Now suppose you’ve had success with a starter garden (producing enough food to consume a balanced diet for at least one full day, and probably for longer) and want to expand it the following year. You may or may not have an eventual goal of a garden productive enough...

So let’s say you’ve been reading my Substack posts and have decided that you want to start up a self-sufficiency garden, and could use a little guidance. Or maybe you’ve already been growing your own vegetables for some time but aren’t sure how what you do differs...

A few weeks ago I posted an article on how Michael Pollan, the long-time famous writer in favor of all food things natural and regenerative, was ostensibly at odds with best-selling author Michael Grunwald. He holds that Pollan’s approach is less environmentally...

I was recently (Feb 12) interviewed on the podcast One Bite Is Everything (OBIE) to discuss my concept of a self-sufficiency gardening food system. It was entitled, “Is a Parallel Food System Possible?” I liked that. Although I’ve often referred to it as an...

R U up for a little friendly yet globally-consequential controversy? Yes? Then read on.Meet Michael 1If you’re a foodie, you’re likely aware of . Author of The Botany of Desire (2002), In Defense of Food (2009), and a steady stream of other books about food and the...

Over years of perusing reports on AI’s challenges, both in product performance and financing, I’ve seen a steady increase in the number of economists and analysts who predict an AI implosion1,2,5-7. In fact, it’s now closing in on a consensus. What follows here is a...

Flood? What flood? If you follow the news at all, I’m sure you’ve seen the stories about the atmospheric rivers that have picked up water from the Pacific (by evaporation) and dumped it along the west coast, causing “historic” and “catastrophic” flooding. Yet as...

There is one global trend that trumps all others, and it’s not the president and his tariffs. It’s the alarming rate at which climate change catastrophes are becoming more frequent, costly, and intense. Against this onslaught sits the greatest challenge of the 21st...

One of the most exasperating tropes that crops up among food system media and analysts is the idea that industrial food production equals consumption. Because it’s such a colossal mistake—and one that misleads the public again and again—I’d like to revisit just how...