Vegan Self-Sufficiency and Off-Grid Living

I'm having a bit of a grumble today. While having a little sit down and tea break I thought I'd have a look to see what was happening in the world of facebook. I saw some interesting posts and shared a few to my page 'Making the Change - My Eco-Sensitive Home'. Then I saw some things I didn't really want to see...

You see the trouble with the self sufficient, off-grid living pages, is that most of them cater to your average omnivore. Along with the 'how to generate your own energy' and 'how to reuse everyday waste' articles, they also share a lot of the 'how to cure your own meat' and 'how to raise your own sheep' articles. I don't like seeing them and I don't really find them that appealing when they crop up in my newsfeed. I am working toward a future where I am off grid and largely self-sufficient in food, but I'll be living on a plant based diet. 

 I thought surely there would be a few pages for vegans who did, or wanted to, go off grid - but no. That's to say, if they're out there they don't have easily searchable titles! I follow a few pages for vegans on fb, but sadly so many of them get into the realms of animal rights, that I don't enjoy seeing their posts either. I'm not a fan of gore. I've been a vegetarian my entire life and more recently replacing my dairy with vegan alternatives, so seeing these posts does nothing but upset my mind for the day. So, I've decided my facebook page is a 'positive posts only' page. I'll share only stories of the steps we're taking in a positive way and on ways to improve life, not dwelling on the many horrors in the world (they seem to be well covered by every other vegan, conservation, sustainability page out there.) If anyone knows of any vegan/self sufficiency pages that buck this trend please let me know so I can share them to my page followers!

We recently watched Cowspiracy, a documentary about the meat industry and it's contribution to the global conversation crisis. Regardless of your views on meat/animal rights/conservation I recommend you watch it and encourage your friends to do likewise - it's certainly interesting to see how some of the worlds major conservation charities are dealing with it! If you're veggie or vegan there is one scene in it where they kill a duck, which I averted my eyes from, but otherwise it's gore free. This hour and a half documentary actually does change lives and in turn, the future of our planet... because of it my meat-loving boyfriend is now considering a plant-based diet. Not because he is interested in animal rights, but because he can't feel happy studying conservation at Uni and supporting an industry that is destroying the planet.