The Self-Sufficient Garden Blog
Self-Sufficiency Gardening – What Exactly Is It?
I noted in my introductory post that food self-sufficiency means different things to different people. Here, I’ll describe what it means to me, based on my research over the last several years, and how I arrived at that version. Along the way, I’ll weave in various...
Self-Sufficiency Gardening – What Exactly Is It?
I noted in my introductory post that food self-sufficiency means different things to different people. Here, I’ll describe what it means to me, based on my research over the last several years, and how I arrived at that version. Along the way, I’ll weave in various...
Gardens and Farms — So Very Different
Nowadays, there’s really only one way to feed millions of people, right?Wrong. There are two ways: with farms, and with gardens. Yet we think that only the former can actually deliver massive amounts of food to millions. Simply because that’s what we’ve been taught to...
Setting the Stage for a Self-Sufficiency Garden Food System
For years, as a college professor of sustainability, I thought that the amazing efficiency of our industrial food system was due to clever technology powered by energy-dense fossil fuels. But then, spurred by the Covid shock to the food chain, accelerating climate...
Food Shocks and Garden Solutions
What Is A Food Shock? In case you haven’t been following the news lately, we’re currently facing what the media call climate change food shocks. These mega-threats will be triggered by already serious but increasingly extreme droughts, aquifer and surface water...
The Garden Food System and Diffusion of Innovation Part I
By now you know—if you’ve been following my blogs—that I intend to build up a GFS (Garden Food System) as a viable alternative to the IFS (Industrial Food System). But just how would that rather ambitious goal play out? Perhaps the best way to describe it is in terms...
The Garden Food System and Diffusion of Innovation Part II
Rate of adoption All successful innovations go through an adoption curve in which the new technology or idea reaches a critical mass, at which point it becomes self-sustaining. But not all innovations are successful. For instance, many have predicted that some form of...
Material Food Flow in 2023
The (Now Even Greater) Field-to-Fork Dropoff I was really happy to discover the material food flow chart (below) published by the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan. It’s been so useful in my blogs e.g, The Evidence and webinar....
The Garden Food System – I
Basic Structure Contrary to popular belief, the importance of self-sufficiency gardens is not confined to small scale, individual use. I believe I’ve now clearly documented that they can provide a substantial proportion of a country’s food and can do so far more...