hm, I'm not sure in what way you think I avoided the subject 🤔

sunchokes are a low-calorie food, which is why I specifically don't suggest them as a famine food. It would be better to grow sunflowers that produce seeds, as at least those have oils and will provide calories.

Potatoes are a much better option than sunchokes, but require much more attention and effort, to prevent blight and ensure a good crop, etc. - it's not trivial to produce your own calories.

I'm fine with suggesting you can pick up producing some of your own food or calories, but as someone who has actually tried doing this in a suburban context, I want to warn people about the intensive time and labor involved.

Farming is best done on a farm, by farmers; more people should think about whether their time and effort is best spent on farming or not, whether they want to farm full-time or not, etc. We need to be clear-sighted that nobody can achieve self-sufficiency on their own, and that everyone has limited time and energy.

We also need to be clear that having a victory garden is not going to replace the reliance on farmers for calories or prevent famine or save people from catastrophic collapse of food production systems or supply chains.

Which is why I am emphasizing our reliance on farmers rather than telling everyone to become a farmer.