Self Sufficient is Unsustainable

It takes a community to give us freedom

Aaron McClure
4 min readMay 22, 2023
Self sufficient
Cool photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

We’ve all seen those Youtube Shorts, TikToks, and other clip videos that depict a happy couple living off the land and growing their own… everything. What they are really showing is that it is possible to do it. That’s all well and good, but being self sufficient is unsustainable.

Submitted for your consideration (sorry, been re-enjoying The Twilight Zone), a couple of people who have all the food they need growing on their land. They barely need to go to the store. They spend their time cultivating and harvesting their crops.

After the harvest, they spend more time storing and organizing it using ancient and effective methods. There is nothing wrong with any of this. However, there is an old Earth saying that comes to mind; “They bought the farm”.

Loosely translated, this means, someone’s life is over. They are now prisoners of the land they work. The freedom they once enjoyed is not as easy to partake as it used to be.

No one person can do it all

I tried being a person who could do it all. At one point I nearly had chickens. Combine a large house, my own business, several vehicles, and a continuous list of works to be done for my home and customers, I was figuratively a farmer.

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Aaron McClure

Project Manager, blogger, writer. I write about the struggles of life and how to grow as a unique person. I welcome all open discussions.