Self-sufficiency

Self-sufficiency refers to the state of not requiring any outside aid, support, or (in hardline cases) interaction, for survival; it is therefore a type of extreme personal autonomy.

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Self-sufficiency is usually applied to varieties of sustainable living in which nothing is consumed outside of what is produced by the self-sufficient individuals. Examples of attempts at self-sufficiency in North America include voluntary simplicity, Luddism, homesteading, survivalism, and the Back to the land movement.

Related Topics:
Sustainable living - North America - Voluntary simplicity - Luddism - Homesteading - Survivalism - Back to the land

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Practices that enable or aid self-sufficiency include autonomous building, permaculture, sustainable agriculture, and renewable energy.

Related Topics:
Autonomous building - Permaculture - Sustainable agriculture - Renewable energy

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The existence of an effectively closed system makes self-sufficiency a necessity for any form of space colonization. An extreme experimental example of self-sufficiency could therefore be said to be the Biosphere 2 project.

Related Topics:
Space colonization - Biosphere 2

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The term is also applied to more limited forms of self-sufficiency, for example growing one's own food or becoming economically independent of state subsidies or (in the case of larger political entities) foreign aid.

Related Topics:
Subsidies - Foreign aid

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