Homesteading

Living off the fat of the land used to be the dream lifestyle back when mass production wasn’t yet a thing. Today we’re just fat on the land. There is an alternative to shopping for groceries at a store we need to consider: Homesteading.

   Homesteading is basically growing your own crops, sustaining your own land, and making your own food. It’s going back to our old ways of survival. It is a more sustainable lifestyle where you and the earth are the sole providers of your food. You plant, harvest, feed, breed plants and animals, and live off what you grow.  Critics of homesteading claim that because of big cities and suburbs, Homesteading is an unrealistic solution. Opponents argue that Americans don’t know how to grow crops, take care of animals that produce byproducts and especially don’t know how to process their own food! How can we expect the public to learn how to grow their own produce if some people don’t even own their own property? My answer: we’ve done it before.

Homesteading is Not as Uncommon as You Think

Although it may sound like a foreign concept now, once upon a time, Americans were expected to grow their own crops and food. Victory Gardens were a common appearance in the everyday American home during the second world war when food was limited. During the war mass production was used for weapons and machinery instead of food and clothing, and Americans had to learn to fend for themselves. In other words, we were homesteaders. According to Wessels Living History Farm, “Labor and transportation shortages made it hard to harvest and move fruits and vegetables to market. So, the government turned to its citizens and encouraged them to plant.” 

   When our nation faced a food crisis, our government prompted us to grow and harvest our own. Growing our own produce can be done with the right materials and information. We have hundreds of thousands of videos and channels on YouTube that can teach us how to do things step by step to ensure that our homesteading endeavors succeed. From learning how to cook with the ingredients you already have to plant said ingredients; we have YouTube channels like TheCottageFairy, a young woman living in rural Washington who creates organic art and shows her life living away from the city and on her own land, Good Simple Living showing us how to micro homestead, and hannahleeduggan who brings us on her journey of self-discovery from van life to her now homesteading. We aren’t just limited by YouTube either, we have websites like The Prairie Homestead which has blogs on urban homesteading, Homestead.org, and Homestead & Chill, which all offer tips, tricks, and tutorials on how to start a homestead; resources we have plenty. And Americans don’t need to be landowners to be homesteaders. Even just a simple flowerbed on the windowsill of your small apartment can bring you small produce like a few vines of tomatoes and if your neighbor decides to grow peas you can trade. Planting and trading for a more comfortable way of life. This is how people lived for thousands of years before the 20th Century, if people could learn it once, we can do it again.

    In fact, it’s already happening. According to Fox 11, News report issued in 2020, during the pandemic, “42% of Americans have started growing their own produce.” Homesteaders of America discloses that as of January 2023 between the states of California (8.8%), Virginia (6.5%), Alabama (6.4%), and Arkansas (4.1%) of these states are still homesteaders. Not only are many Americans planting their own food, but they have the option to sell it for profit. Subtle homesteading not only feeds you and your family, but if you have enough produce you can even make a profit by selling the excess food you grow in your community.

An Answer to Rising Food Costs

There is no denying that food prices have risen due to inflation. Today our standard grocery selections aren’t the same quality or price they were a few years ago. A year ago, I could’ve gone to the grocery store and bought a dozen eggs for about or even less than 10$, but at the start of the year if I had gone down to Rancho San Miguel to buy groceries, a dozen eggs could easily cost over $12. Food costs more because of inflation, a permanent economic trend. Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services is rising, and subsequently, purchasing power is falling. 

    Some economists, such as Michelle Chang, argue that even though inflation is high there’s no need to worry since inflation is a common thing and prices will eventually go back down. Chang claims that the reason interest rates are so high in 2023 is because the government is using interest in order to combat inflation as well as to cool the economic growth, but that eventually prices will drop again.

   But not all economists agree with her. According to VOXMEDIA, “Fuel prices have since fallen as oil prices have dropped from last summer’s peaks and the global economy has slowed, dragging down demand for oil.” The higher food prices rise, the fewer food people will buy, and the fewer farmers will plant or produce, causing a supply shortage that drives prices up even higher! What other solution are we left with other than to grow our own food?

   Consider Johnny, a busy underpaid corporate worker, who decides to buy a couple of chickens, build a chicken coop, and start to grow his own vegetables. He’s saved a lot of money on groceries since he started getting most of his produce at home and he loves that he knows exactly where his food is coming from. Johnny tells his family that although it can feel like a chore at times, it’s rewarding to see his hard work pay off after seeing his harvest of juicy tomatoes and crisp cucumbers. Johnny’s chickens lay eggs every day; at first, he only wanted enough eggs to keep his pantry supplied, but because his chickens lay more than plenty, he started giving them out to his neighbors. Mrs. Frump, a neighbor in her sixties and on a fixed income, is so thankful for the eggs that she bakes him cookies on a regular basis. Now, Johnny feels connected to both his food and his neighbors.

Processed Food can be Questionable

How many times do you turn the packaging of your food around to check at the nutrition label other than to check for the calories or protein? I’m going to guess less than 5 times in the past year. Even if you do check the whole label, when you get to the ingredients list, oftentimes most of the chemicals listed don’t even seem legible. For example what even is phosphoric acid? It’s an odorless, colorless chemical often used in cleaning supplies, but can also be found in your can of Coca-Cola. Each time we take a refreshing sip of soda, we might as well be taking a sip of our toilet cleaner. We are often consuming chemicals or additives in our food, that if we knew what they actually were, we would never put in our bodies. Even non-preservatives are infested with chemicals that wouldn’t usually be used if the produce was harvested at home. HealthyOptions, a consumer advocate website, has curated a “Dirty Dozen” list of produce at grocery stores that contain chemicals and pesticides:

• Strawberries contain Carbendazim, a hormone-disrupting fungicide that damages the male reproductive system, and Bifenthrin, a possibly carcinogenic insecticide
• Apples contain Diphenylamine, a chemical that can help produce carcinogenic Nitrosamines
• Peaches contain the pesticide Fludioxonil, carcinogenic Iprodione, and neurotoxin Phosmet
• Cherries contain Boscalid, a possible carcinogen, Bifenthrin, and Myclobutanil, both are developmental and reproductive toxins
• Tomatoes contain Endosulfan II, a suspected hormone disruptor
• Sweet bell peppers: Contain pesticides Oxamyl oxime and Thiamethoxam
• Potatoes contain bee toxins Chlorpropham and Imidacloprid
  
  

And this is only part of the list! Pesticides can interfere with the development of the nervous system and cause developmental delays. Exposure to pesticides can also increase the risk of childhood cancers such as leukemia (World Health Organization & United States Environmental Protection Agency). The safety of our children and ourselves should be our first priority. If we have the needed essentials growing in our yards for our weekly meals, then we wouldn’t just be saving money, we’d be saving lives.

    When we grow our own food, and make our own juice or lemonade at home, then we know what’s going into our bodies and will pay more attention to what we eat. Homesteading means our families will be healthier without having to give up our favorite meals. Cooking your own meals from food you have grown is a reward in and of itself because it allows you to have complete control over the quality of your food. It can also be a fun and satisfying way to connect with nature and the environment. Whenever you’re cooking up your next meal you won’t have to wonder if, at your next checkup, a tumor will be sitting in your stomach.

   In short, our nation has a history of Homesteading, a practice that can save you money in spite of any upcoming economic recessions, and stave off any health problems caused by processed food. Homestead is the optimum choice for a carefree life.