The importance of Food

Do you know what the leaves of a potato plant look like? Do you know what vegetables are ready early in the season and which ones aren’t available until fall? Do you know where your food actually comes from? 
Most people these days are completely disconnected from the farms where their food is grown. We shop in grocery stores where all the food we could possibly want is at our fingertips and is nearly dirt cheap. We make buying decisions on price differences of thirty cents, we buy pre-packaged microwave-ready dinners because we won’t have time to cook, and we fill our shopping carts with flavor and chemicals rather than fresh vegetables and whole grains.

Maybe you disagree, but I think something has gone terribly wrong here. Somewhere along the line of urbanization, big agriculture, and high fructose corn syrup making everything cheap and delicious… we forgot the importance of food.

Of all the things that we buy in life, food is the one thing that we actually need to survive. Sure, a house is pretty important, certainly a more basic need than a cell phone… but food and water are literally our most basic needs. They are our sustenance, the things that we consume multiple times a day in order to nourish our bodies and keep chugging on. When we eat, each time of each day, we should realize the importance of that act, the importance of the food we chose to nourish ourselves, and be grateful. There is food on your table, and you will not go hungry.

The phrase “you are what you eat” has never been truer than today in a world of synthetic foods and flavor. Do you think that the food you buy in boxes is as good for your body as fruits and vegetables? Everything we eat once came from nature, and a carrot is far closer to that than an oreo. Think about the pre-packaged meals in cans and freezer bags that have a shelf life of five years, they’ve been so packed with preservatives that you should be glad you don’t understand the ingredient list.

Now, I would like to stress the importance of local food. When you buy food from your farmer, you know that it’s fresh. Maybe you don’t have one in your town, but try to find nearby farmers’ markets. These are an amazing opportunity to talk to the farmer, ask about practices and pesticides, and learn a little bit about what foods are seasonally and locally available to you. You can also meet amazing people in your community, make connections, and maybe even facilitate a community potluck and try other people’s cooking! If there aren’t farmers’ markets nearby, try to shop at small/sustainable businesses, pay more attention to where the food comes from, and always read the ingredient lists.

You may say; all this sounds expensive! And in response I ask, is food important to you? Would you be willing to spend more money if it meant having a healthier body? Spending money on healthier food might mean spending less money on health care because you’ll already be healthy! It may seem like a lot at first, but think about it: how much do you actually spend on your food compared to your bills, technology, recreational shopping, driving, and simple conveniences in life? For the average American, less than 7% of all their spending is on food (http://civileats.com/2011/03/29/mapping-global-food-spending-infographic/), whereas the rest of the world is closer to 30% on average. Many people don’t have the money to eat healthy, but many more just think they don’t. You have the power to say that food is important to you, and that you will make the funds available to buy more fresh, non-processed food. If you do this, over time, your body will thank you.

I don’t mean to make this sound simple, because I know it’s hard. Here are some ideas. Go shopping with the meals of the week in mind. This will reduce excess spending, reduce waste from vegetables going bad, and will keep you motivated to make the meals which you bought ingredients for. A very simple way to eat – especially for small families or people living alone – is to make a big meal (like a pot of soup or a stir fry) at the beginning of the week, and eat that every day for dinner. I also personally suggest sandwiches, because that’s a delicious way to get raw vegetables in your day (and raw veggies are even better than cooked ones). Take the time to think about what’s important to you, what’s available to you, and what you could do as a simple change to start.

Buy grains and beans and spices. Buy cookbooks. Get excited about cooking, put on some music. When you eat, sit down at a table with your family, or face a window if you’re by yourself, and enjoy the activity of eating. Don’t watch tv, don’t absorb yourself in something extraneous. Your food will be gone before you know it, so at least give it your attention and appreciation while it’s still there.

By the way:

Also, to search for nearby farmers’ markets: http://www.farmersmarket.com/

Eat well, live well.
~Rori

Sharing is Caring

Sharing is one of the basic inter-personal skills that most children are taught in kindergarten.  But it's more than just a nice thing to do.  Sharing saves money, resources, and energy, while helping to build community.  Sharing decreases our dependence on a fossil fuel-based economy.

  As we grow up we are also taught to value independence.  Our culture views financial independence as one of the goals of adulthood.   We are supposed to make a lot of money so that we don’t have to depend on anyone else.  Why would I undergo the shame of asking my neighbor for that proverbial cup of sugar when I can afford to get in my car, drive to the grocery store and buy my own sugar?  Yet I could also ask why would I use up gas to drive to the grocery store to spend money on sugar when I could just borrow some from my friendly neighbor right here?  I think that our culture needs to revisit that basic value we were taught in kindergarten.

Our CELL group practices sharing in many different ways.  Partly this is the built-in nature of the program, but it is also an important part of learning to live sustainably.  Some of the ways that we practice sharing are:

Meals:  We take turns cooking dinner for the whole group, and we eat lunch in the communal dining hall 5 times a week.  Our food is ordered together, much of it in bulk, which reduces packaging and transportation.

Vehicle: The 11 of us get around in one large diesel-powered van

 Living spaces

 Knowledge and skills

 Entertainment: Who needs TV when you live with 10 hilarious people who can’t stop laughing?

 Other stuff: books, knitting needles, clothing… It’s nice to know that someone has my back if I need to borrow a hat or a water bottle (both of which have happened to me)

 When this program is over, I want to continue practicing sharing and generosity.  I think a common block to sharing is that we don’t always trust people with our stuff.  (I know I get anxious when someone uses my favorite mug, for example.)  But I don’t want to live in a world where fear and mistrust is the norm.  I want to be part of a community based on trust that shares freely with one another.  So here is a list of ways to start building community and saving resources:

Cook with friends, family, or neighbors

Grow a garden and give away any excess produce

Use the library for books, movies, music, and find out what other resources it might have

Share the use of washers, dryers, lawn mowers, power tools, etc.

Carpool…share cars, bicycles, scooters, whatever you have

Share your skills and ask others to share their skills with you

Give things away that you are done with: clothing, books, toys, furniture…

Offer to baby-sit, pet-sit, house-sit, plant-sit, etc.

An essay we read by Charles Eisenstein talks about gift circles.  The idea is to get together with 10-20 people to give and receive gifts.  First everyone names something that they need or want, and the group offers suggestion for how to meet that need.  Then everyone names something that they want to give.  It could be skills, labor hours, rides, use of tools or appliances, or items to give away.  I like this idea because it's practical and also a great excuse to get together with people.  I think that physical and online message boards (like Craigslist or a bulletin board in a community space) are a great way to get started sharing resources, but actually getting together and holding a gift circle is a unique opportunity with numerous benefits.  With a gift circle, everyone gets to give something and everyone gets to receive something.

I think that with sharing, everybody wins.  Individuals save money by not having to buy one of everything.  Fewer resources are being drawn from the earth to manufacture more stuff.  Community members have a chance to get to know each other better.  Sharing is caring, and sharing is key to building a sustainable world.

The essay by Charles Eisenstein that inspired this post can be found here: http://www.realitysandwich.com/circle_gifts

-Sarah

Taking a Critical Look

When we think about the idea of “sustainability,” our minds become flooded with concepts of local food systems and renewable technologies; we think of recycling, driving less, bio-fuels, environmental preservation, and climate adaptation—the list surely goes on and on. A word can easily lose its meaning if defined too broadly.  I sense that the very term of sustainability has lost its meaning in the process of trying to encompass too many broad concepts for change.  We have developed certain green jargon to try and relay a sense of human responsibility and relevance to the larger issue of climate change and the environmental movement. It is important to not forget that as much as “sustainability” does refer to some of which I listed above, there is a far deeper human element enveloped in this idea. It is easy to become overwhelmed by the daunting and radical changes demanded by the idea of sustainability. But we must remember it is simply a term to remind us that we must take action in our lives and strive to become more responsible and compassionate in the way we interact with one another and the Earth. 

The first step in becoming a more sustainable citizen, I think, is to take an honest look at the way we live our day-to-day lives. Once we identify the ways in which we spend our time, we will then be able to dive a little deeper into understanding the motivations behind the things we do. I think a lot of us will discover through this reflection that much of our time is spent buying into the consumerist and globalized pressures of our society. If we don’t step back every once and a while to see if our motivations are in line with our actions, we will find ourselves living in ways that stray far from what we had intended.

We have it programmed in our genetics to be compassionate and co-dependent on other beings, but that importance is often veiled behind the superficiality of the political, economic and social structures we have in place.  Luckily, our creative and thoughtful selves are capable of seeking out much more fulfilling and sustainable lives by removing ourselves from the inhuman foundation which holds far too much power in our society.  Living in the CELL and Solheimar community, I have been reminded of how important it is to assess my own motivations against the decisions and actions of my day-to-day life.  Through this I have been able to identify what truly generates happiness within my life and also what takes away from it. I want to simplify my life in a way that allows me to connect with this magical world and the humans that inhabit it.  I want to be consumed by the thoughtful innovation that drives us toward positive change—not materialistic gadgets that take away from it. I want to gaze upon a beautiful landscape that has been treated with the respect it deserves—not one that has been exploited by the greedy and by the ignorant. I want to support the farmer who grows nourishing food in my own community—not steal from poor nations, who if it weren’t for us, would be able to support themselves.  If we all were to put ourselves back in check, we would see that many aspects of our lives don’t support promise of a hopeful future for our children and the generations to come.

I believe everybody has an idea worth spreading and this is both my idea and the ideas of many others. We all have an obligation to be active stewards while residing on this planet.  I’m sure, many of the concepts of sustainability will inevitably become part of your life if you take a critical look at the way you live on this planet today.  Get rid of what’s excessive and replace it with something more meaningful, even if it is as abstract as an idea. Then share it. 

Here is link to one of my favorite websites. It is a great resource for learning more about sustainability related issues and practices: http://www.inspirationgreen.com/

                                                                                                                         McKayla

Finding Compassion for the Planet Through a Reconnection to the Natural World

In the past two and a half months of living in Sólheimar, I have felt myself connect with the natural world in a way that I have not experienced since I was a child. I feel that this connection can largely be traced to the fact that Iceland is an incredibly beautiful country and that we as a group have spent a great deal of time experiencing this beauty first hand - through hikes, late nights spent viewing the aurora borealis, overnight stays in historic turf houses, etc. - but I also feel that my lack of technology use since being abroad has also played a significant role in this.

I like to think of myself as someone who cares and appreciates the world that we live in very deeply.  At home, I try to spend my weekends going on hikes with friends and camping out when it’s nice enough, I practice sustainability as much as possible within my own life, and I study environmental science and photography in school, working to combine my passion for and knowledge of the natural world with physical photographs in attempt to remind those around me how precious the world we live in truly is. But I’ve realized since living in Sólheimar that my constant connection to technology - through my cell phone, computer, and iPod - has actually hindered the relationship I have with the world around me. I mean, in reality, I sit in a classroom and listen to my teachers lecture on about the global climate crisis and I spend hours working in the darkroom developing photographs and I recycle and compost as much as I can but I am really not spending as many weekends as I should be hiking through the woods, disconnected from the technological world. Instead, I’m spending weekends hidden behind my computer doing whatever homework assignment is due next or watching movies inside with my best friends.

Since coming to Iceland, I have been pushing myself to disconnect from the technological world as much as I can. I talk to my parents once a week on Skype and I do my homework on the computer and text friends occasionally but I have been making a conscious effort to spend the rest of my free time exploring Sólheimar -walking up to the ridge to watch the sunset or hanging out at the greenhouse café with the home people or going on walks down to the river. And when the weathers bad or its dark out or I’m feeling tired, I’ve been pushing myself to read or talk to the girls in my group instead of wasting time aimlessly surfing the internet. Through this conscious disconnection from technology combined with the incredible trips we’ve gone on throughout Iceland, I’ve felt significant changes within myself. I feel rejuvenated in the sense that I feel an excitement about being alive that I haven’t felt since I was young. And through this newfound enthusiasm for the life I’m living, I have felt a compassion towards the natural world that I don’t think I’ve ever experienced.

As part of the CELL program, we have spent a great deal of time discussing and experiencing sustainable living and through this we have been learning, in great depth, about the climate crisis that is occurring. While a lot of what we are learning about the current state of our planet can be depressing and overwhelming at times, there has been a lot of hope incorporated into our lessons. All that we have been learning has inspired me make changes in my home community once the CELL program ends and I don’t think I would feel so dedicated and inspired to do this if it wasn’t for this newfound appreciation and care for the world around me that I’ve gained through trying to leave technology behind and pushing myself to go outside and, often quite literally, get my hands dirty, and experience - truly experience, the world around me.

If there’s one thing I can think of that every single person who’s reading this blog post can do to contribute to help the state of our planet, it’s rekindling the connection with the natural world. I encourage everyone to spend any and as much time as possible going out into the world and experiencing it for all that it is. I encourage you to leave your cell phone at home and go on a hike through the woods, either by yourself or with people close to you. I encourage you to stop spending idle time on your computer and instead go outside and get your hands dirty like I have come to love through working in the greenhouses here in Sólheimar. The possibilities of what you can do in your own community to reconnect to the world around you are endless and vary based on where your from but I promise you that wherever you live, whether it’s a city, a suburb, or a rural community, there are things for you to do in nature if you just open up your mind. I believe that if you start incorporating outdoor activities into your daily life as much and in any way that you can, you will start to feel a sense of compassion for the world we live in that you may not have felt before. And through this newfound compassion, I believe that you can do great things for this planet - whether it’s encouraging those around you to do the same or if it’s something on a larger scale like starting an environmental movement in your community or even a community garden to bring back that sense of oneness with the earth not only for yourself but for those around you as well. These might seem like small things but trust me, they add up and have the capability of making a huge difference in helping to preserve this world for all of the generations that come after us.

Here are a few links to articles that discuss the importance of reconnecting to the natural world and how this reconnection can actually inspire people to live more sustainably:

Underestimating Nearby Nature: Affective Forecasting Errors Obscure the Happy Path to Sustainability

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/08/09/0956797611418527.full

Sustainability – relationship with self, other and the natural environment

http://www.windingstaircase.com.au/userfiles/file/Sustainability%20%E2%80%93%20relationship%20with%20self,%20others%20and%20the%20natural%20environment(1).pdf

Sustainability and our connection to nature

http://ideas4sustainability.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/sustainability-and-our-connection-to-nature/

By: Margo Feingold

Acquaint Yourself

As our experience here in Iceland is coming to its final stage, we are all having to think about how we will bring what we have learned back home with us and how to apply it.   Where can you possibly start when there is so much to do?  And I bet a lot of you readers are wondering something similar, how can you do something to help or support us in this effort too?  Well here’s a start: become more informed about the world around you.  Find out more about your local environment, economy, community offerings, governance, farms and businesses.

How can you know what needs changing if you don’t know what already exists?  One of the most important changes you can make it to engage and support your local community, especially as an effort to reduce your fuel consumption from driving.  

            Go to community centers and see what kinds of programs are being offered.  Do your best to get to know the people around you and support them.  Humans are social creatures: we like to cooperate—and I’m saying this is from the perspective of an introvert—it is extremely rewarding to work with others.  We need to leave the ideal that each person can live their independent lives without others impacting them.  Begin to pay it forward.  Once you start engaging and helping others, they may do the same for you and this may lift some stress from your life.  As Americans, we have slowed in innovation because we aren’t communing to share ideas.  Try making yourself accessible to others so that we may all learn from each other.

Explore to see if there are farms in the area and get to know your farmer, see how they are treating the land and what practices they use.  Eating chemical-free food if not just important for ecological reason, but for your health.  Food is one of the few things you will buy that directly sustains you, why would you scrimp on not getting the healthiest input possible?  Sign up for a CSA with local farms, even split the CSA with a friend.  You will get fun surprises each week, eat healthy by cutting down on processed foods, save money, and keep your farmer’s livelihood going.  Grow some produce for yourself as well; you can’t get more local than that.    

Avoid shopping or eating at the chain businesses.  Give your neighbors some support by investing your consumer dollar in their business.  The more you can cut out the middle-man, the lower your impact will be on the environment.  Support places where you know the money is going straight to the owners and business, not getting wrapped up in corporate politics or barely going to the workers who kindly helped you. 

Though working with the public can be a major challenge, try going to some town meetings or see how local governance works.  See what kinds of issues they are dealing with and how they make decisions.  If you feel so inclined, think if you could propose some ideas to the committees.  In your local government is where you can make some of the greatest impacts, rather than hoping those on Capital Hill will lead in the proper direction, do so for yourself. 

There are a lot of things you can do around you.  Changing how you act and live your life is the easiest way to improve this world.  You can’t expect others to change if you don’t change yourself.  Utilize everything around you to the maximum of what it offers and if you see a way it could be improved, work with others to make steps to make that change. 

~Emily~

The Sustainability of Rummikub

As the only English major in our little group of nine, I have a (justly earned) reputation for being able to create an unnecessary metaphor out of just about anything. It's what I do. So when two of the girls (who shall remain unidentified, but whose names may have rhymed with Maiya and Kargo) challenged me to write this blog post, which was assigned to be about some sustainable practice we could all integrate into our own lives, about Rummikub, I accepted.


Rummikub (or Rummycube), for those of you not familiar with it or the similar card game Rummy, a game played with tiles of the numbers 1 through 13 in four different colored sets. You begin the game with 14 random tiles, and, though I won't get into the specific rules here, the object of the game is to get rid of all of your tiles by placing them in patterns (like all one number in different colors, or a succession of increasing numbers of the same color) on the board. And I'm here to tell you, in all seriousness, that if you want to be more sustainable, playing Rummikub might be a good way to start.


Six Ways that playing Rummikub is practicing sustainability:


(Disclaimer: for the other English majors out there, no, this is not actually a metaphor. I decided not to create an elaborate metaphor because it would have required that everyone reading this understands all the rules of Rummikub, which seemed unnecessary because the following works better anyway.)


1. It doesn't require any energy use! Yes, there is some invested energy in the original manufacturing of the plastic boards and tiles themselves, as well as the transportation from wherever the game was manufactured to your living room, but after that, it's entirely off the grid. Compare that to so many of our other forms of entertainment these days: television, movies, video games, internet use, apps on smartphones and tablets. If you compare hours of playing Rummikub to hours of doing any of these other energy-intensive activities that require electricity, not to mention the energy and materials that originally went into making the device… well, I'm an English major, not a math major, but I'd be willing to bet that's a significantly lower carbon footprint.
2. It's recyclable! I don't mean that you can put it in the recycling, although that probably is true as well-- it's just plastic tiles and a cardboard box. What I mean is that Rummikub does not wear out or become obsolete. There's never a point where you have to go buy a new one. The game will last for hours and years of play time, and never wear out-- or be less fun! You can pass it on to your children, and they to their children, and on down the line for generations longer than an iPhone or Xbox would last.
3. It builds community! Rummikub is a game you play with other people. You can't play by yourself, which makes it different from television, movies, video games, the internet, and apps-- all things that can potentially include other people, but don't require them or their engagement. (Two people can watch a movie together and never interact.) Just like living sustainably, you have to have a community for Rummikub-- and Rummikub can help to build that community of people to be sustainable with. So many of our actions and activities today are individual and independent that when someone says "Communities are essential to sustainability," it's easy to say, "What community?" Many of us work or study alone. We drive alone. We shop for groceries and cook our meals alone. We even usually experience entertainment alone. And so we are disconnected, from each other and from the world we live in and help to create with our actions. Around here, if someone wants to play Rummikub, they go around the house asking everyone else if they want to play. The game is technically for only 4 people; we normally play with 5 or 6. Sometimes others will even come to watch, or someone will make a big communal bowl of popcorn or batch of cookies for everyone to share. We have access to all the other forms of entertainment-- we have a TV, we have internet, movies, and smartphones. But more than any of those, we want to play Rummikub. Because it brings us together.
4. You can't win unless someone else is winning, too! As stated in number 3, you need other people to play Rummikub. But more than that, you need other people to start winning Rummikub. The way the game works, you place your tiles based on what's already on the board-- which includes both what you put down and what your opponents put down. Unless you're luckier than a lottery winner, there's no way to win without someone else putting some tiles down and thus taking a step towards winning themselves. Even though everyone is playing to win, they're playing together and riffing off each other.  The better your opponents are and the more tiles they put down, the more chances you have to put down tiles in new combinations and win. This is entirely different from most of the other games we play, where even if you have an opponent, it doesn't matter if they're any good, because then it's just easier for you to win. This is also how great ideas are born. You may have a good idea, but when you see someone else's good idea, it sparks a chain reaction, where suddenly you can meld it with your good idea and it grows to become a great idea. This isn't possible without the contribution of both parties, even if they weren't initially working together. Then when the great idea is out in the open, someone else can take it and build on it to make it a solution. The kind of idea sharing we need to make good ideas great ideas, and then to make great ideas solutions, is the same kind of exchange that happens when you play Rummikub.
5. It encourages you to see patterns and think creatively! Rummikub is all about patterns and seeing the ways that the pieces are connected and can be recombined to create something new. While here at CELL, we've talked a lot about Systems Thinking, or the way that systems work together, which requires that you're able to see the patterns behind how things work. It's not just one simple pattern, either; it's a whole web of complex, interlocking patterns and systems that you have to hold in your head at once. The same is true of Rummikub. If you want to win, you have to be able to see, hold, and rearrange a tangled array of interconnected patterns in your head all at once. If we want to be able to understand our world and create sustainable solutions to the problems we face, we have to see beyond the first appearance, to the patterns and systems that make it work. We have to be able to creatively problem solve, another skill that Rummikub builds. So many of our games now are more about speed and reaction time than puzzling out an answer, which is why when we're faced with a real world problem that requires us to think and analyze rather than hit a target as fast as possible, we feel lost. Rummikub is fun, but more than that, it activates and exercises part of our brain that will be essential for creating solutions.
6. Regardless of who wins, everyone is happy in the end! Okay, this may just be my experience playing. It is entirely possible that in other, more competitive circles, there may be bitterness at the end over who won. But as far as I can tell, the simple act of getting people together to play a game that's fun and makes them think, while maybe sharing some friendly banter or even snacks, is enough to make everyone happy, winner or not. Which is a good feeling to practice, because the thing about living sustainably (or even living period) is that there's no end point where you've either won or lost. When you practice sustainability, you'll never reach a point where you can say, "Woohoo, I did it! I'm sustainable now! Game over!" We all have to learn to be happy with just being part of the process, and putting as much effort and heart into it as we could, while enjoying the company of our fellow players.

-Jessica

You may have heard all this before, but I’ll say it again…

Sustainability can have thousands of different meanings for thousands of different people. That being said, it can be incredibly difficult to deal with the problems that threaten to destroy the natural world. As many people in my life know, I’m interested in the policy aspect of environmental preservation and protection. But there are many ways we all can start to make it difference in our lives and those we share them that this program introduced to me.

Leading by example can be a really great way to create change in a community. Most of the things I will suggest I either experienced here or read about as a result of this program. As pessimistic as I am about people and their apathetic tendencies, the desire for community still exists. That can be fulfilled in really simple ways that also create a forum for ideas to grow and flourish. Being an active part of positive change can mean something as simple as leading by example, such as growing vegetables or herbs in your backyard and inviting friends or family to help, and learn in the process. These kinds of actions also apply to making small lifestyle changes, like eating less meat or dairy products, composting, biking more and driving less, giving up cosmetics, replacing chemical cleaning products with ‘friendlier versions’, buying local, having communal meals and potlucks, there’s an endless list of the ‘conventional’ (or maybe the occasional unconventional) things we hear everyday. Things we all know we should do, but we don’t. The group dynamic we have here has facilitated little challenges, not immense but feats for ourselves that have helped me realize my potential as an individual. Giving up shampoo for the entirety of this trip will be one that hopefully lasts much longer than this program. There was also a week with no sugar, and a week with no bread. These kinds of acts get you into the mode necessary for making permanent change, and helping you realize how you overcome challenges with the support of others.

Other simple solutions could be hosting a night at your house where people can come discuss a book, or watch a documentary. Just having a forum with some central catalyst, where people can freely discuss can do a lot of good with spreading ideas and facilitating creative solutions. So much more really can be done with many hands and hearts in the right place. Watching documentaries is something we do twice a week with one another, but can really make a difference in how someone thinks and can be driven to share those new thoughts with others.

            We are lucky enough here to have an international perspective of different issues, and have been able to hear about movements or theories from members of the community. If you have a skill, or knowledge of some theory or movement or idea, share it! That is something that can really drive a sense of community while also giving people food for thought, just a different way of being together.

            Where you choose to spend your money can also be an easy change, but might be difficult financially. The slow food movement, and the creation of the ‘locovore’ aren’t just fads; they’re adaptations to a dying planet, and I think Americans need to readjust their belief that food should be cheap. We have the capability to spend our money on better, local food because we can take it from another area of our lives, such as cutting back on energy usage, or learning to live without cable TV or wireless internet in your home. They may be things you’ve read or heard before, but I think it’s high time the ideas were realized.  

Links to get you started, but these websites are useful for other information as well.  

http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/food-self-sufficiency-zm0z12onzkon.aspx#axzz2k0RqKvRV

http://www.organicconsumers.org/btc.cfm

-Nora