Do You Want Them to Drink Coca Cola – Practical Steps to Move from Global Dependence to Local Interdependence by Helena Norberg-Hodge




“The globalization of culture and information has led to a way of life in which the nearby is treated with contempt . . . . We need to distinguish between efforts merely to counter further globalization and efforts that can bring real solutions. The best way to halt the runaway global economy would undoubtedly be through multilateral treaties that would enable governments to protect people and the environment . . . . But such international steps would not in themselves restore health to economies and communities. Long-term solutions to today’s social and environmental problems require a range of small, local initiatives that are as diverse as the cultures and environments in which they take place . . . . Most importantly, rather than thinking in terms of isolated, scattered efforts, it is helpful to think of institutions that will promote small scale on a large scale.”

“In Mongolia, a country that has survived on local milk products for thousands of years and that today has twenty-five million milk- producing animals, one finds mainly German butter in the shops . . . . In this absurd situation, individuals are becoming dependent for their everyday needs on products that have been transported thousands of miles, often unnecessarily. The goal of localization would not be to eliminate all trade but to reduce unnecessary transport while encouraging changes that would strengthen and diversify economies at both the community and national levels.”

” . . . . a shift toward smaller scale and more localized production would benefit both North and South – and allow for more meaningful work and fuller employment all around. Today, a large portion of the South’s natural resources is delivered to the North, on increasingly unfavourable terms, in the form of raw materials; the South’s best agricultural land is devoted to growing food, fibres, even flowers, for the North; and a good deal of the South’s labour is used to manufacture goods for Northern markets. Rather than further impoverishing the South, producing more ourselves would allow the South to keep more of its resources and labour for itself.”

Some of the practical steps are as follows :

  1. Local and regional land-use regulations can be amended to protect wild areas, open space and farmland from development. Political and financial support could be given to the various forms of land trusts that have been designed with this in mind. In the United States, there are now over 900 such trusts protecting more than 2.7 million acres of land.
  2. In urban areas, zoning regulations usually segregate residential, business and manufacturing areas – a restriction necessitated by the needs and hazards of large-scale production and marketing. These could be changed to enable an integration of homes, small shops and artisan or other small-scale production sites, as was traditional in the world’s great cities.
  3. In a number of places, community banks and loan funds have been established to increase the capital available to local residents and businesses and allow people to invest in their neighbours and their community, rather than in distant corporations.
  4. “Buy local” campaigns help local businesses survive even when pitted against heavily subsidized corporate competitors.
  5. An effective way of guaranteeing that money stays within the local economy is through the creation of local currencies. Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) schemes have sprung up in the United Kingdom (where there are over 300 in operation) and in Ireland, Canada, France, Argentina, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
  6. Another idea is the creation of local “tool lending libraries”, whereby people can share tools on a community level.
  7. One of the most exciting grassroots efforts is the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement in the USA, in which consumers link up directly with a nearby farmer. By connecting farmers directly with urban consumers, farmers’ markets similarly benefit local economies and the environment. In New York City, there are now over two dozen farmers’ markets, which add several million dollars annually to the incomes of farmers in nearby counties.
  8. The movement to create ecovillages is perhaps the most comprehensive antidote to dependence on the global economy. Around the world, people are building communities that attempt to get away from the waste, pollution, competition and violence of contemporary life. The Global Ecovillage Network links several of these communities worldwide.
  9. Large-scale energy installations are today heavily subsidized. Phasing out these multibillion-dollar investments while offering real support for locally available renewable energy supplies would result in lower pollution levels, reduced pressure on wilderness areas and oceans, and less dependence on dwindling petroleum supplies. It would also help to keep money from leaking out of local economies
  10. Agricultural subsidies now favour large-scale industrial agribusinesses. Subsidies include not only direct payments to farmers but funding for research and education in biotechnology and chemical- and energy-intensive monoculture. Shifting those expenditures toward those that encourage smaller-scale, diversified agriculture would help small family farmers and rural economies while promoting biodiversity, healthier soils and fresher food.
  11. Government expenditures for highway building promote the growth of corporate “superstores” and sprawling malls. Spending money instead to build public markets such as those that were once found in virtually every European town and village – would enable local merchants and artisans with limited capital to sell their wares. This would enliven town centres and cut down on fossil-fuel use and pollution. Similarly, support for farmers’ markets would help to revitalize both the cities and the agricultural economy of the surrounding region while reducing money spent to process, package, transport and advertise food.
  12. Television and other mass telecommunications have been the recipients of massive subsidies in the form of R&D, infrastructure development, educational training and other direct and indirect support. They are now rapidly homogenizing diverse traditions around the world. Shifting support toward building facilities for local entertainment – from music and drama to puppet shows and festivals – would offer a healthy alternative.
  13. At present, investments in health care favour huge, centralized hospitals meant to serve urban populations. Spending the same money instead on a greater number of smaller clinics that relied less on high technology and more on health practitioners would bring health care to more people and boost local economies.
  14. Creating and improving spaces for public meetings, from town halls to village squares, would encourage face- to-face exchanges between decision- makers and the public, serving both to enliven communities and to strengthen participatory democracy. In Vermont, for example – where participatory democracy is still alive and well – people attend town meetings for lively debates and votes on local issues.

Full article at Resurgence Magazine

Keywords : globalization, capitalism, corporation, tax, subsisdies, ecosocial crisis, interdependence, relocalization, human scale, participatory democracy, community entrepreneurship, co-intelligence, institutional diversity, policentricity, resilience
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Published::
4.11.07 / 9am
Category:
Ecosocionomics, Global Governance, Life's Necessities, Means, Paths, Ends
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