The Nearings were seminal figures in the back-to-the-land movement of the United States in the mid-20th century. I am especailly appreciative of their work for its moral foundation. The Nearings were pacificist and strict vegetarian, a term which more or less maps to “vegan” today. Still today pursuits of homesteading and self-sufficiency rarely consider the interests of other sentient beings, instead romanticizing their less-industrial exploitation.