Be unique, be different, be wonderful...

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again  And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are?
We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything.
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
- Henry David Thoreau

In this light one can examine our homesteads. Just because every neighbor on the road you live on is raising cattle does not mean you are going to make money in cattle. Just because everyone in your county raises white Kenebec potatoes doesn't mean you can't raise Yukon golds or Pontiac reds or Indigo blues. Mono-culture and doing the same thing everyone else is is not sustainable because...

If everyone in 50 miles is raising one particular variety of corn then the bugs that eat that kind of corn experience a population explosion and put a major dent in the profits however... if you are brave enough to be different and put in a different kind of corn you risk not having a market for it or have less of a output but you also stand to have the only healthy crop in the county and to be able to demand top dollar for it.

Diversity 

     Sustainability has already been proven in nature - how often do you see one type of grain covering.an entire field that has not been planted by people?