To the nay sayers: read the article again, it is just stating how much LAND is required, not a complete system by any stretch of the imagination, nor does the poster even imply that it is.

This is something we are planning on when we purchase our house, along with a number of other options to take ourselves off the grid and to supplment our food budget (which is you haven’t noticed yet we are at the beginning of a world wide food crisis).

The short answer is that is entirely possible if you are not a slave to your existing work, I took a job that allows me to work from home and doesn’t require my absolute devotion of all my time. My wife is a stay at home mother and would like to stay that way, this type of ideal would allow her to continue to do so and my son can help out as well.

Yes it is WORK, but it real work for youself and that is more rewarding than anything else. No one who is serious about this doesn’t understand that is alot of work but it completely doable. Oh noes I won’t have time to watch TV, boo hoo, I prefer to read which can be done at any time.

We are looking at using Solar, wind (water if we can get land with a good stream/creek), biomass etc for power generation but we don’t expect to turn into land loving hippies.

I don’t think most of the naysayers really understand how fragile out current infrastructure is (any one remember the NA blackout in 2003, imagine if you can if it lasted a couple of weeks or months, good bye current society).

planning to be as self sufficient as possible is just smart, thinking that the status quo will last forever is stupid, it never has in history and it never will.

Thanks for the info, it has helped my planning.

Cheers!

I’m not sure how recent this posting is but i came across your site when attempting to gather more information for my own site. It is essentially what you are referring to in this blog. I live in Arrowtown, New Zealand and am currently doing some market research in setting up a community co-op called greengrocer.co.nz. Obviously the idea is not as unique as I thought but it’s great to know there are like-minded people out there. In short, the site will be a trading platform owned by growers and buyers, which is product and geographically based to allow extra incentive to trade locally. ie the closer you trade the more points you earn. This also allows growers and buyers to dictate the value of their own produce through auction based trade and price tracking. Also, by registering what you are growing and when it will be ready or what produce you and your family would like each week , other growers can decide which produce to grow and supply to the local market by doing a geographically based search for demand and supply. NZ has a very low population density so most house have sufficient land to be quite self-sustainable. Sadly, most land is now in lawn and is not utilised in this way anymore, although that is changing now with the increase in living and fuel costs being felt. I will be interested to read your thoughts on this concept and maybe even working with you in further developing our ideas. At this stage I’m trying to get some survey and market feedback in NZ so I can understand how convenient and useable the site will need to be. I have a few ideas on the co-op model also which I can share with you.

Cheers
Vaughn Crowther

Does it hold a fire all night? How well does the blower work? How much space are you heating with it? They say the older stoves are about 50% efficient where the newer ones are 70%, but all the newer ones are $1500 and up.

Thanks
Troy

Just thought you’d like to know; I have mentioned you in my book. There is a section on comparing various systems of living:

“With close to 7 billion people on Earth, the kind of subsistence behaviour that supported just a few people thousands of years ago, and still supports pockets of humanity in some areas, doesn’t seem possible – there doesn’t seem to be enough land or wildlife to go round. Surely city dwelling, with its emphasis on high density, high efficiency living is the only way to support even the 4.6 billion people that WWF and the Optimum Population Trust say is sustainable, isn’t it? To answer that question we need to consider how much land a person needs to grow their own food and obtain the other basic requirements for life, such as shelter and clothing.

“On the food side, an interesting analysis was carried out by Andy Collier in 2007 , who estimated that each person would need around 0.5 acres (0.2 ha) to be fully self sufficient on an individual basis. For 7 billion people, this works out as 14 million square kilometres, or 9.5% of the Earth’s land surface. Even if we triple this to allow for building, clothing and heating materials, it is still only 28% of the land surface. However, we do not live off the land, we live largely in a civilized culture.”

Keep up the good work.

Cheers

Keith