By Steven Gorelick Ever since the Occupy movement coined the terms “the 1%” and “the 99%” to point out disparities of wealth and power, the gap between rich and poor has received a lot of attention. In his highly-regarded 2014 […]
Ice Cream, Shamans, and Climate Change
In the summer of 1969, I was 18 years old with a job driving an ice cream truck in a small New England town. One July afternoon the weather was hot and humid – ideal for ice cream – but […]
Local Food and the Art of Tractor Maintenance
The way we describe local food systems can make it seem as though just two parties are involved: we talk about “linking farmers and consumers”, or “shortening the distance between production and consumption”. But a healthy local food system is […]
7 billion for dinner? Here’s how to feed them
At this time of year – the Thanksgiving season – more Americans are celebrating conspicuous food consumption than giving thanks for a successful harvest. But in either case it’s a good time to consider how to feed not only America’s […]
Occupy Main Street!
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has ‘gone local’, with hundreds of communities across the United States holding Occupy Main Street demonstrations and general assemblies. While the Occupy Movement is quickly gaining momentum, it remains to be seen how it might improve […]
Bringing the Food Economy Home
By Helena Norberg-Hodge and Steven Gorelick Today’s mounting social and ecological crises demand responses that are broad, deep, and strategic. Given the widespread destruction wrought by globalisation, it seems clear that the most powerful solutions will involve a fundamental change […]
Tipping the Scale
By Steven Gorelick Looking back on the latter half of the 20th century, a dominant theme that emerges is the way large scale has steadily supplanted small scale. This scaling-up is closely linked to globalization — shorthand for the relentless […]
Personal Virtue and Public Responsibility
By Steven Gorelick 2006 By now there is little doubt that the effects of global warming will be calamitous within a generation or two, if not sooner. There is no way to predict precisely what the impact will be in […]
Local Food and Avian Flu
By Steven Gorelick One of the ways that large, global corporations are given an unfair advantage over smaller, more local competitors is through health, safety and environmental regulations. In many cases those regulations are in place because of Big Business […]
Is Local Organic Food Elitist?
By Steven Gorelick 2005 ISEC helped launch the movement for local food because it is such an effective solution-multiplier: local food helps family farmers and other small businesses survive, thereby revitalizing rural economies; it minimizes the need for a wide […]