tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/self-sufficiency-48515/articlesSelf-sufficiency – The Conversation2023-08-01T12:25:52Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2096682023-08-01T12:25:52Z2023-08-01T12:25:52ZDonors give more when asked to help people get back on their feet instead of meeting immediate needs – new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539065/original/file-20230724-21-visf7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=421%2C708%2C5966%2C3533&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As the saying goes, it's better to teach someone to fish than to give them a fish.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/girl-holding-grandfathers-hand-and-going-fishing-on-royalty-free-image/1347216675?adppopup=true">Dimensions/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Charities that provide social services such as medical care or after-school programs should consider emphasizing how their efforts can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00222437221140028">help their clients become more self-sufficient</a>, my research findings suggest.</p>
<p>With my colleagues <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zs0rJiYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Stacie Waites</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=NpOhetkAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">Adam Farmer</a> and <a href="https://kelley.iu.edu/faculty-research/faculty-directory/profile.html?id=RWELDEN">Roman Welden</a>, I explored whether people respond differently to fundraising pitches for charities that promise to help people in need become more self-sufficient than those that don’t.</p>
<p>One study involved asking people in one of two ways to donate to the <a href="https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/">Wounded Warrior Project</a>, a charity that helps veterans who have been injured. The participants were told either that their gifts would support veterans’ immediate needs, such as food and housing, or that they would contribute to their eventual self-sufficiency through career counseling and therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. These messages were developed from <a href="https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/programs">information available on the Wounded Warrior website</a>.</p>
<p>For this study, we recruited workers from <a href="https://www.mturk.com/worker">Amazon Mechanical Turk</a>, a crowdsourced platform for paid tasks. Participants were paid to view one of the two charitable appeals and were given a bonus payment that could be donated partially or in full to the charity. We found that study participants who received the self-sufficiency pitch gave approximately 38% more of their bonus payment to charity.</p>
<p>We also explored which kind of message works best for the Pinnacle Resource Center, a regional charity in East Tennessee that assists homeless people, as part of its holiday fundraising campaign. Potential donors saw one of two messages focused on either meeting clients’ immediate needs or helping them become more self-sufficient. </p>
<p>One was: “Our focus is on providing resources to help individuals become self-sufficient in an effort to eventually provide for themselves.”</p>
<p>The other was: “Our focus is on providing resources to help individuals meet their immediate needs, whatever they may be.”</p>
<p>The people who saw the self-sufficiency message were almost three times as likely to donate and gave approximately 80% more money. The charity raised five times more money from the donors who got the self-sufficiency pitch.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Charities often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/666470">appeal to current and potential donors</a> based on the food, shelter and services they provide to those in need, using a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2006.01.005">variety of fundraising tactics</a>.</p>
<p>My research highlights a fundraising strategy that these nonprofits can use to their advantage.</p>
<p>A wide array of charities, such as disaster relief groups and after-school programs, could probably raise more money if they were to put greater emphasis in their messaging on how they’re boosting the eventual self-sufficiency of their clients.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>I didn’t look at donations other than money, such as blood or canned food, or the hours volunteers log at the charities they support. So my research didn’t examine how messages related to self-sufficiency may affect those kinds of support.</p>
<p>Might appealing to certain emotions work better than others when they’re paired with self-sufficiency messages?</p>
<p>Given that <a href="https://doi.org/10.2501/S0021849910091592">evoking emotions such as nostalgia</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2017.02.004">guilt can increase charitable giving</a>, I believe that it’s important to discover which emotions are the best to elicit with fundraising pitches aimed at promoting the self-sufficiency of a charity’s clients.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209668/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pinnacle Resource Center partnered with Jonathan Hasford's research team to conduct a field experiment described in this article. It did not receive any compensation or financial support during its work with the charity.
Jonathan Hasford did not work for, consult, or receive funding from the Wounded Warrior Project when working on this research.</span></em></p>Emphasizing self-sufficiency in fundraising pitches can increase charitable donations, a marketing scholar has found.Jonathan Hasford, Douglas and Brenda Horne Professor of Business, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1976222023-02-06T15:03:21Z2023-02-06T15:03:21ZI introduced social entrepreneurship to my trainee teachers – why it’ll make them better at their jobs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506819/original/file-20230127-3270-6vhvy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teachers can get their pupils thinking about different ways to create sustainable livelihoods through something as simple as a vegetable garden at school.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jasmin Merdan/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The daily headlines from South Africa are largely gloomy. The country’s government seems unable to address a <a href="https://www.enca.com/analysis/sas-electricity-crisis-17-years-rolling-blackouts">years-long electricity crisis</a> that is steadily worsening. Unemployment <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-29/south-africa-jobless-rate-drops-to-third-highest-in-the-world">is high</a>. Food prices <a href="https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/food-prices-in-south-africa-continue-to-surge/">are climbing</a>. </p>
<p>But there are pockets of excellence – like stories <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-09-28-social-enterprises-could-be-an-answer-to-south-africas-development-challenges-but-investors-are-in-short-supply/">of social entrepreneurship</a>, an approach that uses business principles to create positive social and environmental impact. <a href="https://res.cloudinary.com/do95jfmcf/image/upload/v1624300757/website/publications/210607_BC_Early_Stage_Funding_Report_V3-compressed_nxdwrk.pdf">It involves</a> identifying social problems using entrepreneurial principles to develop, fund, and implement solutions. </p>
<p>Though entrepreneurship of any kind is not easy, it can instil incredible tenacity in the face of adversity. There are lessons here. For the past seven years I’ve sought to help trainee teachers harness those lessons by introducing them to the concept of social entrepreneurship.</p>
<p>To do so, I start with “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk9I3Iq3Dow">Who Cares?</a>”, a documentary by Brazilian filmmaker Mara Mourão. It’s about social entrepreneurs from seven countries who discover new and innovative ways to solve some of society’s most pressing matters. They do so while working with few resources and catering to fundamental human needs that governments, particularly in the global south, cannot provide. </p>
<p>I use this film in my classes to assist future teachers in understanding how global problems influence countries and to encourage students to think critically and imaginatively about ways to help lessen inequality in their communities. </p>
<p>This is critical for teachers. Many of the students who graduate from our programme will go on to work in disadvantaged communities where social entrepreneurship could create real change. It could also give pupils a chance to explore how they might pursue social entrepreneurship as a career. </p>
<h2>How it started</h2>
<p>The major aim of existing school and university curricula is to prepare students for higher education and to acquire a degree and subsequently work for a company. The emphasis is on improving people’s own lives rather than thinking about how to assist the communities in which they reside. By teaching my students about social entrepreneurship, I offer them a practical way to enact social justice. This is the notion that everyone should have equal rights and opportunities in society’s social, economic, and political spheres. </p>
<p>In 2016, I set out <a href="http://ersc.nmmu.ac.za/articles/ESRC_Sept_2017_Waghid_and_Oliver_Vol_6_No_2_pp_76-100.pdf">to study</a> whether a group of 43 future teachers could grasp and apply the concept of social entrepreneurship. </p>
<p>I was drawn to social entrepreneurship education because it often incorporates hands-on, experiential learning, which may be more interesting and beneficial for students than traditional classroom instruction. This was appealing: it would allow me to see the effect of my teaching on real-world issues.</p>
<p>Mourão’s 2013 documentary delves into the lives of social entrepreneurs such as Nobel Prize winner <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2006/yunus/biographical/">Muhammad Yunus</a> of Bangladesh, as well as others from Brazil, Peru, Tanzania, Canada, Germany, Switzerland and the United States, whose socially beneficial ventures have significantly and positively affected certain communities.</p>
<p>Prior to seeing the documentary, hardly any of the students understood what social entrepreneurship was. Some students saw a clear connection between it and corporate social responsibility. The latter, though, is more concerned with the financial and social aims of increasing a company’s competitiveness than with improving people’s lives.</p>
<p>Subsequent cohorts of trainee teachers have also not initially grasped the concept of social entrepreneurship. The rigid South African school curriculum appears to be the root cause of this conceptual gap. Most young people are not given the chance at school to think critically and creatively, and the curriculum doesn’t offer enough opportunities for students to learn about or implement social entrepreneurship.</p>
<h2>Towards establishing a community</h2>
<p>The film, both for the initial cohort whose reactions I documented in a <a href="http://ersc.nmmu.ac.za/articles/ESRC_Sept_2017_Waghid_and_Oliver_Vol_6_No_2_pp_76-100.pdf">research paper</a>, and for those who have followed, seemed to spark the students’ curiosity. It also showed them that seemingly small projects can count as entrepreneurship. Creating a vegetable garden at school is a way to teach learners the necessary skills and knowledge to be self-sufficient and aware of economic and environmental sustainability. </p>
<p>But what would this look like in practice?</p>
<p>To find out, the 2016 cohort and I identified a historically underprivileged high school in Cape Town where we hoped to help develop various sorts of social innovation and entrepreneurship. Then we discovered that the school was already involved in a community engagement project through an annual market day. The proceeds were used to host an annual awareness campaign aimed at recognising, appreciating, and honouring the contributions of elderly South African citizens in the community. </p>
<p>Rather than starting something new, the trainee teachers worked with pupils taking part in the market day to help build their social ventures. This involved applying what they learned from “Who Cares?” to develop business plans. </p>
<p>And they learned about another important aspect of social entrepreneurship: listening to communities rather than assuming they know how to solve existing problems. Communities can enlighten universities about what needs to happen, what is already being done, and what collaboration might look like, as seen in the example of the school above.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197622/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zayd Waghid received funding in 2019 from the National Research Foundation for a project called "Cultivating Social Entrepreneurial Education in Universities and Schools". He is currently an executive member of the South African Education Research Association.</span></em></p>Though entrepreneurship of any kind is not easy, it can instil tenacity in the face of adversity. There are lessons here for trainee teachers.Zayd Waghid, Associate professor, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1704812021-10-28T13:47:36Z2021-10-28T13:47:36ZInspiration from the 1970s for today’s young environmentalists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428835/original/file-20211027-23-19daz86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Allotments were popular in the 1970s and are now busy again.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Air Images/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cult 1970s BBC TV show The Good Life examined Tom and Barbara Good’s experience of attempting to opt out of the rat race by becoming self-sufficient. They grew vegetables in their back garden, milked a goat, tried to knit their own clothes and collected their animal’s waste to create methane to generate electricity. </p>
<p>With the first theatre production of The Good Life just starting <a href="https://thegoodlifeonstage.com">a UK tour</a>, a look back at the environmental activists of the 1970s reminds us that those trying to cut their carbon emissions today aren’t the first to aim for a greener lifestyle. </p>
<p>In the 1970s, only a generation after the second world war, many who remembered deprivations and shortages still happily practised the “make-do-and-mend” mentality that had been promoted <a href="https://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item106365.html">by the government</a> in their childhoods. Some embraced a more <a href="https://www.resources.org/archives/confronting-future-environmental-challenges/">environmentally friendly</a> lifestyle, others just opted for saving money. </p>
<p>For many people in the 1970s, clothes were bought more sparingly and, significantly, were repaired, if a dress needed taking in or a hole appeared. With the rise of fashion chains such as Primark, repairs went out the window for many as replacements were so cheap. But green campaigns are now popping up to encourage people to <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2021/08/09/i-want-you-to-start-mending-your-clothes-instead-of-throwing-them-away-14983522/?_kx=9gxDNToJMMudsu1dFT4x772rDVZaM__-iKUp44X52V4%3D.Hk8QHd">mend their clothing</a> rather than throw them away.</p>
<p>Well before <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/take-part/the-repair-shop">the Repair Shop</a> became a popular TV show, getting everything from televisions to furniture fixed rather than throwing it away was normal. Many people would do simple fixes at home and shops offering repairs were found on most high streets. Fifty years later, the desire to <a href="https://reuse-network.org.uk">reuse</a> is only just coming back into fashion, driven by today’s environmentalists.</p>
<p>Food, though, only slightly more expensive than it is now, was a higher proportion of <a href="https://ifs.org.uk/bns/bn128.pdf">weekly spending by households</a> and <a href="https://time.com/3957492/a-brief-history-of-leftovers/">leftovers</a> were often turned into meals for the next day now the UK <a href="https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/changes-in-eating-habits/">throws away</a> 7 million tonnes of food and drink from their homes every year, the majority of which could have been eaten. The pioneers of <a href="https://www.plasticexpert.co.uk/recycling-ages-1970s/">recycling</a> began to make their mark in the 1970s, building on established household practises such as putting empty milk bottles on doorsteps to be taken away and reused. Many drinks companies offered a deposit on glass bottles which could be refunded if an old bottle was brought back to a shop, a form of recycling that is again <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/introducing-a-deposit-return-scheme-drs-for-drinks-containers-bottles-and-cans/outcome/introducing-a-deposit-return-scheme-drs-in-england-wales-and-northern-ireland-executive-summary-and-next-steps">under discussion</a>. </p>
<p>Owning chickens to provide a daily supply of eggs has become a trend <a href="https://www.thehappychickencoop.com/how-many-people-have-gotten-chickens-in-the-past-five-years">recently</a>. In the 1970s, this might have been a step too far for many town or city dwellers. But <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199798/cmselect/cmenvtra/560/56009.htm">growing vegetables on an allotment</a>, normally land owned by councils, was popular, and many people grew vegetables in their gardens, even if they only had a small plot. Allotment use is bouncing back, with an increased interest in growing your own food.</p>
<p>As well as offering an opportunity to eat fresh seasonal produce at a low price, allotments offered an element of self-sufficiency and offered a sense of community <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/sustainable-food/news/diary-project-shows-wellbeing-benefits-allotment-gardening">among users</a>. I helped my dad on his allotment and remember the sense of wellbeing it provided as well as the taste of produce that had been harvested only a couple of hours previously.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/allotments-have-been-disappearing-from-cities-heres-why-they-are-ripe-for-a-comeback-147871">Allotments have been disappearing from cities – here's why they are ripe for a comeback</a>
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<p>Households from that period were careful about not wasting energy. It’s notable that since 1970 total electricity consumption has increased by <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/550592/uk-electricity-consumption-by-final-users/">almost 54%</a>. In the house I grew up in, each room had one lightbulb and one power socket. Anything other than one black and white television was viewed as unnecessarily <a href="https://www.drax.com/electrification/use-electricity-70s/">decadent</a>. Video players and the plethora of associated entertainment devices, now common in every household, were seen as futuristic – or hadn’t been invented yet. </p>
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<img alt="A cassette recorder, and old style telephone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428836/original/file-20211027-17493-z20pc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428836/original/file-20211027-17493-z20pc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428836/original/file-20211027-17493-z20pc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428836/original/file-20211027-17493-z20pc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428836/original/file-20211027-17493-z20pc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428836/original/file-20211027-17493-z20pc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428836/original/file-20211027-17493-z20pc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Household energy use was far lower in the 1970, with fewer gadgets and computers available.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">jakkapan/Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Of course, there was plenty that wasn’t environmentally friendly about the 1970s. Coal was the <a href="https://www.mygridgb.co.uk/a-brief-history-of-british-electricity-generation/">main fuel</a> used to produce power and heat homes. Though increasing energy costs in the early 70s caused some to worry about the amount of heat lost, the vast majority of houses were draughty, and even those just being built did not incorporate insulation that would comply with <a href="https://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/energy-buildings/content-section-2.4.4">modern requirements</a>.</p>
<p>Sustainability, and protecting the environment from emissions of greenhouse gases, as well as pollution, were not mainstream issues in the 1970s. </p>
<p>What the government’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/net-zero-strategy">net-zero strategy</a> is intended to achieve, it may be argued, is to encourage us to embrace a simpler lifestyle that would have been regarded as standard in the 1970s. Energy resilience and self sufficiency remains <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/university/colleges/eps/research/resilience-energy/energy.aspx">an aspiration</a>. </p>
<p>Though there are many obstacles to living like the Goods, especially in urban areas, there’s much we can do to emulate their example. It’s critical we reduce <a href="https://bite-sizedbooks.com/exploring-the-green-economy/">our carbon footprint</a>, cut consumption and engage in activities such as recycling and reuse. And use of fossil fuels – which has almost trebled since <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52461913">1970</a> – must be reversed. </p>
<p>The future contemplated by the Goods was one that was better than in their youth. For many Gen Zs, the environmental future looks <a href="https://www.aecf.org/blog/what-are-the-core-characteristics-of-generation-z">less optimistic </a>. If those engaged in protest to save the planet could recognise anything from the Good’s story, it’s that those advocating radically different lifestyles are rarely welcomed. As Gen Z now know, environmental challenges they need to confront are much starker.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170481/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven McCabe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Allotments and repairing old clothes are just aspects of 1970s life that are making a comeback.Steven McCabe, Associate Professor, Institute for Design, Economic Acceleration & Sustainability (IDEAS), Birmingham City UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1212462019-08-21T19:53:34Z2019-08-21T19:53:34ZAccess to land is a barrier to simpler, sustainable living. Public housing could offer a way forward<p>Many of us do not need to hear any more warnings from <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/2018/10/08/summary-for-policymakers-of-ipcc-special-report-on-global-warming-of-1-5c-approved-by-governments/">the IPCC</a>, <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2209126-david-attenborough-on-climate-change-we-cannot-be-radical-enough/">David Attenborough</a> or climate activists like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/11/greta-thunberg-schoolgirl-climate-change-warrior-some-people-can-let-things-go-i-cant">Greta Thunberg</a>. We have seen enough to be convinced that limitless <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/post-capitalism-life-within-environmental-limits">economic growth and the globalisation of high-consumption lifestyles</a> have <a href="https://www.breakthroughonline.org.au/whatliesbeneath">brought our planet’s life-support systems to the brink of collapse</a>.</p>
<p>In response to today’s urgent ecological and social problems, we often hear calls from sustainability advocates about the need to “<a href="https://www.sloww.co/downshifting-simple-living/">downshift</a>” away from consumer lifestyles, to practise <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-revolution-disguised-as-organic-gardening-in-memory-of-bill-mollison-66137">permaculture</a> and to embrace <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-simple-life-manifesto-and-how-it-could-save-us-33081">simpler ways</a> to live. When these <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-suburbs-are-the-spiritual-home-of-overconsumption-but-they-also-hold-the-key-to-a-better-future-108496">movements scale up</a>, the argument goes, we will “<a href="http://theconversation.com/life-in-a-degrowth-economy-and-why-you-might-actually-enjoy-it-32224">degrow</a>” our economies to a sustainable scale.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/life-in-a-degrowth-economy-and-why-you-might-actually-enjoy-it-32224">Life in a 'degrowth' economy, and why you might actually enjoy it</a>
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<p>Important though these analyses and perspectives are, they almost always leave something critical out of the conversation. There is a very powerful reason we are currently unable to move toward a simpler and sustainable society: the costs of securing access to land for housing often mean only the relatively affluent can afford such “green lifestyles”.</p>
<p>In response to this problem, we offer some ideas to show how public land could be used for sustainable forms of community-led development.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288831/original/file-20190821-170914-1icx8ko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288831/original/file-20190821-170914-1icx8ko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288831/original/file-20190821-170914-1icx8ko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288831/original/file-20190821-170914-1icx8ko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288831/original/file-20190821-170914-1icx8ko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288831/original/file-20190821-170914-1icx8ko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288831/original/file-20190821-170914-1icx8ko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288831/original/file-20190821-170914-1icx8ko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Creating a place like Sustainable Fawkner’s ‘Dandelion Patch’ depends on access to suitable land. More creative public housing policies could lead the way in developing more community food gardens (for example, see www.ntwonline.weebly.com).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/takver/16183127878">Takver/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The property system makes simple living hard</h2>
<p>Recognition of the need for <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-strikes-greta-thunberg-calls-for-system-change-not-climate-change-heres-what-that-could-look-like-112891">system change</a> is growing. But those arguing for high-impact societies to downshift toward cultures of sustainable consumption need to acknowledge a fundamental problem more clearly: simply keeping a roof over our heads can demand an energy-intensive lifestyle and a dependence on market growth.</p>
<p>Why? Having to buy or rent a home in capitalist societies like Australia has huge implications for most of us. It affects what we do for work, how much we work, our need for a car, etc. And, if you can barely afford land or your own home, putting solar panels on the roof, working part-time or growing your own organic food all become very unlikely.</p>
<p>In short, securing the basic need for housing is putting people in <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/more-home-owners-falling-behind-on-mortgage-as-debt-climbs-20190617-p51yhg.html">more and more debt</a>. This often means any attempt at “dropping out” of market consumerism first involves a whole lot of “dropping in”. The consequences of this reality are anything but <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Affluenza-When-Much-Never-Enough/dp/1741146712">simple, local and sustainable</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-suburbs-are-the-spiritual-home-of-overconsumption-but-they-also-hold-the-key-to-a-better-future-108496">The suburbs are the spiritual home of overconsumption. But they also hold the key to a better future</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A different type of land and housing opportunity is needed for reasons of sustainability and equity. Central here is the recognition that access to land, just as with air and water, is not a market product. <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/LandAndHR/Pages/LandandHumanRightsIndex.aspx">It is a human right</a> and should be recognised as such. </p>
<p>Even discussing land reform in terms of “affordable housing” still frames land as a market commodity. These discussions often rely on notions of charity and welfare to increase access to land when it really should be available as a right.</p>
<p>But in a nation where simply <a href="https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2019/07/negative-gearing-reform-dead-buried-cremated/">abolishing negative gearing appears to be politically unpalatable</a>, it would be pragmatic, as a first step, to explore less controversial but still effective policy approaches.</p>
<h2>Pointers to rethinking how we govern land</h2>
<p>There are <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1941069">many conceptions</a> of property, which means we do not simply have to choose between free market capitalism and state socialism. In Singapore, for example, <a href="https://www.hdb.gov.sg/cs/infoweb/about-us/history">more than 80% of residents live in state-provided housing</a>. </p>
<p>Societies can govern access to land in an infinite variety of ways. Each way distributes or concentrates wealth and power in progressive or regressive ways.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-century-of-public-housing-lessons-from-singapore-where-housing-is-a-social-not-financial-asset-121141">A century of public housing: lessons from Singapore, where housing is a social, not financial, asset</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>One policy deserving of attention involves attempting to transcend the “welfare” framing of existing uses of public housing. Already, secure access to public land has empowered some residents to participate <a href="https://www.facs.nsw.gov.au/housing/living/rights-responsibilities/get-involved/chapters/community-greening-program">in programs such as community food gardens, resources repair/share programs, housing management, maintenance</a> and, in the UK, even <a href="http://www.forevergreen.org.uk/Forever_Green_Ecological_Architects/hedgehog-self-build-housing-co-op.html">housing construction</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288838/original/file-20190821-170935-10tygd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288838/original/file-20190821-170935-10tygd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288838/original/file-20190821-170935-10tygd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288838/original/file-20190821-170935-10tygd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288838/original/file-20190821-170935-10tygd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288838/original/file-20190821-170935-10tygd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288838/original/file-20190821-170935-10tygd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288838/original/file-20190821-170935-10tygd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Public housing residents in Fitzroy, Melbourne, maintain this community garden.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.cultivatingcommunity.org.au/">BSL/Cultivating Community</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In New South Wales, <a href="https://www.facs.nsw.gov.au/housing/living/rights-responsibilities/get-involved/chapters/community-greening-program">50,000 public housing residents</a> have converted many hectares of land in social housing areas into gardens growing vegetables, fruit and flowers. In Victoria, <a href="http://www.cultivatingcommunity.org.au/community-gardens/our-services-2/">more than 20 public housing estates</a> have established community gardens. </p>
<p>If these self-selecting residents could be <a href="http://ntwonline.weebly.com/">better supported and validated</a>, their status in society (and how they might conceive of themselves) could move from being regarded as “social dependants” to “pioneers of a new economy”. By showing that access to public land can help with the emergence of local and sustainable <a href="https://thenextsystem.org/cultivating-community-economies">community economies</a>, such experiments could be the cultural driver of a broader policy rethink of how we govern land.</p>
<p>For example, more public land could be made available for <a href="http://www.forevergreen.org.uk/Forever_Green_Ecological_Architects/hedgehog-self-build-housing-co-op.html">housing construction collectives</a>, where people participate in building their own homes under the guidance of experts. Australia could seek inspiration from Senegal, where <a href="https://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/06/17/senegal-transforming-14000-villages-into-ecovillages/">14,000 ecovillages</a> are being developed.</p>
<p>In governing land we are limited only by our imaginations. Currently, a chronic lack of imagination is being shown. It is time to experiment with new frameworks that can increase access to land and thereby empower more people to explore lifestyles of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-suburbs-are-the-spiritual-home-of-overconsumption-but-they-also-hold-the-key-to-a-better-future-108496">reduced consumption and increased self-sufficiency</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/farming-the-suburbs-why-cant-we-grow-food-wherever-we-want-80330">Farming the suburbs – why can’t we grow food wherever we want?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The first step is recognising the obstacle</h2>
<p>We call on the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1469540512444019">simple living</a>, <a href="https://retrosuburbia.com/">permaculture</a> and <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9789811321306">degrowth</a> movements – and the sustainability movement more generally – to better recognise the obstacle that access to land presents to achieving their goals. More energy and activism should be dedicated to envisioning, campaigning for and experimenting with <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Housing-for-Degrowth-Principles-Models-Challenges-and-Opportunities/Nelson-Schneider/p/book/9781138558052">alternative property and housing arrangements</a>.</p>
<p>Our purpose is not to dismiss the importance of the various <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/post-capitalism-life-within-environmental-limits">downshifting movements</a>. We need as many people as possible pushing against the tide of consumerism and showing that low-impact living can be <a href="http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue61/Alexander1_61.pdf">good living</a>.</p>
<p>These social movements will help create the culture of <a href="https://www.fishpond.com.au/Books/Sufficiency-Economy-Samuel-Alexander/9780994160614">sufficiency</a> that is needed to support a politics of sustainability. But any such politics must include more empowering and creative land policies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121246/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Baumann is affiliated with the NTW project (<a href="http://www.ntwonline.weebly.com">www.ntwonline.weebly.com</a>). This project is working on a reframing of public housing policy settings – to provide an example of local collaborative development on public land. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Alexander does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>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?Alex Baumann, Casual Academic, School of Social Sciences & Psychology, Western Sydney UniversitySamuel Alexander, Research fellow, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1145942019-07-11T20:19:09Z2019-07-11T20:19:09ZFriday essay: the Australians who pioneered self-sufficiency, generations before Nimbin<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283178/original/file-20190709-51268-eadqpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">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.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joe Pisani</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The term “self-sufficiency” commonly evokes images of communes, yurts and 1970s hippies, most likely living off the land in northern New South Wales. More recently, it has been linked to an explosion of interest in solar powered “off-grid” living, tiny houses, ethical food networks and complementary health practices, along with a hipster-driven return to the artisanal and hand-made. </p>
<p>But these are just a small part of a much larger story. Australians have, in fact, dreamt of going back-to-the-land since the latter part of the 19th century. Those who embraced an ethic of self-sufficiency included anarchists, suffragists seeking opportunities for unemployed women, Catholic agrarians wanting to nurture both the soul and the soil, and a grassroots collection of organic farmers trying to bring attention to “Mother Earth”. </p>
<p>Each of these pioneers looked beyond “unhealthy” cities to the land as a source of salvation, seeking answers and alternatives to some of the problems of industrial modernity, and sharing in a vision of “the good life”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283189/original/file-20190709-51278-14zxv02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283189/original/file-20190709-51278-14zxv02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283189/original/file-20190709-51278-14zxv02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283189/original/file-20190709-51278-14zxv02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283189/original/file-20190709-51278-14zxv02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283189/original/file-20190709-51278-14zxv02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283189/original/file-20190709-51278-14zxv02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283189/original/file-20190709-51278-14zxv02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A century before today’s ‘off-grid’, tiny house fans, Australians sought solace by going back to the land.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Dirty, corrupt cities</h2>
<p>The story begins in the late 19th century when urban reformers across North America, England, Europe and Australia started to identify a decline in societal values and standards, sparked by economic insecurity and rapid social change. With growing anxiety around “dirty and corrupt” cities, a transported image of the English “rural idyll” became a ready source of inspiration. </p>
<p>In Australia, this idea was equally shaped by the romance of bush ballads, alongside the popular landscape art movement. But rather than simply gaze at the landscape or go bush-walking on weekends, a number of urban Utopians wanted to get back to nature, hoping to reimagine and reconstruct society.</p>
<p>David Andrade was one of them. Born to Jewish merchants in Collingwood in 1859, he grew up with an acute sensitivity to the inequalities he saw around him. After co-founding the first Anarchist Club in Australia and spending years publishing and speaking across Melbourne, Andrade came up with a bold vision he called “Social Pioneering”. It envisaged opening up “agricultural, pastoral and industrial pursuits” for people with no access to land, bringing them closer to nature and basic subsistence living to avoid the dangerous economic fluctuations of the market.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283177/original/file-20190709-51262-n9i9d3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283177/original/file-20190709-51262-n9i9d3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283177/original/file-20190709-51262-n9i9d3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283177/original/file-20190709-51262-n9i9d3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283177/original/file-20190709-51262-n9i9d3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283177/original/file-20190709-51262-n9i9d3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283177/original/file-20190709-51262-n9i9d3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283177/original/file-20190709-51262-n9i9d3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">David Andrade pictured in the 1890s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.marxists.org/glossary/people/a/n.htm</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1893, during a worsening economic depression, Andrade established “Liberty Hall” in central Melbourne. This radical venture housed a progressive “bookery”, the earliest vegetarian restaurant and hosted numerous lectures on topics like socialism, mesmerism, vaccination, free thought and spiritualism. </p>
<p>Andrade laid out plans for a co-operative community called “Freedom” on Lake Boga along the Murray River as an “enlightened salve for poor city wage-slaves”. </p>
<p>However, with little support for such a wild venture, in 1894, he and his wife Emily instead moved to the newly opened settlement of Sassafras in the nearby Dandenong Ranges with their three children, and a fourth on the way. Under a government scheme known as Village or Closer Settlement, which opened up large tracts of arable but often difficult land to the urban unemployed, the Andrades were among thousands who looked to small-scale farming on small rural “homesteads”. </p>
<p>Sadly their dream of agricultural independence and collective Utopia remained elusive. In 1897, devastating fires burnt out the settlement. David was committed to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarra_Bend_Asylum">Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum</a> soon after with his “reason having been broken down”. Emily and the children were forced to move back to the city and much of the radicalism of Andrade’s pioneering ventures soon faded. </p>
<p>Still, many others continued to battle capricious natural elements, poor soils, and the harsh realities of making a living from the land, buoyed by the potential of subsistence agriculture and the autonomy of working for oneself.</p>
<h2>Womanly but not weak</h2>
<p>While it was acceptable for both urban and rural women to garden domestically, it was hard for women to make a living from their gardens in the cities. Away from city dwellers’ conventions and expectations, they had more luck.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279704/original/file-20190617-158917-1fj4tbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279704/original/file-20190617-158917-1fj4tbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279704/original/file-20190617-158917-1fj4tbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279704/original/file-20190617-158917-1fj4tbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279704/original/file-20190617-158917-1fj4tbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279704/original/file-20190617-158917-1fj4tbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279704/original/file-20190617-158917-1fj4tbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279704/original/file-20190617-158917-1fj4tbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Horticulture for Ladies. The Australasian, 18 Feb, 1899.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Australasian</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In December 1892, suffragist Mary Sanger Evans began promoting silk growing, or sericulture, as an ideal vocation for “womanly agriculture” pursuits as the Depression set in. Defying the view that “real men do real farming”, sericulture was promoted as a feminine practice. Soon after, Evans formalised her ideas into the Women’s Cooperative Silk Growing and Industrial Association. It had a charter to</p>
<blockquote>
<p>open up new fields of productive industry for workless women of all classes, from the refined gentlewoman, thrown perhaps suddenly to depend on her own exertions, to the factory girl or motherless waif – industries healthful and elevating, and, if properly carried out, highly profitable – all of them too, productive from the soil direct.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>With the support of prominent women such as the wife of NSW Governor Robert Duff, the organisation purchased a 44-acre farm lease at Wyee, north of Sydney. They called it “Wirawidar”, the Indigenous name for “woman’s ground”. Continuing to farm until 1901 during drought and difficult economic conditions, their efforts inspired urban women to look away from the cities towards the power of the soil.</p>
<p>With the support of her brother Justice Henry Higgins, suffrage activist Ina Higgins also realised that women could gain “autonomy and freedom” from a rural smallholding. After years agitating for a course to be made available for women at the Burnley Horticulture College, Ina became one of its first graduates in 1900. She then became Australia’s <a href="https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/La-Trobe-Journal-99-Sandra-Pullman.pdf">first professional female landscape gardener</a>. </p>
<p>With the support of fellow suffrage and peace activists Vida Goldstein, Adela Pankhurst and Cecilia Ann John, Ina set up a farm in Mordialloc on the fringe of metropolitan Melbourne in 1913. Members of the Women’s Rural Industries Cooperative worked variously in an orchard, a nursery, raising poultry and horses, bee-keeping, and growing flowers and vegetables. Like Wirawidar, it was established for single or divorced women to provide for themselves, their children, and earn an income.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279703/original/file-20190617-158967-1qdzybd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279703/original/file-20190617-158967-1qdzybd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279703/original/file-20190617-158967-1qdzybd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279703/original/file-20190617-158967-1qdzybd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279703/original/file-20190617-158967-1qdzybd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279703/original/file-20190617-158967-1qdzybd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279703/original/file-20190617-158967-1qdzybd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279703/original/file-20190617-158967-1qdzybd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ina Higgins in the garden at ‘Killenna’, 1919.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Palmer Papers, National Library of Australia, PIC Album 885/7 #PIC/P778/562</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Paying no attention to class or dress dictums, they scandalised the public with their “rational dress” of a “brown knickerbocker suit.” While Higgins gave instruction on horticulture, the press reported that one co-op member, Cecelia John, was “as good as a man” since she could “drive a car, paint a house, erect poultry sheds, and [is] planning on turning a corner of the big barn into a bathroom at the least expense.” </p>
<p>With only six permanent workers, the farm managed to survive and succeed until the end of the war, but failed due to lack of capital and shortages of water. Higgins later continued educating young women in horticulture at Dookie Agricultural College, and paved the way for future “women of the soil” such as renowned landscaper <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/walling-edna-margaret-11946">Edna Walling</a>.</p>
<h2>The gospel of simplicity</h2>
<p>During the 1930s a “lure of the pastoral” found popular resurgence through a nation-wide Country Life Movement. It united public and political sentiment, reaffirming the moral and political superiority of rural areas and small towns. </p>
<p>Within this push, aspiring political activist Bob Santamaria helped launch the National Catholic Rural Movement in 1938. He advocated for a form of “cottage Catholicism” within a new social order that was neither capitalist nor communist, but would bring the “countryside back to Christ”. The movement believed that in order to find the “true” source of one’s religious being, one had to embrace “honest, wholesome toil”.</p>
<p>Out of these ideas emerged the agricultural community of Whitlands. Established in 1941 near the base of Victoria’s Mount Buffalo, it celebrated the “dignity of manual labour” within a strong monastic tradition. By the end of the war, its valiant and charismatic leader Ray Triado had attracted dozens of young urban Catholics – men, women and their families – away from their comfortable city lives.</p>
<p>An acclaimed track athlete, and later an associate to a High Court Judge, at 30, Triado traded this world for a life of hunting, building and farming. A troubadour and storyteller, his community was built around simple daily rituals, of song, prayer and work. Numbering a few dozen in its later years, a variety of people were drawn to create a “world of the village around and permeated by God’s presence.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283176/original/file-20190709-51262-czbe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283176/original/file-20190709-51262-czbe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283176/original/file-20190709-51262-czbe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283176/original/file-20190709-51262-czbe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283176/original/file-20190709-51262-czbe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283176/original/file-20190709-51262-czbe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1093&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283176/original/file-20190709-51262-czbe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1093&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283176/original/file-20190709-51262-czbe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1093&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ray Triado in the 1940s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graeme Butler</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Whitlands quickly became notorious amongst Melbourne’s high society for its radical departure from comfortable, conventional Catholicism, and its rejection of the materialistic culture of modern Australia. Some, such as regular visitor and journalist Niall Brennan supported the program and reported in the Catholic press of male “monks” in overalls, working shirts and shorts who “chanted Matins, Lauds and Prime, milked cows, cut wood and lit fires”. </p>
<p>Single women were also drawn to the farm as they saw a vital opportunity to escape the monotony of urban domesticity. Though the women maintained separate living quarters, such a scandalous situation led to calls from within Catholic institutions to dissolve the community.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283179/original/file-20190709-51288-1oo0ehq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283179/original/file-20190709-51288-1oo0ehq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283179/original/file-20190709-51288-1oo0ehq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283179/original/file-20190709-51288-1oo0ehq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283179/original/file-20190709-51288-1oo0ehq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283179/original/file-20190709-51288-1oo0ehq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283179/original/file-20190709-51288-1oo0ehq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283179/original/file-20190709-51288-1oo0ehq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The chapel at the old Whitlands site, which survives today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1950, a dozen dedicated Whitlands members made a “pilgrimage” of over 250km from the farm to Melbourne to petition Archbishop Mannix against its closure. They succeeded in keeping the farm open – but the early idealism was soon lost. Many members moved on, while a few families settled nearby.</p>
<h2>Soil and Civilisation</h2>
<p>Long before the rise of the modern environment movement, farmer <a href="http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/mitchell-sibyl-elyne-18137">Elyne Mitchell </a>(author of The Silver Brumby) published Soil and Civilisation in 1946. This book was an early attempt to explain to Australians the importance of the connection between human and ecosystem health. In addressing problems facing industrial agriculture and society at large, she wrote that, divorced from his roots, (i.e the earth) “man loses his psychic stability.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283193/original/file-20190709-51312-k72tw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283193/original/file-20190709-51312-k72tw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283193/original/file-20190709-51312-k72tw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283193/original/file-20190709-51312-k72tw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283193/original/file-20190709-51312-k72tw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283193/original/file-20190709-51312-k72tw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283193/original/file-20190709-51312-k72tw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283193/original/file-20190709-51312-k72tw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Soil was at the heart of many later self sufficiency movements.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Her sentiment echoed a growing movement of farmers across southern Australia that had united from the mid-1940s through the Living Soil Association in Tasmania, Australian Organic Farming and Gardening Society of NSW and the Victorian Compost Society.</p>
<p>Drawing on the work of British organic pioneers such as Lord Albert Howard, they argued that all organic wastes, such as plant matter and animal manure, must be returned to the soil to decay and replenish soil humus. They also felt that nature’s “law of return” could be used as a model to alleviate some of the problems faced by ever growing, all consuming cities.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283184/original/file-20190709-51258-ci7ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283184/original/file-20190709-51258-ci7ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283184/original/file-20190709-51258-ci7ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283184/original/file-20190709-51258-ci7ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283184/original/file-20190709-51258-ci7ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283184/original/file-20190709-51258-ci7ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283184/original/file-20190709-51258-ci7ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283184/original/file-20190709-51258-ci7ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Editions of the Organic Farming Digest from the late 1940s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Challenging the dominant vision of agricultural progress, particularly the use of artificial fertilisers and chemical pesticides, the organic growers looked to the model of the small, family farm for salvation. Though not strictly a call “back-to-the-land” since many were already farming, or working their suburban gardens, these campaigns encouraged ordinary people and producers to consider the origins of their food, and contemplate the wider outcomes of its production. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283180/original/file-20190709-51278-dzsmmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283180/original/file-20190709-51278-dzsmmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283180/original/file-20190709-51278-dzsmmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283180/original/file-20190709-51278-dzsmmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283180/original/file-20190709-51278-dzsmmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283180/original/file-20190709-51278-dzsmmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283180/original/file-20190709-51278-dzsmmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283180/original/file-20190709-51278-dzsmmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Banner for Victorian Compost News, March 1950.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Michael J. Roads was one of these early proponents. He had moved from England to Tasmania in 1963 with his family. After years farming cattle, Roads saw how problems of greed, the rapid commercialisation of life, and a spiral of harmful farming practices were affecting both individuals and society as a whole. </p>
<p>In 1970 he published <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_J._Roads#Publications">A Guide to Organic Living in Australia</a>. It reflected on a growing movement “back to the earth” seeking solace in the bush and the simplicity of self-provision. In it, he shared his own story of spiritual transformation that had occurred when he began to revere the power of nature. </p>
<p>Spreading his message that nature, the soil and human happiness are inextricably linked, Roads continues to publish, travel the world, and teach others the insights he learned as a small farmer on a secluded mountain in Tasmania.</p>
<p>Roads was joined soon after by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren who transformed this philosophy into the practice of <a href="https://holmgren.com.au/about-permaculture/">Permaculture</a>. In turn, it helped motivate the counter-cultural movement as growing food organically for self-sufficiency became a critical way to rebel and achieve social change. </p>
<p>The 1973 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarius_Festival">Nimbin Aquarius Festival</a> established self-sufficiency as central to its political and social doctrine. From this point on, personal self-sufficiency was seen as a means of survival, but also of achieving broader political, social and environmental reform. It continues to stand for a way of reducing consumption, getting back to basics, engaging with DIY projects, using renewable energies, and fostering community networks today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114594/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Goldlust does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>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.Rachel Goldlust, Phd candidate in environmental history, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1188672019-06-24T09:09:34Z2019-06-24T09:09:34ZWe spoke to survivalists prepping for disaster: here’s what we learned about the end of the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280753/original/file-20190621-61767-19c6l8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/remains-destroyed-houses-sunset-apocalyptic-landscape-343138097?src=QM2UQruE-wE3KnHBQJ083w-1-98&studio=1">Nouskrabs/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We are all fucked. A crude though oft-uttered sigh which tries to encapsulate an intense, but vague anxiety we experience on many fronts. What’s causing it? The possibility of climate-induced <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/20/climate-change-and-the-new-age-of-extinction">population extinction</a>, the development of so-called <a href="https://theconversation.com/super-intelligence-and-eternal-life-transhumanisms-faithful-follow-it-blindly-into-a-future-for-the-elite-78538">NBIC</a> (nano-bio-info-cogno-) technologies, global financial collapse and the exponential development of <a href="https://theconversation.com/your-essential-guide-to-the-rise-of-the-intelligent-machines-30228">potentially malevolent machine intelligence</a>, to name but a few. <a href="https://theconversation.com/doomsday-clock-moves-closer-to-midnight-but-can-we-really-predict-the-end-of-the-world-36632">The Doomsday Clock</a>, a symbolic gauge of our risk of <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1030.1553&rep=rep1&type=pdf">obliterating humanity</a>, has never been closer to “midnight”.</p>
<p>Of course, the end of humanity is as old as humanity itself – astrologists and religious orders have predicted that the world will end for millenia. But the types of risks we’re concerned by today really are quite distinctive to our era: they are irreversible, they have planetary (and in some cases extra-planetary) reach, and they have new technological textures. These risks have been described as “existential” because they threaten to cause, as the philosopher Nick Bostrom <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Superintelligence.html?id=7_H8AwAAQBAJ">has written</a>: “The extinction of Earth-originating intelligent life or to otherwise permanently and drastically destroy its potential for future desirable development.”</p>
<p>As a result, the phenomenon of “prepping” – a predominantly American phenomenon of storing food, water and weapons, and developing self-sufficiency skills for independently surviving disasters – is on the rise. This can be seen in the increasing amount of literature, podcasts, <a href="https://theconversation.com/apocalypse-now-why-the-movies-want-the-world-to-end-every-year-11496">movies</a> and TV shows on the subject, fictional and “<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-tv-viewers-guide-to-surviving-the-apocalypse-20060">real</a>”, along with the inevitable growth in related <a href="https://www.finder.com/doomsday-prepper-statistics">consumer</a> markets (such as camping equipment and bushcraft courses) that speak to the anxiety of existential risk. Growing prominence in Europe brought us to research this area. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EmlYYbmRgMc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Beyond tin foil hats</h2>
<p>Media accounts tend to focus on the peculiarities of prepping through extreme examples: reports of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/feb/15/why-silicon-valley-billionaires-are-prepping-for-the-apocalypse-in-new-zealand">Silicon Valley elite</a> buying up bolt holes in remote New Zealand or the tin-foil hat wearing, forest-inhabiting eccentric. But prepping is not a marginal subculture, but a precautionary response people have to permanent crisis, as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2019.1631875">our research</a> reveals. By analysing and engaging with online forums and speaking at length with a series of self-identified preppers, it became clear that most preppers aren’t so out of the ordinary. </p>
<p>Listening to preppers, you can begin to understand their reasoning. They often talk about their prepper lives as originating from some trigger or turning point – such as an insider seeing financial collapse firsthand and the house of cards it reveals, or the difficulties that come with illness or unemployment. After these realisations, our interviewees explained that they transition from being a woefully under-prepared to a prepared individual.</p>
<p>Our research concentrated on European preppers, who are somewhat differentiated from the American stereotype. We found that the European prepper views the culture of their American counterparts as political, religious, weaponised and misogynistic. They feel that the media attention this receives delegitimises the emphasis on rationality and practicality that is embedded into their practices.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280759/original/file-20190621-61729-3jwtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280759/original/file-20190621-61729-3jwtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280759/original/file-20190621-61729-3jwtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280759/original/file-20190621-61729-3jwtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280759/original/file-20190621-61729-3jwtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280759/original/file-20190621-61729-3jwtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280759/original/file-20190621-61729-3jwtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The grid: far from trustworthy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/high-voltage-power-lines-197286998?src=MPU_7kb9OGAtW9PLxn9AdA-1-83&studio=1">Naufal MQ/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Instead, common sense is the most valued currency in European prepper culture. They are profoundly distrustful of the ability of institutions to face crises. And in comparison to some popular accounts, we found that preppers are often more concerned with mundane failures of the system (electricity cuts or pension losses) than the more spectacular apocalyptic aesthetics associated with prepping culture (such as environmental collapse or nuclear fallout).</p>
<p>They know they are ridiculed and stigmatised – a consequence of the American stereotype. Their online forums are filled with warnings: if you are a journalist, keep out. They are concerned with “op-sec” (operational security): concerns about personal privacy and the strategic advantage of withholding information about the location of resources in the eventuality that any “prep” may be put into practice. Again, such practices are framed within the narrative of common sense. Common sense is claimed in order to reject its opposite: paranoia.</p>
<h2>Bin bags and radios</h2>
<p>Preppers consider people who don’t prepare – the rest of society – as shockingly ignorant of the world around them. It is “we” who are abnormal. The dependent civilian is variously viewed as oblivious, dilettantish, complacent and trusting, while the prepper is watchful. Preparation is seen as a type of foresight that is missing in ordinary consumers. </p>
<p>A prepper looks at the world differently: far from a smart, interconnected and highly functioning infrastructure subject to the rule of law, the city is a jungle where the lone prepper negotiates manifold dangers. This is why they carry “preps” with them at all times – from fire-making equipment to bin bags to radios – in their pantries, in their cars, on their person. One prepper told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I always carry two or three bin bags so I can make shelter no matter where I go. One of the bin bags can be used to make a roof and I could fill the others with leaves to create comfort and heat.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280760/original/file-20190621-61751-1hq4kx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280760/original/file-20190621-61751-1hq4kx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280760/original/file-20190621-61751-1hq4kx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280760/original/file-20190621-61751-1hq4kx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280760/original/file-20190621-61751-1hq4kx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280760/original/file-20190621-61751-1hq4kx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280760/original/file-20190621-61751-1hq4kx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Commercial heaven or chaotic hell?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/aerial-view-midtown-manhattan-sunset-st-453884227?src=KZZd7XhsbRKk0KVITiVcFA-1-16&studio=1">TierneyMJ/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>Preppers pour scorn on consumer-centric technological interfaces such as social media and invest their time in pre-digital technologies like primitive fire and farming. Again, common sense is the most valued currency. </p>
<p>So what will happen to the rest of us? The prepper has trained for a world without a market system and considered what will happen when the dependent civilian comes calling. In common scenarios (such as electricity cuts, council water repairs) preppers tend to depict themselves as generous, helping out dependant neighbours despite the mocking it still often brings.</p>
<p>But in the ashes of a more serious consumer collapse, our conversations revealed an implicit subtext that when the shit does hit the fan, it will be everyone for themselves. And ultimately, it will be your neighbour that presents the biggest threat. Again, this is the common sense reality for preppers living in a world where the majority of people are seen as under-prepared, for whatever disaster we may befall.</p>
<h2>Prepper lessons</h2>
<p>When we think about escaping the constraints of the capitalistic dominant economy we are often met with utopian connotations of a “sustainable society” that places emphasis on community, cooperation, sharing and caring. The preppers offer a different take on what a “sustainable” world looks like, one grounded in ideologies of protectionism and self-preservation.</p>
<p>This echoes the 17th-century philosopher <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/hobbess-leviathan">Thomas Hobbes’s</a> famous suggestion that in the absence of institutions humans would become trapped in a cycle of violence – “a warre of all against all”. In other words, community is dangerous and consumption requires bunkering down. </p>
<p>Such individualistic “prepper” modes of thinking are likely to germinate further within society, particularly in the face of the current climate crisis. And this must be considered when we think of the practicalities of alternative systems to the neoliberal marketplace.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118867/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We spoke at length with a series of self-identified preppers. It became clear that most aren’t so out of the ordinary.Gary Sinclair, Lecturer in Marketing, Dublin City UniversityNorah Campbell, Associate Professor in Marketing, Trinity College DublinSarah Browne, Assistant Professor in Marketing, Trinity College DublinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/899202018-01-12T02:48:33Z2018-01-12T02:48:33ZHome biogas: turning food waste into renewable energy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201605/original/file-20180111-60756-1jxuce8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The home biogas system offers a zero-emissions alternative to paying for fossil gas.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Samuel Alexander</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last night I cooked my family a delicious pasta dinner using biogas energy. This morning we all had eggs cooked on biogas. I’m not sure what’s for dinner tonight, but I know what will provide the energy for cooking: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogas">biogas</a>.</p>
<p>And not just any biogas – it’s home biogas, produced in our suburban backyard, as part of my ongoing “action research” into sustainable energy practices. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/biogas-smells-like-a-solution-to-our-energy-and-waste-problems-36136">Biogas: smells like a solution to our energy and waste problems</a>
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<p>In an age of worrying <a href="https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/148cb0_1d614b99bd734626a0deba96f8d843d4.pdf">climate change</a> and looming <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016236114010254">fossil energy decline</a>, the benefits of biogas are obvious. It is a renewable energy source with zero net greenhouse emissions. And yet its potential has largely gone untapped, at least in the developed world.</p>
<p>Based on my research and experience, I contend that home-produced biogas is an extremely promising technology whose time has come. In fact, I believe it could provoke a domestic green energy revolution, if only we let it.</p>
<h2>What is biogas?</h2>
<p>Biogas is produced when organic matter biodegrades under anaerobic conditions (that is, in the absence of oxygen). This process produces a <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0973082611000780">mixture of gases</a> – primarily methane, some carbon dioxide and tiny portions of other gases such as hydrogen sulfide.</p>
<p>When the biogas is filtered to remove the hydrogen sulfide, the resulting mixture can be burned as an energy source for cooking, lighting, or heating water or space. When compressed it can be used as fuel for <a href="http://www.irena.org/DocumentDownloads/Publications/IRENA_Biogas_for_Road_Vehicles_2017.pdf">vehicles</a>. On a <a href="https://theconversation.com/biogas-smells-like-a-solution-to-our-energy-and-waste-problems-36136">commercial scale</a> biogas can be used to generate electricity or even refined and fed into the gas grid.</p>
<p>The types of organic matter used to produce biogas include food waste, animal manure and agricultural byproducts. Some commercial systems use <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Treatment_Plant%23Electricity_from_biogas_and_odour_control">sewage</a> to produce and capture biogas.</p>
<h2>Biogas benefits</h2>
<p>The primary benefit of biogas is that it is renewable. Whereas the production of oil and other fossil fuels will eventually <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016236114010254">peak and decline</a>, we will always be able to make biogas as long as the sun is shining and plants can grow.</p>
<p>Biogas has zero net greenhouse emissions because the CO₂ that is released into the atmosphere when it burns is no more than what was drawn down from the atmosphere when the organic matter was first grown.</p>
<p>As already noted, when organic matter biodegrades under anaerobic conditions, methane is produced. It has been estimated that each year between <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0973082611000780">590 million and 800 million tones of methane</a> is released into the atmosphere. This is bad news for the climate – pound for pound, methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO₂.</p>
<p>But in a biogas system this methane is captured and ultimately converted to CO₂ when the fuel is burned. Because that CO₂ was going to end up in the atmosphere anyway through natural degradation, biogas has zero net emissions.</p>
<p>There are other benefits too. The organic matter used in biogas digesters is typically a waste product. By using biogas we can reduce the amount of food waste and other organic materials being sent to landfill.</p>
<p>Furthermore, biogas systems produce a nutrient-rich sludge that can be watered down into a fertiliser for gardens or farms. All of this can help to develop increased energy independence, build resilience and save money.</p>
<h2>My biogas experiment</h2>
<p>In the spirit of scientific research, I installed one of the few <a href="https://homebiogas.com/">home biogas systems</a> currently available, at a cost of just over A$1,000 delivered, and have been impressed by its ease and functionality. (Please note that I have no affiliation, commercial or otherwise, with the manufacturer.)</p>
<p>In practical terms, I put in about 2kg of food waste each day and so far I have had enough gas to cook with, sometimes twice a day. If I ever needed more gas, I could put in more organic matter. I will continue to monitor the system as part of my research and will publish updates in due course. If interested, <a href="http://simplicitycollective.com/">watch this space</a>.</p>
<p>My personal motivation to explore biogas (related to my research) arises primarily from a desire to decarbonise my household’s energy use. So far, so good. We have disconnected from the conventional gas grid and now have more money to spend on projects such as expanding our solar array.</p>
<p>Given the alarming levels of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/10/24/australians-throw-away-nearly-10-billion-in-food-waste-each-year_a_23253505/">food waste in Australia</a>, I also like the idea of turning this waste into green energy. My neighbours kindly donate their organic matter to supplement our own inputs, increasing community engagement. When necessary I cycle to my local vegetable market and enthusiastically jump into their large food waste bin to take what I need, with permission.</p>
<p>They think I’m mad. But, then, I think using fossil fuels is mad.</p>
<h2>Hurdles and hopes</h2>
<p>Home biogas is widely produced in developing regions of the world. The <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/743821467991024802/Biogas-clean-energy-access-with-low-cost-mitigation-of-climate-change">World Bank</a> and the <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/partnership/%3Fp=8008">United Nations</a> actively encourage its use as a cheap, clean energy source. China has <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0973082611000780">27 million</a> biogas plants. </p>
<p>But developed regions, including Australia, have been slow to exploit this vast potential. Given that Australia is one of the most <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/new-report-reveals-that-australia-is-among-the-worst-emitters-in-the-world">carbon-intensive countries on Earth</a>, this is unfortunate.</p>
<p>The failure to embrace home biogas is partly due to a lack of clear regulations about its use. Where is the Home Biogas Act? Almost every Australian backyard has an independent gas bottle to power the ubiquitous barbecue, so clearly storing gas in the backyard is not a problem. My biogas system came with robust safety certificates, warranties and insurance, and these systems do not feature high-pressure gas pipes.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/capturing-the-true-wealth-of-australias-waste-82644">Capturing the true wealth of Australia’s waste</a>
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<p>Home biogas production is unusual. But I believe that state governments should draw up legislation to accommodate it, and that local councils should offer advice and assistance to householders who are interested in taking it up. Hoping for progress in this regard, I recently made a submission to the Victorian government as part of its <a href="https://engage.vic.gov.au/application/files/9415/0897/9363/Turning_waste_into_energy_-_Final.pdf">Waste to Energy</a> consultations.</p>
<p>My own carefully managed experiment demonstrates how home biogas can be used safely and successfully. Nevertheless, biogas is a combustible fuel and needs to be filtered for poisonous hydrogen sulfide. Like any fuel, it should be respected and used responsibly. But biogas need not be feared. Fossil gas is far more dangerous anyway.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89920/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Alexander does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>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.Samuel Alexander, Research fellow, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.