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“A new human story founded on connection and diversity is emerging.
It’s called localization.”
We are pleased to share with you this Profile of Helena Norberg-Hodge, which was published in this weekend’s New York Times!
The piece provides a glimpse of the world through Helena’s eyes, opening the window onto a radically different future. In light of the coronavirus crisis, more and more people are thirsting for the connection – with Nature and with others – that is at the heart of this vision. As Helena points out, community and local economies “just make sense”.
‘Planet Local’ spotlight
The New York Times article is testament to the fact that, despite all the counterproductive pressures from the top, awareness really is trickling upwards from the grassroots, offering real hope for systems change. In this Planet Local Spotlight, we bring you examples of how awareness is also trickling up to policymakers at the regional/municipal levels, leading to concrete steps being taken towards localisation.
Hundreds of seed banks around the world are preserving heritage crops for future generations. Vrihi & Basudha in India has more than 900 endangered varieties of rice.
Sustainable and equitable food procurement has become public policy in Cook County, Illinois, USA, thanks to the Good Food Purchasing Program.
Lobbying against trade deals and corporations goes hand-in-hand with building local food resilience at ZIMSOFF in Zimbabwe and Unión de Cooperativas Tosepan in Mexico.
Governments are building local economies centered on organic food production through the Biovallée Project in France and Cilento Bio District in Italy.
The above policy steps have only been taken thanks to hard work and sustained pressure from informed and impassioned people at the grassroots. and you, too, can play a role in generating the groundswell of awareness needed to bring about systems change. You can do so by engaging in “big picture activism”, as well as by reading and sharing our blog posts, films, books and other resources.
