Have you ever weighed out the options of ditching all you own, all you know, and leading a life of subsistence? If you could choose to opt out of our industrial agricultural system, and depend on a few acres of land year round, would you? Why would you choose this lifestyle? Or, why wouldn’t you choose this lifestyle? Take a moment to contemplate what you would choose to do. However, lucky for you, amongst a group of classmates in Environmental Studies, we devised a pro and con list for subsistence living to help your discernment process. Let me know if we missed any that you can think of!
Reasons to try out a subsistence lifestyle:
(a) schedule would not be dictated by the clock (b) provide an active lifestyle—physically, mentally, and psychologically (c) pride and satisfaction in growing your own food—self empowerment that is not at the disenfranchisement of others (d) know exactly what is in and what went into the production of your food (e) promote community building and engagement (f) a deeper connection with earth’s natural processes (g) increasingly attribute wealth to the land—not to material capital (h) independence from the economic market
