Living Ldn.,“instead of making conscious decisions, we find ourselves on auto-pilot and consuming without really reflecting on the impact of our choices.”
Delayed Gratification is a publication that aims to slow down our consumption of news, challenging us to take a more nuanced and in-depth approach to how we understand world events. And they aren’t alone, with several similar publications popping up in recent years.
Slow travel
In 2019, slow travel was one of the top travel trends, and was positioned to continue on trend for 2020. The idea behind slow travel is to forgo the airplanes and all-inclusives for a more intentional, and often more sustainable, approach—one that asks you to slow down, take in, and appreciate the world in which you travel.
In the wake of the pandemic, there are a lot of questions when it comes to travel. While the urge to travel hasn’t disappeared, there is a distinct shift towards staying close to home, sticking to the road, and opting for quiet seclusion. While the reasons behind these shifts aren’t rooted in sustainability, they do follow the rules of slow travel. So, time will tell what impact this will have on trends to come.
Wilderness solo
Not ready to uproot your life for a tiny home or off-the-grid life? In January 2020, The Guardian published a story by Mark O’Connell on his introduction to the “wilderness solo.” This activity provides a quick dose of the slow life by requiring you to seek out a remote spot in nature, and “confine yourself to one very small area for a set period,” with no form of entertainment or distraction. The idea is that you get out of the bustle of life and just experience time and nature, so that you can re-enter the world with a shift in perspective.
Container house life
In an episode of Living Big in a Tiny House, Bryce Langston interviews Jaimie and Dave, a couple in Washington state who built a 406-square-foot container house based on the dream of being mortgage-free. The entire build was DIY and exists completely on the grid.
The home itself was built out of a shipping container within a 10-month timeframe and sits on a beautiful piece of land that has become their personal oasis.
Casey and Natasha: The passive home
Exploring Alternatives interviewed a couple living in Ontario, Canada—Casey and Natasha—who have built a massive passive house that is fossil-fuel-free. What does this mean? Casey explains that the key to a truly passive house, which is designed for maximum energy efficiency, is to build an airtight space. In addition, Casey and Natasha worked hard to be intentional with every step of the building process, from choosing their building materials and water management system to positioning their house for sun exposure. While they don’t live off-grid, they do collect enough solar electricity from their roof to sell it back to the city. You can follow this couple on their journey to sustainability on their podcast, the Conscious Living Podcast.
The Isle of Eigg
Located off the west coast of Scotland, the Isle of Eigg is an off-the-grid, self-sustaining Hebridean Island. The locals took ownership of the island in 1997, and were able to establish 24-hour electricity as of 2008 thanks to a fully renewable, community-owned electrical grid powered by sun, wind, and water. Today, the island is home to around 100 inhabitants and greets 10,000 tourists per year. If you’re keen on a visit, leave your vehicle at home, and be sure to check out both the natural beauty and local business (e.g., the teashop and brewery) that makes the Isle of Eigg what it is today.
Slow fashion
Slow fashion is the antithesis of cheap, mass-produced clothing, focusing instead on the end-to-end lifecycle of the garment. This includes everything from water usage and materials and chemicals used, to wages and working conditions. The idea is to create sustainable and ethically made clothing that will last, so that we don’t end up consuming in mass quantities.
This article in The Guardian covers several ways to endorse slow fashion, from purchasing solid fabrics to simple wash, wear and tear hacks to extend the life of your garments. And when your clothes do wear out, there are plenty of slow-fashion brands out there—all it takes is a quick Google search.
Melanie Ewan,Espresso
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