Options to increase your food autonomy

Let’s re-use our food autonomy scale from the autonomy assessment sheet.

Low food autonomy is characterized by:

• You get 75%+ of your food from supermarkets

  Supermarkets are owned by financial institutions that do not have People’s best interests at heart. Their goal is to get investors wealthier, and that’s it. When you procure your food from a supermarket, you are not helping yourself, and you are not helping small producers who have zero bargaining power versus these vast corporations. They are obliged to accept tiny profit margins. True, the supermarket is convenient for you, but what do you have more, convenience or keeping your ability to choose, such as accessing healthy food, food you can trust?

• You don't have a garden.

  Some of you live in an apartment with no garden. Maybe you have a balcony, but that space may be too limited to grow anything.

• You cannot access a vegetable garden.

Options to increase your food autonomy:

• Store food

  • Can you get food and store it so that you have food in advance?

    A rule of thumb would be to have enough food for 6 to 12 months based on your actual food consumption, but then you should be able to reduce your food consumption to last even longer if needed. You will need some storage space. Store the food in a cool, dry place, and pay attention to ensure that no insects can enter the food. Some insects can eat plastic and enter food packaging. Also, you can use small yellow stickers to write down the expiry date so that you can sort your food and know what needs to be eaten first. The stickers need to be visible. You will consume your food and replenish it regularly so that you always have 6 to 12 months of food in advance. You will get used to doing it so that it will become natural for you.

• Source your food from local producers.

  • Can you get your food from local producers instead of supermarkets?

    There are often local options around. Relying on supermarkets, especially large ones, is not a strategy. The day the entry to these venues will be gated by digital IDs and conditioned to you doing this and that, you will have no more choice. Start paying attention to local shops. Enter some of them and try the food to see if the price and the quality are reasonable. Talk to the staff and ask where the food is produced. If you live in a village or a small town or can access one, that is an advantage. These places still have local producers. You can also search online for local producers in your area.

  • Can you source part of your food from your neighbors?

    Can you buy food directly from your neighbors? Sometimes it is an option. Your neighbors may be growing food or raising animals like chickens.

• Grow your own food

  • You have a garden

    • Can you repurpose a part of it into a vegetable garden?

    • Can you learn how to grow vegetables?

    • Don’t have the time to grow vegetables?

      Can you delegate this activity to someone who has time? For instance, some folks do not have a garden and would like to grow their own food. You could enter an agreement where you let them grow food on your land, but you get 1/3 of all the food they produce.

  • You have a garden, but you don’t have to grow your own food

    • Can you find someone who would like to grow food on your land? You could agree with them to share the food production. This someone could be a neighbor or someone who cannot afford a house with a garden.

  • You don’t have a garden.

    • Can you find someone who has a garden and would be ready to share it with you so that you can grow food?

    • Can you find an unused piece of land and request that the townhouse make it available for People to grow food?

    • Can you find a shared vegetable garden?

      These are pieces of land that are already shared between multiple People.

  • You want to get seeds

    • Finding groups that exchange seeds is also a way to connect with other People who grow their food. Search for groups on Facebook or Telegram.

  • You don’t know how to grow food.

    There is a lot of information out there on growing your own food. Here are pieces of advice for you to optimize your research time:

    • Talk to People around you who already grow their food. They will likely advise you on how to start your vegetable garden.

    • Find resources online

      • Search videos on YouTube by typing relevant keywords such as “starting vegetable garden. “ Don’t just click on the first video that appears. Look at the results and search for videos that are usually not recent and have a lot of views. These are usually the most relevant videos. You may want to add a keyword such as the country you live in, as specificities (weather, soil) may be linked to where you live.

    • Read books

      • Your local library may have resources.

      • For French speakers, this book was recommended by a few folks: Le potager du paresseux (please avoid buying on Amazon).

    • Ask questions

      There are groups where you can ask questions. Look for groups on Facebook or Telegram, for instance.