Familie leeft al jaren volledig zelfvoorziend - net buiten LA

In this is ABC Nightline story on “Living the Simple Life” the Dervaes family is profiled. These new urban homesteaders, a family of four, live comfortably on $30,000 a year. Growing their own food on 1/5th of an acre they have meat, dairy and vegetables- all they need. They even sell to local restaurants and neighbors.

They also make their own fuel for the car out of used vegetable oil from restaurants. It costs $1/ gallon to make.

Yes, a lot of work to be sure. But so is working all day and sitting in traffic another hour and a half. Most of us cannot fathom turning a suburban house on 1/5th of an acre into a full-blown self-sustaining farm- but we willingly give up virtually all of our energy for an entire lifetime working and commuting to get everything we need the conventional way.

This family is going to be fine no matter what happens with gas prices, food prices, or the economy in any sense. They don’t have jobs to worry about being fired from. No one can ever take away their standard of living – or their security. As the interviewer says: “You probably care more about the rainfall than interest rates!”

Obviously we can't all "quit our jobs and grow vegetables". But can we take just a page from this book, and embrace the direction of self reliance?

On only $30,000 a year, they consider themselves rich and blessed -- and their neighbors love them!

-- Bibi Farber