Self-sufficiency

Self-sufficiency (also called self-containment) is the state of not requiring any 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[edit]

See also[edit]

Sustainable development portal

• Alternative food
• Amish
• Anarchism
• Doomsday scenario
• In-situ resource utilization
• List of food self-sufficiency rates by country
• Off grid
• Preppers
• Resilience
• Self-sustainability
• Survivalism

References[edit]

• Five acres and independence, 1973 book, by Maurice Grenville Kains, Dover books. ISBN 0-486-20974-1

External links[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Self-sufficiency

Look up self-sufficiency in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Self-Reliance Handbook

Wikiversity has learning materials about Topic:Self-sufficiency

• Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America