if you could live anywhere in the world int he coming economy where?

[yukookoo]

any country except a private island

Where would you move to, in order to weather this storm. If the LE thread that was here a few months ago, is coming....

Im in Ca, I assume this is not the place ot be

But i dont see anywhere in the us being so much better, col less, but no jobs. I think farming is great, but that didnt help people too much in the great d and our environment is changing, I assume ca is a great place to farm but drought is not easy.

Where would be the best place to sustainably farm?

What country will do the best in this world wide crisis?


I guess im a little bit panicking lately.

[caiesmommy]

That's tough..I can't see myself EVER moving out of Canada..seriously! I have always wanted a little self sustaning farm on one of the islands around B.C. Not a private island but the weather there is amazing!

I feel safe in Canada. We made it through dh being laid off once and though things we're/are hard its nice knowing that there are a few things we have here that we might(prob) wouldn't have other places!

[Chamomile Girl]

I have lived many places: Michigan, Oregon, Nebraska, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco...

I've come to the conclusion that living somewhere you love is more important than mere survival. I think if it all comes crashing down I want to be in the Bay Area (ironic since I see that is where you already live yukookoo). I will be more motivated to give a crap about myself and those around me in an area that I do not already feel like a pariah (hello Nebraska!).

If we're talking about sustainable farming than sign me up for Sonoma County.

[Ola_]

I'm loving where we are now (Canada). I've noticed that the job postings have been picking up lately in my industry and things seem to be pretty stable up here unless you're in manufacturing.

[velochic]

In any case, I would love to live in Germany again. They simply have put the time, effort, money, brains and planning into every level of sustainability. Germany is so eco-friendly it would probably boggle the minds of the average mainstream American.

I think the key is to live in a country where the infrastructure has already existed for a while. Northern Europe, just about anywhere, would be my pick, but Germany mostly because I know it well from living there.

[annethcz]

For me, living near family is important. I can depend on my family, they can depend on us, and we all get along well. While the 'where' is important, I think being in a place where you have good relationships with others is just as important.

[Ruthiegirl]

Honestly, right where I am.

We live in a small town in rural Maryland within walking distance to the library, post office, farmer's market, bank. I can cycle to the grocery store and our local agriculture is relearning to sell on a smaller scale -- lots of new CSAs and local milk/meat available.

Our yard is about a 1/4 acre and we have a good portion of it with a garden. And we are close to a lot of family.

Loving life here.

[jentilla]

Maine or Michigan
My parents live in MI, but I'd love to be a in semi-rural town in Maine, close enough to the coast to get there in a morning, like an hour or two. I'd want 10 acres a mile or two outside of a small town.

[~Boudicca~]

Right where I am.

We just moved into a rental home in my hometown. I am within walking distance of family, friends, and stores. I have a big yard and my landlord is open to a big garden and possibly chickens. There is even a root cellar in my basement. Heat will be an issue if we can't afford it at some point but we will just have to be extra creative with that one I guess.

Now if I was going to do all out doomstead I'd probably shack up in western NC somewhere but that won't happen anytime soon so in the words of Sharon Astyk I am adapting in place.

[meandk0610]

i've been wondering the exact same thing! we're currently in MD but can't afford to buy anything where we could have chickens or raise a meat cow/pig (or have a pony for dd and me to share ). i tried to garden in our suburban back yard, but i was the only one eating the vegetables. plus they had to use dynamite to build our basement and i'd love to be somewhere on the other side of the mountains with a lot fewer rocks in the ground! i've been thinking about KY but i've heard there aren't a lot of jobs there.

[A&A]

we're on almost two acres. This is as good of a place as any, I guess.

[lmonter]

Ideally? Right where I am, just on more land.
Our house lot is a teeny bit more than a quarter of an acre, which isn't exactly enough to grow every single thing a family of 6 would want to eat throughout the year (although you might be surprised what I've managed to squish on our lot so far!). But we're familiar with the area, are on friendly-ish terms with our neighbors, have friends here and family not too far away, etc.

Would want more land to be able to garden a la _Gardening When It Counts_ by Steve Solomon and not need as much extra watering/irrigation. Potentially. But who knows. We typically get an okay amount of rainfall up here, so my area doesn't need the constant irrigation that some places further south do for everything, plant or human.

I've never lived in another country, and only visited two (Canada and Italy), so I have no real basis of judging living in the US vs. other countries. I have ideas (like Italy might not be *too* bad), but no idea how well grounded in reality it may be.

But we may be moving from our little small town life here with my fabulous garden of a yard to a giant metropolitan area to follow the job for hubby and only be able to afford to rent a teeny place on very little land (like .05 acre) if any. Le sigh.

[SunshineJ]

Well as far as a place that's financially stable, Denmark has always been known to weather the financial storms better than anyplace else. When we were looking where to move last summer, we toyed briefly with the idea of moving out of country, and there were very few places unaffected by the current economic crisis. Denmark has a reputation for being one of those places. If that's all that I was looking at, that would probably be my first recommendation.

That being said, I really like where we are now as far as the area goes. We definitely want to buy a house with a few acres, but in the meantime we can walk a lot of places, have a friend who is allowing us the use of some of her community garden, and there are many local farms here.

[mnnice]

If we have a LE situation (or we are in one an don't call it that yet) we really won't know exactly how it will play out.

I could make a case for living in a place with lots of social connection and access to land (near my IL's). I could make case for living by my folks because my dad has more homesteading type knowledge than anyone I know (and a near complete set of Foxfire books). I could make a case for living as Boudicca siggested for western NC because of it's biodivesity, an existing vibrant local food scene, and mild climate (IMO NE Iowa is the farthest south I've lived in the past two decades). Maybe I would want to be in NE Iowa so I was close to SeedSavers (who knows how valueable rare seeds could become in a LE situation). I think being more self-sufficent is directionally the way to go, but since we don't exactly how things will evolve/degenerate I think only hindsite is going to tell use where we should have been.

[Freedom~Mama]

Germany or somewhere else in Europe. I lived in Germany for two years and loved it. I miss it so much and am trying to figure out a way to move back there at some point!!!

[Leta]

Small farm (which is to say, big garden, chickens, and a few dairy goats or a cow, and hell, maybe even a horse or two) on Manitoulin Island. Ideally, we'd have a small woodlot, too.

Since I'm dreaming, we'd live in a slipformed stone house that we built ourselves. Mortgage free, of course. With a metal roof, geothermal heat, passive solar, and a Russian heater. And have a matching barn.

If not off grid, I'd at least like to have solar/wind electricity to cut the bills way down. Radical plumbing- that is, running water, but no septic- composting toilets and graywater runoff for irrigation. All wood/stone floors, and slipcovered leather/pleather upholstered furniture, so no vacuum. A gas dryer hooked up to biogas (from the chicken poop ) instead of propane - just for the winter, I love my clothesline!. A wood cookstove with hot water resevoir, and solar hot water for the summer. (And an electric on demand water heater for back up.) Chest fridge/freezers.

And converted diesel vehicles that run on grease.

Why Manitoulin Island? It's in Canada, so health care's not a concern, and I could find work as a nurse. (DH is a farm boy and former butcher, so he could run the farm, and maybe make a little money on the side.) Closeish to friends and family. In Lake Huron, so lots and lots of potable water where ever you look. And they have broadband internet access there.

[deditus]

Originally Posted by annethcz

For me, living near family is important. I can depend on my family, they can depend on us, and we all get along well. While the 'where' is important, I think being in a place where you have good relationships with others is just as important.

Why I would move back to MI despite the wretched economy. No jobs, but friends and family with land, tools, resources, skills, support. I love the TwinCities but I have no "real" friends or family here and only a 10 x 15 plot to garden and I am deathly afraid of foraging here because of all the lyme disease.

[mar123]

Right here in America in the town I live in now. We live near family, it is easy to hunt for food (if it came to that), many types of seafood in the area, and it is easy to grow produce.

As far as the Great Depression and agriculture- it wasn't a help because it was one of the contributors. Over-farming led to the dustbowl. We don't have that problem now, so you can't compare that depression with much of what is happening now. Times are much too different, the causes are not the same, and nor will the solutions be. We live in a totally different world.

[Teenytoona]

What's LE?

[annethcz]

Originally Posted by Teenytoona

What's LE?

Long Emergency

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Emergency