A Path to Food Self-Provisioning and Experiences from Learning New Skills: An Autoethnographic Depiction

Abstract

In this autoethnographic depiction, I tell a story of change and renewal. In the narrative, I present a story of personal choices and epiphanies that have changed the course of my life. At the turning point, I portray the process of learning new skills regarding food self-provisioning. I come from a privileged, but de-skilled, middle-class suburban background, and the past four years has been a diverse journey of insecurity, alienation, and fatigue, but also of learning, empowerment, and self-realization. From a person with limited skills, to an at least somewhat skilled food neo-self-provisioner, I have partaken in a process of becoming, which is rich in experience but psychologically and physically demanding. The challenges of living a sustainable and ethical life, amidst contemporary societies, are plenty, but in this research the main hurdles are located in the shortage of time, and rootlessness, in the form of eroded communal bonds, lack of peer support, and broken intergenerational relations.