We live in an age of planetary crisis with threats from climate change, increasing rates of extinction, and outbreaks of infectious diseases like COVID-19, all exacerbated by land use change and global trade. This forces us to question the prevailing economic system of fossil-fuel-driven mass consumption and the notion of limitless growth. In the 1860s and 1870s, John Ruskin reoriented the imagination away from the marketplace toward the world of art, nature, and community and developed the theory and practice of what we call “sufficiency.” He called for ethical consumption to combat the degradation of nature and maintain the health of all living things. Rural communities offered an alternative model with their preindustrial land use, locally produced food, skilled craftsmen, and close community bonds. Corresponding with Francesca Alexander (1837–1917), who lived in Italy in a time of cholera, Ruskin learned about the resilience of just this sort of rustic community and helped her edit books about the lives of its inhabitants. While Ruskin’s concept of sufficiency might seem antiquated, his critique of consumer society challenges us to consider the new economics of degrowth and rethink the relation between desire and the environment.