Comment for Consideration…on Self-Sufficiency

What do you think when you read this?

“When I was a boy in the countryside—fifty years ago and more—people [gardened] for self-sufficiency, for it would not have occurred to them to do otherwise. People were self-reliant because they had to be: it was a way of life. They were doing what generations had done before them; simply carrying on a traditional way of life. Money was a rare commodity: far too valuable to be spent on things you could grow or make yourself. It was spent on tools or fabric for clothes or luxury foods like tea or coffee. They would have laughed at a diet of store-bought foods…”

--John Seymour, The Self-Sufficient Gardener (1979—but note this is coming out as a new book/revised edition in April!) as quoted in PowerDown by Richard Heinberg