Think globally, eat locally

The movement toward building a locally based economy is, oddly enough, a global one. It's a decentralized network of self-organizing communities sharing information about how to live more satisfying lives. Bill McKibben's book Deep Economy is all about this movement. By combining local stories with global statistics in a friendly and personal style, McKibben has written an excellent introduction to it. He makes it clear that localization addresses the urgent problems of climate change, peak oil and environmental degradation – but an even deeper motive for rejecting rampant globalization is that it has failed to make us happy. It has undermined healthy communities, the real source of human happiness. The more connected people are with their neighbours, when it comes to basics like food, the happier they are. There's a big difference between food and information in this respect. Information can be moved nowadays at little or no cost, and it doesn't degrade in transit. Food, on the other hand, is not likely to be either healthy or tasty if it's travelled a thousand miles to your table. The industrial food system has already proved to be a bad habit in most respects, and it can't survive the escalation of energy costs. But the more immediate reason why so many are switching to local food is that it's better food in every way. You can taste it! Chuc and Linda Willson have on DVD a good documentary, called simply Good Food, about the local food movement in the northwestern U.S. It shows what can be accomplished when organic farmers, food retailers and restaurants work together with local consumers. We have the beginnings of such a movement on Manitoulin, and this film offers a lot of ideas on how it could grow. Another localization movement has to do with housing – that is, designing and building dwellings which reduce dependence on power grids and other centralized services. On one of our recent movie nights on Manitoulin, a small group of us had a very stimulating conversation about this kind of localization. It was sparked by a film called Garbage Warrior, which isn't really about garbage or war – it's about one renegade architect's crusade to create highly unconventional, affordable and sustainable housing. It's also a portrait of an artist who's also a social activist and has to battle with government bureaucrats for the right to experiment with new design concepts. We have this lively, entertaining film on DVD and would be happy to loan it out. You may not agree with all the ideas in it, but it's very likely to get you thinking outside the box when it comes to housing. Another resource i've recently come across is the Transition Culture website. The question explored here is how best to make the transition to a post-oil, post-growth economy, while building healthier communities in the process. I would recommend having a look – it's free! All the books and DVDs mentioned above can also be borrowed at no cost, but you might have to wait your turn.