[SustainableTompkins] relocalization

[northsheep at juno.com]

Hi Elan,
 
I'd like 
> first to hear from you , preferably on the listserve for all, a few 
> 
> specific positive strategies and/or approaches to strategy 
> development  that emerge from what you're saying, that could 
> substantially improve on what is currently being done.

This response may not be as long as either of us would like, as I am
about to leave on a month-long farming related trip. First, a minor
point, I want to provide the internet link to the Pfeiffer article that I
quoted. I had converted the word "here" into a link to
http://www.mountainsentinel.com/#escapesuburbia but the conversion
somehow got scrubbed from the posting to the list. 
 
For relocalization to develop prescient strategies, I think a lot more
people need to become knowledgeable in two areas:
 
1.  The nature of the crises we face in the next decades, with outcomes
not seen in Western civilization since the onset of the industrial
revolution.
2.  The forces and interests in our society that are arrayed against what
will be a growing need for communities to take charge of their own
destinies, and how that conflict is likely to play out. 
 
A lot of good information is available on these subjects, so here I will
only outline some important points, and see what discussion that
provokes.
 
1. As to the nature of the crises,  Jon and the others in the Tompkins
County Relocalization Project have expanded on some of these in a slide
show at http://ibiblio.org/tcrp/pres/tcrp-intro.pdf I encourage them to
organize more educational outreach (in which I would be glad to
participate) on discussion lists like this one. The summary below
emphasizes the effects on food production and security, but will have
similar ripple effects on shelter, economic security, and other
necessities of life.

The Crisis, in its multidimensionality, with likely multiplier effects
across its elements, and cascading effects over time:
 
1. Exponentially rising energy costs for coming decades as currently
foreseeable alternative energy technologies fail to compensate for the
end of cheap oil;
2. Increasing water shortage for the irrigated deserts that currently
supply large proportions of the food economy, here (like the California
Central Valley) as elsewhere in the world;
3. Gradual loss of high-energy inputs that currently prop agricultural
productivity and mask the degraded state of most farmland. Present low
agroecosystemic potential stems from decades of damage to its natural
capital: the biodiversity and health of mineral, water and carbon cycles
that provide essential ecological services. 
4. Accumulation of persistent organic pollutants, degradation of genetic
traits of sustainability in most agricultural plants and animals,
homogenization of gene pools and extinction losses, are all nearing a
tipping point;
5. Increasing weather volatility, a near term impact of climate change;
6. Increasing agroecosystem instability, a long term impact of climate
change;
7. Increasing economic crisis in the United States as federal debt,
corporate debt, consumer debt, and trade deficit approach a tipping
point;
      8. A declining domestic economy as the empire tries to salvage with
military control what it is gradually losing in global economic hegemony.
      9. A massive national disinformation bubble of which most people
living in it are blithely unaware.

Much could be said about the implications of each of these, but I will
leave the subject there for now.

As for the forces arrayed against relocalization, I suggest for starters
a paper I available on my website:
http://www.geocities.com/northsheep/foodchange.html In it I argue that
the structure and nature of the political economy is such that most
people's
current change strategies - lobbying govt, changing consumer preferences,
etc. will fail. A proper understanding of the present local and national
structure of power (5% of the population holds 95% of the wealth)
indicates that the construction of mass movements are necessary for
significant change to occur, and then only as they are powerful enough to
leverage policy changes deep in the system. I argue that due to the power
entrenched in an elite minority, all serious attempts of local
communities to take charge of their own destinies will confront a glass
ceiling. It is glass (that is, invisible to most) because of the false
understanding of the nature of our society that has been cumulatively
manufactured in the collective consciousness. In sum, I argue that
successful strategies for change will require a new understanding of the
nature of our society. 

The walmartization examples I pointed to that hit that glass ceiling are
but two of the increasing number all over the country, as locals finally
become outraged at the declining quality of life in their communities.
And this is happening before any of the crises listed above have reached
a tipping point. I mentioned in the paper others that were happening as I
was writing it, and that was several years ago!

I realize that this posting only skims the surface of your request,
pointing at prerequisites for good strategy rather than propose in depth
specific strategies on specific issues. But let's see what kind of
discussion comes of this. 

Thanks for your interest, 

Karl North
Northland Sheep Dairy, Freetown, New York USA
     www.geocities.com/northsheep/
"Mother Nature never farms without animals" - Albert Howard
"Pueblo que canta no morira" - Cuban saying

On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:05:12 -0400 Elan Shapiro
<elansla at ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us> writes:
> Hi Karl
> I value your thinking greatly , and I'm very glad you are urging 
> people to think systemically, strategically, as well as politically. 
> 
> (though I agree with Simon that not all will be or need to be)
>   I'm not sure I agree with all the points you make which touch 
> directly on projects I'm involved with such as Ecovillage and Inlet 
> 
> Development. But rather than explore point by point what's not clear 
> 
> to me, or what I may not agree with,  in your discussion, I'd like 
> first to hear from you , preferably on the listserve for all, a few 
> 
> specific positive strategies and/or approaches to strategy 
> development  that emerge from what you're saying, that could 
> substantially improve on what is currently being done.
> Gratefully
> Elan
> 
> -- 
> Elan Shapiro
> Sustainable Tompkins Program Co-Chair
> Sustainable Living Associates, Principal
> Frog's Way B&B
> 211 Rachel Carson Way
> Ithaca, NY 14850
> 607-275-0249
> 
> "We must be the change we want to see in the world"
>                   Mohandas Gandhi
> 
>