Why Homesteading? My Hopes and How They've Changed

It's common among Homesteaders to be asked what got you started with this lifestyle. There's as many answers as there are homesteaders.

For me, it all started when I learned what my mortgage payment was going to be after we closed on our home. My first thought was to make it help pay for itself by giving me groceries. $1,500 a month is a lot of money, and I started gathering seeds before we even bought the place.

As I've gone down this path, the reasons have changed a bit.

I still embrace the frugal aspects, but I've learned so much the last year that has embedded me deeper into this lifestyle.

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Rebellion. I am breaking from a system that isn't right. A system where eggs aren't eggs. Where milk isn't milk. A system that makes wholesome foods toxic and that supports chronic disease. A system that is supported by people that are leading nations down paths of deadly illness and fiscal irresponsibility. I am voting to overthrow that system in the only way that makes sense: with my money.
Sustainability. What if people around the world grew more of their own food? What would happen to international conglomerates if we supported ourselves? These systems are made to fuel war. Before WWII, backyard gardens produced 40% of the vegetables in the US. At the abrupt end of WWII, the arms companies needed something to do with all their leftovers, and modern chemical fertilizers were born. And the things we used to kill Nazis were turned to kill our soil.
Health. Aside from the money you'll save by growing your own organic food, that food can help you live a more healthy life. The healing benefits of fresh, pure food are numerous. From autism to renal failure. COPD to IBS. Even our recent trendy maladies like celiac and ADHD can be helped with a wholesome, nutrient dense, home grown diet.
Medicine. The world of Hive account@naturalmedicine is at least as vast as the world of permaculture. What if everyone started growing their own heart medication or antidepressants instead of spending $150 a month on a copay and $700 a month on insurance? What if we grew our own medicines to help our bodies detox the bleach from the water they pipe into our homes? How much better would the collective life of society be if we were using seeds and soil to heal ourselves? The more I learn, the more I believe that there is NOTHING that can't be cured in a natural way.

These are just a few things that I've learned. Side benefits, if you will. Not things that I had ever dreamed of when I bought that first pack of okra seeds and tilled my first bed a little under a year ago.

Not only is it well within our collective power to save a few bucks on groceries, but it is equally possible and equallysimple to heal our bodies and nonviolently free ourselves from these systems that have become so detrimental to our society. It's a way for us to reclaim control from the systems that place profit above people and work towards our system that puts more emphasis on people and benefit above profits.

I think we're wearing a tipping point. A time when people are waking up and realizing their power when they join with natural processes. I'm incredibly hopeful for the near future and I hope you are too. I hope and pray that these words can reach someone that needs them. Someone that's questioning this system or lost and feeling powerless.