Many people, young and old, are becoming involved in the regenerative farming movement, which is a great sign that our society is slowly turning toward an ecological age. Though one major hurdle these people face is the fact that in our society farming does not pay very well, financially speaking. I work at an organic farm myself and it is definitely not financially lucrative which makes it difficult to start a family or to get out of debt. Even many who start a farm and own the business struggle to obtain an average middle class income for themselves as explained in this issue of the Natural Farmer magazine, “Farming for a Living Wage”: http://www.nofa.org/tnf/2017_SpringSectionB.pdf. Though, some farmers become quite successful after 5 years or so. Also, socially and spiritually speaking, organic farming it is a very rewarding vocation, so there are other reasons to do it.

Given that many of us live in extremely financial societies, a potential way out of this predicament is to embrace voluntary simplicity and live on much less than what is the average per-capita income in developed nations. Obviously, this is easier said than done and I am still trying to find a way to make it work (and I may have to find another environmental job if it doesn’t work out). Fortunately, there are many books are out there detailing how to live on a half to a quarter of the average middle class income without becoming destitute, here is a partial list:

Simple Prosperity by David Wann

How to Survive Without a Salary by Charles Long

Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin

Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein (it is free to read on this website: https://sacred-economics.com/read-online/)

Eisenstein’s book is more philosophical than the other books but brings up important questions such as: why do we necessarily need rising incomes? With ever rising incomes and economic growth, goods and services that people used to give each other for free in a gift society or for low prices in a local economy are now captured by the global marketplace and sold back to us at prices most of us struggle to afford. Also, increasing incomes tend to decrease community and the feelings of being closely connected to a group of people and relying on them for assistance.

The social and economic pressure to make a lot of money in order to maintain social status, create a long-term relationship, start a family and support ageing parents is very high, especially in developed nations. Unfortunately, many opportunities to make a lot of money involve stressful soul-crushing jobs, deterioration of friendships and substantial ecological destruction. But as more people gravitate to the voluntary simplicity lifestyle and other movements (degrowth, transition towns) because of intensifying life crises (e.g. leave the job they hate, laid off, relationship falls apart, etc.) this socioeconomic pressure to maintain appearances will ease. That, in turn, may help lessen the anxiety and depression epidemic which affects every income bracket. The key would be to view the crisis as a blessing in disguise, and not as a descent into poverty, although the transition may be quite rocky both physically and mentally. Afterwards, another key would be to start thinking of wealth in your life in terms of social capital, natural capital, and health capital instead of in terms of financial capital.

Here is an excerpt from Rob O’Grady’s book 150-Strong: A Pathway To A Different Future on this topic of socioeconomic pressures or as he calls it, the ‘burden of material expectation’:

“Each person will have a different level of resources to maintaining their [social] networks, but, interestingly, it is usually those who have the fewest possessions who are most likely to be able to authentically say that they are in touch with their 150. Perhaps, this is the reason why levels of depression are lower in societies where there is less [material] wealth. From my time in the Philippines, where there is much material want, I was able to compare the psychological state of people there with those in developed Western countries. Despite the lack of material resources in the poorer communities, there was almost always a network of support surrounding each person, and a much lower burden of material expectation. These networks are much more resilient than one might suppose of a network of mere friends living independent lives [i.e. a group of friends spread out across a big city or a rural county in a developed nation].”

Anything we do to lower the burden of material expectation in developed societies will likely help lower the levels of anxiety and depression. This could involve doing such things as changing zoning laws at the local level to allow for tiny houses or small cabins to be built on farmland or suburban/urban lots, converting vacant 2-3 story houses into affordable apartments and allowing for composting toilets instead of expensive septic systems. All in all, the voluntary simplicity lifestyle fits in very well with the tiny house, permaculture, intentional community and regenerative farming movements that are becoming more popular by the day.

In the social sphere, frugal people could get together and show others that people can form friendships, date, have loving relationships and potentially start families without a lot of financial capital (as long as they have sufficient social and health capital, of course, such as extended family and friends to help raise children). With the current crisis going on, we are actually seeing many young people move back to their hometowns, home states or nearby, potentially rebuilding the stock of social capital that had previously left these places.

By reclaiming social, natural and cultural capital from the financial system, the focus of society could then turn to regenerative farming, ecological healing and growing social relationships instead of accumulating and hoarding money and material things.