The Garden Eater is mostly a fictional account of Unk's conversations with his friend Junior Fre. Both are enthusiastic vegetable gardeners and health nuts. Unk is a bit extreme in his commitment to both gardening and healthy eating. Unk is convinced that he has good health because he eats the food that he grows in his garden. Junior is more mid-spectrum and gets a considerable fraction of his food and vegetables from a local supermarket.
The two friends have many conversations about gardening, health, and diet. They talk about values and goals and what makes life enjoyable. They don't have all the answers but often come up with interesting observations, some of which seem to be at least partial answers to how life can be made better.
Set in the near future, humanity and the average individual, are under stress. Resource depletion and the resulting rise in prices of energy, consumer goods, and food, have changed some of the basic factors in people's lives. The consumer economy has greatly contracted. Self-sufficiency is now paramount. Small scale local agriculture and home gardening have become the means to deal with the changing world and the burden of high food prices.
Unk grows most of his own food in his garden. His income is not so much taken by the high food prices. His diet is not dependent on an increasingly burdened food distribution system with its marginally affordable prices. Junior has a modest vegetable garden. His higher than average income has made the high food prices less of a problem for him. Most other people are not so fortunate.
Resilience and the ability to change are increasingly important in a future that is becoming more challenging. Unk and Junior have made many changes. Adapting to change has made life good for them. Many of the other six billion or so people on this planet are not so fortunate.
The Garden Eater is fiction and entertaining, yet mostly logical and informative. It is a story that invites you to become more resilient and better able to adapt to changes... and prosper... and enjoy what the future brings.
