Update 3: 28 October 2019

It's been three weeks since our collective effort to confront the Ravenous Superthreat began, and superstructers are hitting their stride.  mudmama continues to document her family's remarkable example of a 10-mile diet, posting a pictorial guide to ethical apple scrumping.   Members such as bludecor and PlaNetweaver are sharing tales of how their diets and attitudes (respectively) are changing to cope with new circumstances. And SEHIs' calls for help, with garden-choking weeds for example -- are being made, and answered.

We're getting more organised; less fragmented. The Urban Food Producers' Coop has become the first Ravenous Superstructure to seize autonomy and set specific missions for its members. "Mission 1: Grow Something"  Others, we expect, will be sure to follow.

Moreover, two large-scale policy changes around distributed food production have been announced in the United States. First, new national standards encouraging community allotments within botanic gardens and arboretums are being implemented by the American Association of Museums and the American Public Gardens Association. Also, thanks to the Casey Tree Foundation, from next year almost all trees planted in Washington D.C. will be  fruit- or nut-bearing varieties, the produce of which can be shared by all.

All positive signs, to be sure.  But is it enough?  This week's steady progress on the Ravenous Superthreat has been overshadowed by alarming news from GEAS that, other things being equal, grassroots efforts will lose steam by late 2020.  That's just a year from now, and it behooves SEHIs everywhere to adapt and adjust in response.  It's a telling signal that the debate which came to the fore last week -- between advocates of small-scale, decentralised gardening efforts on one hand, versus large-scale farming on the other; a dispute which could have dragged on indefinitely -- has come to an amicable close. The participants agree that the scale of our present challenges requires us to devote more attention to large-scale agriculture and distribution systems. How can governments enable and complement community efforts? How might large associations, companies and other organisations contribute?  In other words, a consensus is emerging that for the Ravenous Superthreat, grassroots action alone is not enough.

If our focus in spatial terms is broadening, then the same is true of the temporal dimension.  This week, an urgent call from GEAS has challenged us all to aspire to a collective score of at least 14,000 points by mid-November -- in effect, buying humanity another generation's worth of time, according to the WorldRun simulation.  At the same time, we've begun to realise that fixing the food system long-term requires an intergenerational solution; in a word, education. Amongst discussions launched by SEHIs in the past week, there has been a clear focus on teaching and learning -- whether distance education, ways of exchanging tech skills within the constraints of Assembly12 (which limits public gatherings to twelve persons at a time), or ensuring our children are capable of growing their own food. Clearly, as we turn our attention to the goal of stretching our survival horizon by a generation, we must prepare our heirs to take over.  (The conversations are all in their fledgling stage -- if any of them draws your interest, be sure to voice your opinions or additional questions.)

This movement to expansive thinking coincides with a need to change gears in relation to Superstructures, too.  Week one saw the creation of over 300 proposals for novel collaborations; the second week fewer than 100, and in this last week, about 50.  Of course, a slowdown in the rate of founding 'structs is both expected and necessary: it means the possibility space for Superstructure concepts is reaching saturation. From here, then, we need both (a) to consolidate, reducing redundancy, and (b) to intensify our efforts within those 'structs identified as the most promising.

Therefore, as Ravenous guides, we are calling upon SEHIs to direct a "brain blast" -- a brief but concerted effort -- towards three of their preferred Superstructures. The idea is to connect the Superstructure more closely to the community or network that you bring to the table.  We've divided some of the key candidate 'structs into three categories, and urge you to pick one of each to work on:

1. Staples:
These have been around since week one, have attracted a solid membership base and earned cooperation badges, but need additional attention to take them to the next level.

• Urban Food Producers' Coop
• The Exchange
• Cradle 2 Cradle
• ARK: No Starving Artist

2. Fresh Produce:
These are relatively new ideas, but they seem to contain potential to be extremely important, overarching superstructures in the long run.

• Food Webbies
• Bright Green

3. Spices
These are marginal 'structs to date, yet they either invite an intriguing experiment, or in some cases, plant the seed of big-picture transformation which, if applied to the Ravenous Superthreat, could help turn it around...

• Agricologies
• Photosynthe-Size Me
• Open Fab Initiative
• Green Tags
• Wetware Development

Do you know where you want to focus?  Okay then, here are three steps to a Brain Blast (you'll need to be registered and logged in):

1. Go to the 'struct you want to work on. Rave it, then join it, if you haven't already.      
2. Introduce yourself and your idea by adding to the "Other Information" field the following:

• What 2019 community you are part of that has something to offer this superstructure
• How that community could help this 'struct
• What you need from other SEHIs in order to activate or mobilise your community

3. Add a link in the "Superstructures we are collaborating with" field -- another 'struct that you think could help this one, and how.

Please remember to sign your SEHI name and date to all of your edits, so everyone can follow your contributions!  (Here's an example of how this ought to look.)

We'll be keeping an eye on contributions, but don't hesitate to email us to draw our attention to your Brain-blasting effort.  And keep nominating the best work of your fellow SEHIs for badges -- everyone's recognition benefits our collective bottom line!

Folks, we have three weeks on the clock.  It's time to get focused and start making some serious progress, building on the excellent foundation laid over the past three weeks.  There are almost 6000 of us in the Superstruct community, and we're still growing.  Now, in the words of William McDonough -- the architect who introduced the revolutionary Cradle-to-Cradle (waste = food) concept to the world -- the question for each of us is:

What do you want to grow?

~futuryst (Stuart Candy, Honolulu, Hawaii) & mrjudkins (Josh Judkins, Wellington, New Zealand), 28 October 2019

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