Agreed with H2odragon about moving away from the term "self sufficient". If you really want to go down the road of individual resilience, then their suggestions (and moving rural) are good ones.

Another (and for the majority of folks, probably better) option is to pursue a "neighborhood self sufficiency" model. This gets around a lot of the issues of local government getting in your way, because if you get enough neighborhood buy-in, then there's more you can get away with / make happen. A good place to start is the transition towns movement, which, though it can sometimes be a little new age / hippie for folks tastes, it really is trying to tackle all the things you talked about. Good luck! Whatever you decide, share it back (here, YouTube, whatever). Humans best feature is talking to each other about how to solve problems.