Helena Norberg-Hodge
Helena Norberg-Hodge is founder and director of Local Futures/ISEC. A pioneer of the “new economy” movement, she has been promoting an economics of personal, social and ecological well-being for over 40 years. She is the producer and co-director of the award-winning documentary 'The Economics of Happiness', and is the author of 'Local is Our Future' and 'Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh'. She was honored with the Right Livelihood Award for her groundbreaking work in Ladakh, and received the 2012 Goi Peace Prize for contributing to “the revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide.”
Humanity Is Not the Problem!
‘Humanity has missed the mark. Humanity has failed.’ As COP30 gets underway, this was the media’s take on the UN Secretary-General’s announcement that 1.5 degrees of global warming has now been locked in. We should be rolling our eyes at such proclamations. Once again, humanity takes the blame for the impotence of corporate-led summits. …
How to Feed the World and Save the Planet – A View from the Ground
“Better production ultimately means … protecting soils instead of depleting them, it means using water more wisely, it means bringing back diversity and local solutions.” – Beth Bechdol, FAO Deputy Director-General, on the FAO’s World Food Day 2025 opening plenary Anyone who tuned into the FAO’s World Food Day programme last week would be forgiven…
Trump’s Tariffs = Localist Liberation?
Last week, on so-called “Liberation Day,” the Trump administration announced its new wave of tariffs. The language was poignant. Liberation. It was a word meant to stir, to conjure up the dream of breaking free from foreign exploitation. Dependence on global trade is indeed a trap. For decades, our deepening reliance on faraway markets and…
The Globalized, Industrialized Food System Is Destroying the World
The Globalized, Industrialized Food System Is Destroying the World – We Urgently Need to Support Local Food Economies Our food system is linked to an economic system fundamentally biased against what’s good for people and the planet. Introduction We can thank small farmers, environmentalists, academic researchers, and food and farming activists for advancing ecologically sound…
Celebrating the Life of Stephan Harding, Gaian Scientist and Friend of Local Futures, 1953-2024
The much-loved and respected Gaian scientist and Head of Holistic Science at Schumacher College, Stephan Harding, passed away on September 2nd at the age of 71. Stephan was a cherished friend and a close collaborator over three decades. I met Stephan when I was teaching at Schumacher College just after it opened in 1990. We…
Remembering Pracha Hutanuwatr and Maria Mies
Sadly, two of my dear colleagues and soulmates ¬ Pracha Hutanuwatr and Maria Mies – passed away recently. I first met Pracha when he visited us in Ladakh in the mid-1980s. We immediately recognized that we were kindred spirits, and he invited me to Thailand and introduced me to his mentor, Sulak Sivaraksa. Deeply spiritual but…
From ‘Progress’ to an Economics of Happiness
If there’s one thing I’d love world leaders to think about in connection with the UN’s International Day of Happiness, it’s that their measure of progress actually goes up with unhappiness and unrest. GDP, or Gross Domestic Product, which is still used as the principal indicator for development and progress, simply measures the exchange of…
Supply Chain Failures: Another Reason for Localized Economies
The mainstream media – television, print and digital – routinely cycle through the litany of crises gripping the world. One week they’ll tell us about the latest climate disaster. The next, the focus may shift to the war in Ukraine. A few days later, COVID-19’s latest variant might be trending. The hot topic of the…
What Indigenous Wisdom Can Teach Us About Economics
This blog is also available in Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Russian and Spanish. The crises of the modern world verify what indigenous cultures have always known: that all phenomena are inextricably interconnected. As the Amazon – one of the most vital organs of the Earth – is razed to fuel the global economy, a…