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Articles on Self-sufficiency

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Teachers can get their pupils thinking about different ways to create sustainable livelihoods through something as simple as a vegetable garden at school. Jasmin Merdan/Getty Images

I introduced social entrepreneurship to my trainee teachers – why it’ll make them better at their jobs

Though entrepreneurship of any kind is not easy, it can instil tenacity in the face of adversity. There are lessons here for trainee teachers.
The costs of keeping a roof over our heads create a dependence on market growth that puts low-consumption, sustainable living out of reach for many of us. Glenn Hunt/AAP

Access to land is a barrier to simpler, sustainable living. Public housing could offer a way forward

The cost of land and, in turn, housing forces people to buy into the rules of market capitalism, making it very hard to ‘downshift’ from consumer lifestyles. But what if we rethink public housing?
Whitlanders in the 1940s. Established in 1941 near the base of Victoria’s Mount Buffalo, this Catholic community celebrated the ‘dignity of manual labour’ and was led by a charismatic athlete and former judge’s associate, Ray Triado. Joe Pisani

Friday essay: the Australians who pioneered self-sufficiency, generations before Nimbin

Long before 70s hippies and hipster artisans, Australians were seeking solace by going back to the land. They ranged from anarchists to suffragists to Catholic agrarians.
The home biogas system offers a zero-emissions alternative to paying for fossil gas. Samuel Alexander

Home biogas: turning food waste into renewable energy

Australians love cooking with gas, but what if you could make your own supply, using leftover food waste? It may be time for more households to embrace home biogas – and stop paying gas bills.

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