I recently heard a term that, as both a prepper as well as an urban homesteader, spoke to me. It is such a simple term that I wish I had devised it. Fortunately by tracking down the term’s creator I met an interesting group of people that share the same common goals. The creator of this term is Mike Bostick, and the group I am talking about it the Prepper Reality Network.
While today’s article is focused on the term prepsteading, its origins, meanings, and why there needs to be a differentiation between it and homesteading, I do want to mention the PRN, and encourage you to listen to their nightly call in internet talk show and participate in their online community. This is a new group, but from what I have learned in talking with Mike, they are most interested in building a vibrant online community where preppers can learn, socialize, and feel welcome.
Now on to prepsteading….
Prepsteading is the combination of prepping and homesteading, and makes use of the best elements of both.
Traditionally homesteading was done as part of the back to the land movement where individuals wanted to have a closer connection to the earth. In more recent times, homesteading is attractive primarily to those with a concern for sustainability and appropriate technology. This means that most homesteading information is geared toward green living. I think homesteaders are default preppers. Do you?
Prepping, as a general rule, is primarily gear driven and many (if not most) prepper activities revolve around acquiring resources and storing supplies.
Both of these terms describe admirable traits, and can complement each other. You do not have to be a hippy to want to live on a sustainable and ecologically friendly homestead, just as you don’t have to be paranoid to store supplies to sustain you during a large scale disaster. That is where prepsteading comes in.
By definition, a disaster involves great loss, and catastrophic disasters can take decades to recover from. It is not a stretch to assume that you may lose your supplies, or run out of supplies if the disaster was large enough. In the prepping community many people plan to “bug out” or leave their residences in order to move to the country so that they may be able to produce their own food. A few rare pioneers such as James Rawles of survivalblog recommend living at your bug out location (BOL), full time.
Prepsteading is the concept of mitigating catastrophic disasters living as self-reliant life as possible. By producing your own food, creating your own infrastructure, and disconnecting as much as possible from the grid, you are insulating yourself from disruptions caused by the failure of normal infrastructure.
I am an urban homesteader, I try to produce as much food as I can, and reduce my need for utilities a much as practical while still living in a suburban area. I would love to own my own homestead, but I have to balance my resources. Time taken to build and maintain a self-reliant farm competes with the time needed to earn the resources to pay for it.
I think Mike has a great idea, and I would love to see the concept take off and grow. In my opinion the more people that learn to grow their own food and make their own way in life the stronger our country will be, and the more disaster resilient the citizens will become.
If you want to learn more, Mike has a weekly internet call in show where he talks about this and much more…
