Posts Tagged ‘local food’
Local Food: More Than a Nice-to-Have
While this Sustain report focuses on the UK, many of its findings are relevant to communities everywhere. — Local Futures Local food isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s an essential ingredient of UK economic resilience. Food prices in the UK are rocketing, showing just how exposed our food economy is to global shocks – from geopolitical…
Read MoreHow 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…
Read MoreJune 21 – World Localization Day
Ever since 2020, a global organization called Local Futures has been organizing events in dozens of countries on June 21, when the planet’s northern hemisphere enters the summer solstice. There are films, webinars, and local events happening everywhere around the globe. And it’s a moment when all of us who feel isolated in our localist…
Read MoreThe 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…
Read MoreCelebrating 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…
Read MoreAfrica’s Forgotten Farmers
Recently, renowned environmental and human rights advocate George Monbiot shared his perspectives on global food systems. Monbiot, once an advocate for small-scale African food producers, now seems to align more with corporate narratives: that they alone can address the world’s hunger problems. While the ongoing debate between British authors over the future of global food…
Read MoreRegenerative Agriculture: a Good Idea Until Corporations Got Hold of It
Food and agribusiness giants have coalesced around the term “regenerative agriculture” to signal their commitment to climate change and sustainability. This year’s COP28 will showcase regenerative agriculture prominently, and the term is gaining traction in policy circles, investor conferences and supermarket shelves. But it’s just the latest iteration of an on-going corporate strategy to undercut…
Read MoreNew Worlds to Build
George Monbiot recently came out swinging for me in his article ‘The cruel fantasies of well-fed people’, concerning my book Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future. Since that book in large part is a rejoinder to his own volume, Regenesis, I can hardly blame him for aiming a few blows. I just wish they hadn’t…
Read MoreTransgenic Rice Proposed as a ‘Solution’ for Africa
Scientists with an international rice initiative have been raising the alarm about a strain of bacterial blight causing outbreaks in rice fields in East Africa, and they say the patented transgenic varieties they have developed are the solution. The scientists are with the Healthy Crops Project, a non-profit consortium funded by the Gates Foundation that…
Read MoreThe Abundance of Subsistence
One late-summer day, a day so hot the mosquitoes weren’t flying, my brother and his wife and I traveled nine miles up the Unalakleet River to seine for humpies, or pink salmon. We laughed and hollered while pulling the net to a flat, wide bar made of perfect skipping and throwing stones at the inside…
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