It’s occurred to me that some people may want a brief but informative overview of the self-sufficiency garden food system without reading through my Substack posts in what now amounts to a book (which it eventually will be). And/or, some may just prefer a more visual rendering. So that’s what I’ve now downloaded. It’s about 12 ½ minutes long, of which the first 40 seconds are what might be considered a “short” for those who only want the elevator pitch. The written posts are then available if they want a more fleshed-out description of the whole Ultra-Local, Full-Circle Self-Sufficiency endeavor.

Still, I fully expect those encountering this endeavor for the first time to wonder about this or that aspect of it. After all, the foundational premise is rather shocking: that the real economy of scale in food systems accrues not to vast fields stretching to the horizon, behemoth farm machinery, and 40,000-some grocery items under one roof at your local supermarket. Rather, it belongs to self-sufficiency gardens, which are orders of magnitude more efficient by four major, whole-system metrics. So for the convenience of those who, after seeing the video, want to know more about this or other, equally surprising assertions, I provide herewith an index of the posts. They are in order of appearance, starting with the very first post, Jan 20. Those with an asterisk are not about self-sufficiency gardens per se, but—as a break—interesting garden side-light stories. Clicking on any post title will take you right to it.

1. Setting the Stage for a Self-Sufficiency Garden Food System

2. Gardens and Farms — So Very Different

3. Self-Sufficiency Gardening – What Exactly Is It?

4. *The Feather and the Corn Leaf *

5. The Surprising Economy of Scale

6. The Industrial Food System: UPFs Are Us

7. ULFs (Ultra-Local Foods), Not Regenerative Ag, Are the Answer to Industrial Food

8. *Butterbean Delight*

9. Yes, But . . . Are Gardens Really Feasible? – I

10. Yes, But . . . Are Gardens Really Feasible? – II

11. The Significance of a Self-Sufficiency Food System

12. Diffusion of Innovations – I

13. Diffusion of Innovations – II

14. The Food System in Slow-Motion Freefall

15. Russian Gardening – Proof of Concept at Scale

16. *The Ghost of a Snake*

17. The Industrial Hidden-Costs Economy of Illusion

Yet I’m not done. There are so many intriguing—or amazing, or alarming—things going on in food systems, both at the national and global scales, that I’ll be adding new posts. I’ve already largely written several of them:

· The production-to-consumption ratio: 50% or 5%?

· The abundance movement and a garden-anchored food system

· If gardens are so great, how did we get the industrial food system?

· Indirect land use change and the garden food system

· Values, paradigm shifts, and food systems: Which comes first?

So stay tuned. I’ll be finishing and getting them out just as soon as I can.