Community

The Inescapable Logic of

Local Community Self-Sufficiency

(Paper #1 in a series on community self-sufficiency)

This paper makes the seemingly improbable argument that a long string of

apparently unrelated, intractable social and environmental problems have a common

root cause and a common, locally approachable solution.

o The misery of refugees and displaced jobless populations with continuing

dependency on government or private charities,

o Decay of cities (large and small),

o Deplorable conditions of Indigenous Peoples “reservations” and the continuing

loss of their languages and cultures,

o Increasing violence, apathy and mal-treatment of children,

o Destruction of whole ecological systems,

o Desertification,

o Inability of people to adapted to changing climate conditions,

o Toxification of natural and human environments,

o Overwhelming increasing stockpiles of commercial waste products in the general

environment:

All these problems, though they may seem to stem from different immediate causes,

surrender to a surprisingly mundane, non-miraculous, locally implementable

solution. While in many cases it may be very difficult or even impossible for a local

population to bring about this solution by themselves, with temporary outside aid it

will be possible. And once a well-defined point is reached, outside aid will no longer

be necessary.

What is Self-Sufficiency?

Self-Sufficiency basically means "able to provide for ones own needs without outside

aid or support." However, embedded within our use of this word lies the idea of

sustainability: The ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the

ability of future generations (human and non-human) to meet their own needs.

What is a Community?

Communities are created because few individuals survive long or happily on their

own. The word itself is usually defined as “a group of people with common interests

living or operating in a particular area”. Typically only indigenous peoples have had a

concept of community that necessarily included non-humans. It is historically borne

out that any culture that fails to consider the good of all creatures in the

environment almost inevitably ends up making their habitat unlivable one way or

another.

“Unlivable” includes situations where the long-term survival of the population

is dependent upon plundering the resources of regions beyond their own

borders – that is, transferring the problem to elsewhere.

If one can accept the above definitions, and

If one can also accept arguments made by many, many others that human life is

only healthy when long lists of non-human creatures (and their communities) are

also surviving well, and

If one has the honest intention to broadly raise the level of survival of such

communities,

Then one should consider

What are the basic, minimum functions the humans in these communities would

have to perform in order to produce a reasonably happy, healthy, self-perpetuating

level of community life

while also

Being able to apply their knowledge, skills and resources to help other communities

achieve at least the same standard of life.

While thinking about what these functions might be, one should keep in mind that:

• It is now generally accepted as a scientific fact that our agricultural,

manufacturing and energy practices are contributing to the acceleration of

climate change on a global scale1. The catastrophic events on the US Gulf of

Mexico coast during the 2005 hurricane season have given us rather a graphic

sense of the magnitude of possible consequences of climate change even if

predicted effects are only “slightly true”.

• Most Americans (like people in most Western societies) have long since ceased

to value self-reliance. Long gone are all the brilliant, simple techniques and

inventions that kept our ancestors alive during earlier times. Indeed, our

dependency on mass-produced solutions purchased off-the-shelf is complete; as

a group we have forgotten there was ever any other way. This same trend is now

becoming prevalent in so-called “Third World” countries.

• Communities run huge risks by having most vital infra-structure services

(energy & food production, water, sanitation, transportation, etc.) so highly

centralized, oil-dependent, easily disrupted and outside local control as they are

now.

• When essential supply and service systems break down and survival becomes

personal, people fight (rationally or irrationally) to protect and defend their

families and other individuals they care about. They will cannibalize their local

environment – and the environment of others – thus producing short-term

survival and long-term misery (like the parable of the man who froze to death by

tearing down pieces of his house to use as firewood.)

Simply put, with the arrival of hazardous social, economic or environmental

conditions, any community that is not constructed to be fully self-reliant and

locally self-sufficient under imaginable worst-case scenarios is likely to fail

and become a burden or threat to its neighbors.

1 See the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report “Climate Change

2001: The Scientific Basis” (http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/spm22-01.pdf ) and more

recent papers at http://www.ipcc.ch/ . Also see Pentagon report of October 2003:

“An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National

Security: Imagining the Unthinkable” (prepared for the Pentagon by Schwartz and

Randall, October 2003) at http://www.ems.org/climate/pentagon_climatechange.pdf

)

This is a very uncompromising datum; unfortunately it is also very true.

Economics and Solvency for Real, Living People

Endless media-fueled rhetoric to the contrary, all economics start at home. (The

word “economy” itself is derived from an ancient Greek word meaning “management

of the home”.) If one’s house is not producing more than it consumes, it is insolvent.

That is, the house is not able to pay its debts by virtue of its normal functioning.

People of our commercial culture don’t usually think of a house in this way because

they assume it’s normal to have to work at some outside job their whole lives to

subsidize it.

If one is taking more from his environment and extended community (human & nonhuman)

than he is contributing, then he is making himself insolvent. Rampant

insolvency results in the failure of individuals, families, societies, civilizations and

often whole lists of species that couldn’t get out of the way in time.

If one accepts that

1. the family, extended family or other self-identifying group plus its symbiotes

(non-human creatures that share a cooperative relationship) form a

community, and that

2. this community is an indivisible unit of survival (one member cannot get

along well or at all without the others),

then solutions get simpler. We find we need to solve the problems of survival at a

highly personal, local family/small community level before we can expect meaningful

results on any larger scale.

On a physical level, an important part of what makes people feel secure is a sense of

being in control of the availability of the materials and services essential to

comfortably sustain their lives.

In this paper, when we speak of functional human communities, we will assume the

extended family (perhaps a nuclear family of some kind plus various in-laws; plus

spontaneously “adopted” brothers, sisters, uncles, grandmothers, friends & guests)

as a useful starting point. A very small group or “nuclear family” alone is usually too

small to easily survive under difficult conditions. In all our planning, the extended

family will be the “atomic unit of survival” – the place where the buck stops when it

comes to sheltering, feeding, nurturing, and caring for the individual people &

environments of our world.

We will knock off the useless fantasy that some corporate or government program

will ever care for living beings (human or non-human). People only feel truly cared

for by other people who actually care about them and treat them as family.

Similarly, no environment on Earth will ever be cared for by government decree.

People will care for them because they understand how indispensable are the

relationships amongst humans, non-humans and the physical environments.

The Self-Sustaining Extended Family Homestead

Just as a plant requires nitrogen AND phosphorous AND potassium AND water AND

air simultaneously, so does any community require its interrelated components (food

production, education, fuel availability, shelter, transportation, mechanical

construction and repair, etc.) to be initiated, available, and functioning at roughly the

same time. The absence of any vital ingredient eventually destroys an entire

community – either in an obvious manner (no food) or a not-so-obvious manner

(very inconvenient household systems that fray nerves and cause domestic stress.)

A homestead (a home and the land it occupies) that is intended to withstand

shocking social and environmental upheavals must be virtually self-sufficient, easy to

live in, resilient to extreme demands and easily replicated. By its very design it

should virtually ensure the survival of itself and its occupants. This is so uncommon

in our world that the concept needs to be explained.

For example, a self-sustaining rural or suburban homestead would:

• Provide its occupants with small livestock & plants (for food, medicinal and other

uses) on a year-round basis, independent of the availability of other sources

• Recycle all of the inhabitants’ organic wastes and with it produce rich soil

• Require little or no energy input to maintain comfortable temperatures and

ventilation

• Provide any needed electric power via wind, solar or other sustainable means.

• Be easily repaired with locally available materials

• Provide water via wells and/or rooftop collection for greenhouse, gardens,

washing and drinking

• Withstand extremes of the local climate, weather (storms), geology (seismic

events), politics (social disturbances, bad governance), and external economics

(recessions).

• Provide quarters for extended family and guests.

The “urban homestead” might provide most of the same functionality though

perhaps implemented differently than under rural or suburban conditions.

Kitchen

Solviva greenhouse /

small livestock structure

(”Food Factory”)

Common

Room

Children’s

Realm

Couple’s

Realm

South

Summer

kitchen

Outdoor

common

area

General Use,

All-Weather

Pavillion

(wood-framed)

Bath

Bath

Toilets

Small sleeping

& storage

nooks

Guest

quarters

/ Storage

area

Small sleeping

& storage

nooks

Wood-framed, openwalled,

screened,

covered porch area

26 x 10

Figure 1: Sample layout of a rural or suburban homestead

A Core of Micro-Industries

If we seriously consider long-term survival for a group of extended families, we also

have to imagine and create the context in which they will be living. Clearly they

would do better if they were physically somewhat near each other in some kind of

village or settlement that also provided a variety of services. These service facilities

(not all would normally be considered “industries”) include all the various functions

the inhabitants have come to depend upon.

These might include:

Skill Use

Agro-ecology

(sustainable

agriculture)

Greenhouse, Animal husbandry, Aquaculture, medicinal herbs

Care-taking the external environment such that it becomes

healthy, abundant and amply supports its human and nonhuman

populations

Machining &

Metallurgy

Tool- and part-making, tool repair

Mechanics Maintenance of transport vehicles, earth-moving equipment,

wind generators, water pumps

Glass-making Replace damaged greenhouse panels, windows, craftwork

Weaving, sewing Clothing manufacture & repair

Ceramics Crockery, ceramic containers, craftwork

Fuel-making &

Chemistry

Bio-Diesel, methanol, ethanol, glues, dyes,

Auto mechanics Passenger vehicles & heavy equipment

Electrical /

Electronics

Radios, computers

Outdoor

(“Primitive”) Skills

Outdoor awareness & survival skills, ethnobotany (all traditional

skills of the American Indian scout)

Martial Arts Self-defense, physical competence

Medicine Surgery, midwifery, dental

Salvage &

Recycling

Metals, plastics, wood, etc.

Construction Housing, HVAC, water wells, etc.

Food Prep Cooking, drying, salting, cooking, baking, bottling, canning

Woodworking Wood harvesting, milling, cabinetry, boat-making, etc.

Schooling Cultural traditions, languages, mathematics, reading

Arts & Spiritual

Practices

In all their infinite, beautiful forms

These skill centers / micro-industries would serve as both village service providers

and educational facilities to transmit skills to others in the community and from

outside. While these tiny industries might have a hard time competing in external

marketplaces with the huge manufacturers and their economies of scale, neither

would there be an overwhelming need to compete with outside producers. Given

their internal capacities to satisfy the vast majority of their internal needs, the

community would, after all, be effectively self-sufficient.

Aside from keeping itself running, the primary products of the community would be:

1. Bringing health and abundance to the natural environment within its zone of

control or influence

2. Artisan outputs of each of the micro-industries (new homesteads,

glassworks, ceramics, food stuffs, bio-diesel fuel, weaving, on-site training

class, etc.)

3. Replicating its entire community infra-structure patterns elsewhere and

being a training base for others who wish to learn how to create one in their

own home areas. Thus the pattern is perpetuated.

Solving Thorny Problems

This paper began with a claim that this approach could help unravel some very

thorny social and environmental problems. How could this be true?

Refugees / Displaced Populations / Domestic Groups Stuck in Grinding

Poverty

Morale knows no bottom when you are powerless to change the misery of your own

conditions. If repatriation is not currently possible, why not at least make the best of

whatever land they have been place upon? Imagine a refugee camp or (in a city) a

whole neighborhood given the infra-structure to:

• Grow adequate quantities of food regardless of how adverse the climate

• Recycle all their own organic waste (including human & animal manure) into

rich, productive soil

• Have the tools, equipment, shops and skilled craftsmen necessary to

provide the functions listed above (not all may be needed and others may be

required that are omitted on the above list)

In other words, instead of letting these people decay on the dole lines or splitting

them up against their will to be sent to distant places, how about letting them build

their own self-sufficient communities right where they are?

Indigenous Peoples

Their situation is usually about the same as the last; they have normally been forced

out of their chosen areas and confined to the least desirable lands. “Giving them

jobs” and “integrating them” into the commercial world is the proven road to cultural

annihilation.

Their first job is the internal physical survival of their group, their values, their

language, their beliefs, their culture. Unless one’s plan is to shatter their sense of

self-worth and thereby subjugate them, then provide them with whatever is

necessary to become completely internally self-sufficient, including training in all the

necessary skills.

Violence, Apathy and Mal-treatment of Children

Imagine growing up in a community where, from your earliest years, you were

encouraged to participate in all the activities that add up to the survival and health of

yourself and your community. Every day you learned things of importance just from

listening to and watching artisans (who know you well) going about their daily tasks.

And when you were ready, you could apprentice with any or all of them.

Your relationship with the natural world – even in a city environment – would be

encouraged by all those who are caretaking the non-human worlds in greenhouses

and outdoor environments.

It is difficult to imagine violence, apathy and mal-treatment flourishing under such

conditions.

Ecological Devastation / Human-Caused Climate Change

It is hard work restoring forests to areas now deserts or cleaning up the damage of

wars and misguided commercial enterprises. But this is a central theme in the

mission of the community and is fully supported by its micro-industries.

Food self-sufficiency under adverse climatic conditions is accomplished by specially

constructed (but low-tech) greenhouses – using well-tested designs that permit high

production under even the most extreme conditions without dependency upon exotic

(non-locally-available) energy sources or materials. Even under such difficult

conditions, a small group of people well-trained in greenhouse operation can grow

far more food than their community could consume.

Urban Environments

Some special adaptations may be required to implement these ideas in a dense,

heavily regulated city environment. Imagine, for example, an abandoned warehouse

or other trashed-out commercial property cleaned up, renovated and outfitted with a

full complement of living units and workspaces including the above functionality.

There might be a minimum of natural environment available to work with; however,

the greenhouses would be vast spaces still capable of producing an abundance of

food.

Where restrictions make certain aspects of the model difficult or impossible (raising

chickens or goats), other activities would be augmented, ensuring that trade for

unproducible items would most certainly be possible even under very difficult

economic conditions.

As with all other versions of this model, the urban self-sufficient community would

have the non-profit mission of reaching out to and establishing good relationships

with their surrounding communities, working with residents to make their

neighborhoods into self-sufficient communities, if the residents so desired.

Creation of a Distributed Safety Net

By organizing the tools, infrastructure and capital necessary to make communities

and families or other self-identifying groups self-sufficient, they can care for

themselves. By making them more than self-sufficient, they can become part of a

“Distributed Safety Net” for their neighbors and the larger regional community by

having the resources to help their neighbors through a disastrous event and to help

them rebuild. Creating a network of loosely linked but individually self-sufficient

communities across a region would mitigate risks of catastrophic losses.

* * *

This community design is composed entirely of well-tested elements (the

greenhouse, solar electric systems, composting systems, internal economic systems,

etc). Then why hasn’t this been done before? Well, as a matter of fact, it has been

done many times before, but mostly not intentionally and usually not completely.

These types of communities evolved and, with lack of attention and protection, “deevolved”.

You can throw all the airplane parts you want into the air but they won’t ever fly. It

is only an exact combination of parts, well-assembled, well-operated and wellmaintained

that makes flight possible. Getting all the parts gathered up is just one

part of the job. We’ve got all the pieces; but the airplane still needs to be built.

So, shall we do it?