• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
The Healthy Home Economist

The Healthy Home Economist

embrace your right to a lifetime of health

Get Plus
  • Home
  • About
  • My Books
  • Shopping List
  • Archives
  • Log in
  • Get Plus
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Get Plus
  • Log in
  • Home
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Archives
  • My Books
  • Shopping List
  • Recipes
  • Healthy Living
  • Natural Remedies
  • Green Living
  • Videos
  • Natural Remedies
  • Health
  • Green Living
  • Recipes
  • Videos
  • Subscribe
Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Green Living / 7 Reasons to Homestead: Why Self Sufficiency is The Best Safety Net

7 Reasons to Homestead: Why Self Sufficiency is The Best Safety Net

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

homesteading

If the numerous natural disasters in recent weeks have taught us anything, it’s that the more citizens are self-sufficient, the better they fare when Mother Nature runs amok. When this self-sufficiency is pursued as a lifestyle, it is known as homesteading.

Have you noticed that in the aftermath of unexpected and devastating disruptions to modern life, it is frequently the homesteaders who rise up as the everyday heroes? I know I have.

The Cajun navy is a great example of homesteaders in action. These are folks whose self-sufficiency skills gave them the ability to reach out and help others in need during the direst of circumstances.

Why Homesteading? (whether urban or rural)

Let’s take a look at the top 7 reasons why homesteading is becoming a “thing” today no matter whether a family lives in a rural or urban setting. In fact, the more our society modernizes and becomes dependent on technology, the more critical these traditional life skills become.

To learn more about incorporating homesteading skills at your own modern homestead, check out the educational website Steader.

1. Stuff happens

Snowstorms, hurricanes, and so much else. Extended power outages. Downed trees. The better prepared and skilled you are, the less it HURTS, and the more you can HELP others.

2. Skills for life

Especially for kids, homesteading instills work ethic, problem-solving, use of a wide variety of tools and so many other skills. It is also the best and most fun way to learn! From how to grow broccoli to fixing the brakes, steading creates life skills that cannot be lost or replaced. They are skills that serve as a safety net for children for their entire lives.

homesteader

3. So beautiful!

Homesteaders turn resource-consuming areas into resource-producing paradises. Homesteading can save money and time while turning your land into something worth living in! A homestead can be a haven in the modern world, a place to rejuvenate mind, body, spirit, and even your microbiome!

4. Simple Education

A few recent studies show that many Americans not only don’t know where their food comes from but don’t even know how it grows! Kids (and adults!) who think potatoes grow on trees and chickens poop tomatoes! A friend of mine once told me how her co-worker, disgusted by hearing that her eggs came from chickens, said, “my eggs come from Kroger.”

Cultivating an appreciation for real food and farmers needs to begin at home, including your backyard or back porch if possible. Even the most urban or apartment dwelling homesteader can show the beauty and value of growing food and redeeming spaces.

fruits of the homestead

5. Exercise the Traditional Way

Most Americans spend money (and lots of it!) to get exercise. Homesteaders get it for free, seriously. But instead of getting it in crammed indoor gyms with stale air at five or six AM before work, we get it under gorgeous sunrises while collecting fresh eggs and herbs, smelling lovely flowers and fragrant plants, and listening to the birds and the bees pollinate our plants. It is just a free part of the homesteading experience, no monthly fee required, just a backyard or a back quarter acre or more!

6. Security

Are finances suddenly tight? Sudden job loss? When you have no slack in your system, such things can be devastating, or at the very least, incredibly stressful. But if you have a garden full of food, a cellar full of foodstuffs, a large stack of firewood to heat and cook with, things don’t seem so bad. Many families we know (ours included) got through sudden tough times because homesteading insulated us from the shocks and stresses of sudden, even extreme financial changes.

7. Resilience

The more people in a community who have skills, grow food, catch rainwater, have gardens, and so on, the better prepared that community is to take care of itself and others during hard times. Homesteaders become part of the solution rather than the problem when things go wrong, both for themselves and for others. We want to be the kind of people who can assist our neighbors near and far when times are tough. Let’s face it, homesteaders can be real everyday heroes like the Cajun Navy after Hurricanes Katrina and Harvey.

These are just a few reasons you should consider becoming a Steader, whether urban, rural or something in between. Because that is what Steader is all about, helping you, your family, and community have the skills to live abundantly, no matter what the world throws at you.

FacebookPinEmailPrint
Category: Green Living
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: the bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

You May Also Like

4 Ways to Avoid EMF Exposure from Laptops and Notebooks

4 Ways to Avoid EMF Exposure from Laptops and Notebooks

asparagus in aluminum foil on wooden cutting board

Aluminum Foil (and Plastic Wrap) Alternatives

When Breast Cancer Isn’t Bad News

coronavirus silver lining

Can a Pandemic Break Our Addiction to Cheap Imports?

Are AMR Devices Any Safer Than Smart Meters?

Are AMR Devices Any Safer Than Smart Meters?

Roundup Sprayed on Dozens of Crops Pre-Harvest

Roundup Sprayed on Dozens of Crops Pre-Harvest

Is Your Home Making You Sick?

Get a free chapter of my book Living Green in an Artificial World + my newsletter and learn how to start creating a living environment that supports and enhances health!

We send no more than one email per week. You will never be spammed or your email sold, ever.
Loading

Reader Interactions

Comments (5)

  1. Homestead.org

    Apr 4, 2018 at 6:11 am

    Thanks for giving us this kind of information. Self-sufficient is the main part of homesteading.In self-sufficient lifestyle no matters where you live but you can start your own homesteading business. You earn lots of money, that why homesteading is more popular in nowadays.

    Reply
  2. Mark Henry

    Dec 21, 2017 at 10:13 am

    It’s really nice….Thanks for sharing 🙂

    Reply
  3. Bertski

    Sep 22, 2017 at 11:29 pm

    Oh, I long desires to have a self sufficient homestead, create a community with cottage industries but having debts paid off as per the Bible where I could discriminate of what company I’m around. Otherwords, wouldn’t be loud drinking neighbors or meddling types.
    Which I have a feeling there’s many others that share my sentiments as well as sense the necessity for some reason.
    Fixture books, Mother Earth News, Countryside magazine have always been favorites.
    Then medicinal herbs as well as rich, quality food. Then wholesome neighbors that believe in God. The benefit of owning is the right to discriminate what type company is around as well as what type isn’t around. Or what type others might welcome around.
    Then if catastrophe hits, storing up goods like the ant does, one can provide for themselves as well as any good types in need. Consider Joseph in Egypt and the prophecy of the coming famine. Biblical reference.
    Which in a city, just look at looting that goes on when there’s crisis. Which myself, I’ve had a long ongoing problem with crime living where I do, while neighbors clearly haven’t. Which rural areas, I had neighbors that would watch and tell. Again, rural sheriff’s understand protecting ones’ property without the types that try y year anothers’ life apart.
    Here again, I guess it depends where you’re at. Which the Northeast sounds nice. As well as some places in the Northwest.
    Living around loud drunks is annoying. I’d much rather live where people prefer a campfire, ghost stories, bible study and good laughs.
    Then draft animals one gets close to.
    Which anyone young, I’d recommend it any day of the week, but I’d emphasize cottage industries where profirs are generated. Always consider health problems and old age coming on. But with that lifestyle, you may be healthier. Again, get to know ones’ self and type of people you prefer and can develop strong relationships with. Again where you can keep out undesirables, which society pushes on many of us today.

    Reply
  4. John

    Sep 21, 2017 at 12:39 pm

    Ellen,
    That is great. You may want to grab a copy of my forthcoming book so you use wood chips safely. In BTE, he isn’t using fresh wood chips, and a lot of species of chips can actually kill your garden plants!

    I have about 40 whole pages written on mulching and how to do it well, wisely, and fruitfully because of all the issues people have ran into over the years.

    John

    Reply
  5. Ellen

    Sep 21, 2017 at 12:33 pm

    Beautiful post. We have 1/4 acre and its a little boggy but I’m hoping to invest little by little in low maintenance edible landscaping. Big Jim Loquat is in my sights, then avocado, then banana, then fig… all mounded up with some good soil. When the neighbor’s tree went down we asked the chipping company if he could dump it in our yard. I was so excited to get the “back to eden” style mulch. If I had my druthers I’d have all the grass ripped out to be replaced by wonderful fields of foods!! Its amazing just how beautiful edible plants can be.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Sidebar

Mother Nature’s Medicine Cabinet

5 Secrets to a Strong Immune System

Loading

The Healthy Home Economist

Since 2002, Sarah has been a Health and Nutrition Educator dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. Read More

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Check Out My Books

Mother Nature’s Medicine Cabinet

5 Secrets to a Strong Immune System

Loading

Contact the Healthy Home Economist. The information on this website has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any disease. By accessing or using this website, you agree to abide by the Terms of Service, Full Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Affiliate Disclosure, and Comment Policy.

Copyright © 2009–2023 · The Healthy Home Economist · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc.

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!