Living off the land in times of economic uncertainty – a permaculture role model

With the rumors of recession on a global scale around the corner, as well as a tipping point crossed in climate disorder, it looks like food self-sufficiency will be more valuable than we currently appreciate. Homesteading is perhaps our saving grace in times when crop production may take strain globally, and food inflation outpace income as well as other types of inflation.

When it becomes an outright case of food insecurity for entire regions at a time, our preparedness will determine our survival. Here in my area I have friends who have been cultivating a successful off-the-grid existence for the past few years, and I took the opportunity of capturing some of their greenhouse production on camera to share with you guys.

A coming global food crisis has been predicted for a few years already. 2050 was seen to be a goal for food security back since food prices began increased upswings around the 2008 recession. But 2050 is much too far away lately. Disasters have hit large sectors of American agricultural industry, as well as other countries. It looks like food insecurity may become more prominent sooner than we think.

We cannot allow the situation to reach a tipping point, as it did in 2008. If such a thing were to occur in the area of food security, as it looks to be doing with current population demands, it could spell disaster for city full of people overnight.

Actually it would take maybe three nights of zero food deliveries for supermarkets to run out of produce, perhaps a few days longer in some places. But by a week we would have a degree of desperation among the masses that can drive them to crime just to survive. That’s when looting and mobs arise. At least here in my home in Africa it would come to that pretty quickly.

Still there are solutions like becoming a gardener and growing you own. Simple things like certain greens can grow within a few weeks, and generate salad ingredients full of nutrition. Even an urban dweller can become a sprout farmer and cultivate a crop on the window ledge in the sun. Abundant nutrition exists in mung, chickpea and other sprouts.

Here are some pictures of the garden in action. Notice the fantastically strong greenhouse frame, to protect the lot from baboons. Here on the south Cape coast of Africa they are prolific, particularly since the leopard are almost non-existent now. Civilization routed them out already. The baboons may be around a little longer, and they invade every now and then. Cages are the only solution, even for entire fruit trees.

Added to food security is energy security as a priority in coming times of uncertainty. Sunlight is abundant here so that is the preferred source of energy. Panels provide current into deep cycle batteries, and hot water geysers or cylinders are also heated purely by solar. Simple living and high thinking is a motto to aspire to overall. There is abundant resources, if one can tap into and store them.

Water is the third critical ingredient, along with food and power, upon which survival is dependent. Ideally one can have rain tanks with large roof area to catch the rain. And then a storage system that is not too obvious from above, since governments like to monitor and even want to start taxing you for how much rain you catch. Or making it illegal in certain states to even catch it at all. In this way the elite keep us dependent on them and trapped in their system without the ability to become self-sufficient and attain our rightful sovereignty when the powers that be on earth are abandoning our well-being.

If you can I would recommend moving out of the big urban areas and cities, and make a move to some more rural setting, where fresh air and open natural spaces surround you. If not immediately then make it a plan for the future. For not instead just cultivate vertical farming in your apartment, or sprout farming. It works. Don’t get caught unaware or unprepared in times of economic and literal survival uncertainty. We should all have a plan B.