First off, do I think we'll ever get to a "post-consumer world"? No, in the sense that I think capitalism is a law of nature. That means, by the way, that I think it just IS the way that human economic interaction occurs--but of course, gravity is a law of nature too, and you can use gravity to hurt people. Everyone's still responsible for any sins that use and abuse of economics leads them into. End of digression; I bought this book not because I hate Nestle, Monsanto, and Google, but because I get tired of paying two bucks a bottle for salad dressing.
This book tells you, in delightfully snarky style, how to make just about everything. Like how to turn an Altoids mint can into an oil lamp. (Think about it, and I bet you can figure it out. Turns out regular string or shoelaces work for a wick, too.) I was pleased to find that salt and olive oil make a fine exfoliating scrub/engine grease hand scrub, that you can shave with olive oil, that I am not the only weirdo to make mead under my bathroom sink, that I can make my own vinegar from stuff I have in the house right now, and so on.
I made my own laundry detergent--turned out great, works awesome in my HE washer.
I made my own mustard. Lovely. Going to make harissa (Moroccan hot sauce) next. Think I'll wait on the Japanese rice bran pickles, which sound a bit oogy.
In case of zombie attack the book also includes chapters on "Making Soap the Hard Way" and how to build your own composting toilet. Remember, I said I'm considering those in the event of zombies. So don't come to my house looking for the ash hopper and the milk-crate-bucket-toilet, please, just use the regular facilities and enjoy washing up with Dr. Bronner's castile soap while civilization lasts.
If you like DIY-ing, this is the book to get. It's really practical, very frugal, and geared to people who don't have forty acres and access to old-school tools. Its sourdough recipe, for instance, makes a whole lot more sense to me than Nourishing Traditions's sourdough.
(NT's can't be authentic. I just don't see miners taking the time to lovingly nourish a starter for seven days, never letting the delicate thing touch metal, and then having to use almost all of it for bread that takes eight or so hours to rise. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but it seems like most 49'ers were a bit more impulsive.)
Some of the projects are only valuable if you absolutely want control over ingredients in your products. For instance: making soap. Their "Making Soap the Easy Way" requires a glass blender pitcher, a can of drain opener (lye), and olive oil. Which means that instead of buying soap, you'll buy olive oil and lye. Which is fine, if you absolutely have to know what's in your soap, but which is a bit silly otherwise--you're not really buying less, you're just buying different. But that's more of a philosophical flaw; their soap recipe is about the easiest I've come across, too. (Don't worry, I won't be keeping any lye in the house as long as I have little kids running around.)
So, if you're at all into what's becoming "Radical" - making your own stuff - give it a gander. It's a fun book to have.
Cheers,
Breanna
P.S. In Montana I could never buy lye in the grocery store--I checked one time, to run a numbers crunch to refute an internet person who insisted they saved all kinds of money on soap by making their own with lard and lye. They don't sell it in stores in Montana because people use it to make unhealthy street drugs. Apparently in Texas they don't care and they sell it right on the shelf with the Drano. So... weird, but I proved my point that you actually won't save much money unless you are comparing to the fancy "natural" soap.
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