This blog is also available in Russian and Spanish. Hou Xueying, a mother from Shanghai, was tired of food safety scares and of a city life disconnected from the land. So she moved her family to the country to learn […]
Agriculture and Autonomy in the Middle East
Editor’s Note (March 29th, 2018): An earlier version of this article incorrectly described MEM as operating in Rojava. In fact, MEM only operates formally in North (Turkish) Kurdistan, though its goals and principles are also being pursued by groups in […]
An Eco-Farm in Myanmar (Burma): Saving the World with Organic Agriculture
The sun has risen over a misty, damp plain where, not long ago, wild elephants roamed. We have walked home through fallow paddy fields after a hot cup of tea at the little teahouse on the road to the monastery. […]
Indigenous Knowledge and Global Wellness
Modern medicine has enabled people to live longer lives, but what have we lost in turning our backs on traditional ways of healing? Today, heart disease is the number one cause of death around the world. An estimated 17.3 million […]
Building a Village: Lessons in Urban Living from South Korea
“This is a very special house. It’s called the House of Happiness through Communication. People live here like a big family.” Our guide was 12 year-old Seon Jae, and we were standing in front of an unremarkable-looking 3-story brick building […]
From Global to Local in India
“The Future is Fast. We are Faster.” This ubiquitous billboard for a tech company neatly captures the zeitgeist in modern-day Bangalore, and rapidly-urbanizing India generally. Today, Bangalore’s erstwhile appellation as India‘s ‘garden city’ seems sadly anachronistic. To arrive at the […]
Saving Tigers: local knowledge and conservation
Our Planet Local series travels to Nepal, where guest author Narayan Dhakal explains how local knowledge can help save tigers, demonstrating that localization is a key element of successful biodiversity conservation around the world. Before the creation of parks and […]
Towards Alternatives: Radical Ecological Democracy (Part 2)
Local resources, locally managed Localisation, a trend diametrically opposed to globalisation, is based on the belief that those living closest to the resource to be managed (the forest, the sea, the coast, the farm, the urban facility…), would have the […]
Towards Alternatives: Radical Ecological Democracy (Part 1)
The third in our Planet Local series, this article is excerpted from Globalisation in India: Impacts and Alternatives by Ashish Kothari. Kothari will be speaking at the Economics of Happiness conference in Bangalore, India on March 15th. Readers can learn more […]
Planet Local: The Secret of Happiness
The second in our Planet Local-India series, the following article is adapted from a Morning Talk by Sonam Angchuk, founder of the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL). It was delivered by Angchuk to students from different parts […]