Local Futures
Annual Report 20191 ▪ Local Futures Annual ReportNote from the Director
Helena Norberg-Hodge

I

recently spoke with Gail Bradbrook,
cofounder of Extinction Rebellion – the game- changing movement for climate action. As
is often the case with those who are new to ourwork, she was shocked when I cited some of thenumbers on needless trade – figures that appear
in our recently published “Insane Tradefactsheet” (see page 6). A prime example ofinsane trade is that countries routinely importand export huge quantities of identical products
on a daily basis – utter madness at a time ofclimate crisis.
This is happening because
governments are blindly subsidizing, taxing andregulating in favor of global businesses andbanks, enabling them to profit from this“redundant trade” despite the human andecological costs. Gail was in agreement about theneed for this bigger-picture analysis, and when
we later sent her our climate paper, we weredelighted to receive an emphatic response: “Thisis incredibly important and useful,” she wrote. “Ireally mean it!”
Extinction Rebellion and other movements forclimate action have been successful in elevating
the climate debate this year, but I believe that a
deep systemic critique would significantly
broaden the movement. A systemic view exposes
the corporate-friendly pseudo-solutions thathave co-opted the environmental movement,
and, crucially, allows us to connect with the huge
number of people whose primary concern issecuring livelihoods for themselves and theirfamilies. This broader perspective makes clearthat the wedge between environmental andeconomic concerns is an artificial one: today, thesame global economy that is escalating
greenhouse gas emissions is also driving
economic insecurity and social breakdown. At
the same time, a shift in the opposite direction –towards strengthening local economies – would
create secure livelihoods and reweave the fabricof community, while restoring biodiversity andmassively reducing ecological impacts.

This is the big-picture perspective that we continue
to share at our Economics of Happiness
conferences (page 11) and other publicpresentations (page 14). It is a perspective with thepotential to take us beyond an increasingly
antagonistic left-right divide, and to transcend themaze of identity politics that serves to polarize
urban and rural, vegan and non-vegan, male andfemale, immigrant and native-born.
We have connected these dots in our new book,
Local Is Our Future, which we published in July to avery positive reception (page 4). Many readers
have already expressed their gratitude for such aclear, concise and cohesive synthesis of the major
issues of the day. This short book also points to theflourishing local economy initiatives that are
forging a hopeful path into the future.
There is clearly a need for this message, as people
around the world witness the everyday struggles
of friends, family and neighbors: it’s becoming
virtually impossible for young people to find jobs
where they can afford housing, while most of us
have been touched by the escalating epidemics ofstress, depression, addiction and suicide. Our big
picture analysis not only offers hope for the future,
it can spark an impassioned fire of committed
action. Over the years, this is something we haveseen again and again.

2 ▪ Local Futures Annual ReportEncouraging signs are clearer than ever in South
Korea, where our work continues to grow by leaps
and bounds. This year, I had a private meetingwith South Korea’s Prime Minister, Lee Nak-yeon,
and a public conversation with Seoul’s charismaticSuperintendent of Education, Cho Hee-yeon. The
latter subsequently committed to procuring all of
Seoul’s school lunches regionally: that’s 1 million
meals per day! I was also invited to address the
newly formed Presidential Committee on
Agriculture,
Fisheries
and
Rural
Policy.
Meanwhile, I’ve been meeting over the past five
years with the much-loved, progressive mayor ofSeoul, Park Won-soon, who is increasingly
championing the cause for economic localization,
recognizing that it offers the best way to solve both
ecological and social problems.
We are particularly excited that the city of Jeonju,
population 650,000, has already taken big steps
towards the local: they are actively supporting
their local food system, have experimented with alocal currency, and are now exploring publicbanking. After networking with internationalpresenters at the Economics of Happiness
conferences there, the city government has sent
representatives to Japan and the US to study
successful localization initiatives and to returnwith key policy suggestions.
At the same time, our impact in Japan isexpanding. At our third Economics of Happiness
World Forum in Tokyo, it was exciting to meetwith representatives from various movements forsmall-scale farming, – and to hear about thegrowing numbers of young people joining these
movements, not only in Japan, but worldwide. Ourcolleague Professor Wen Tiejun, founder of the
New Rural Reconstruction Movement in China,
said that their group has been able to shift Beijing’s
development policy and to secure more structural
support for rural livelihoods. And our new
Palestinian collaborator, Saad Dagher, reports that
there are more young people than ever comingback to the land in his homeland. (Alarmingly,
Saad also told us that UN climate “experts”
recently visited him in Palestine to try to sell him

on “smart agriculture” – a hijacking of climate
concern to promote chemical- and energyintensive farming, using robots and drones linked
to satellites.)
In the face of all the corporate-backed propaganda
for a high-tech, jobless, ultra-urbanized and eveninterplanetary future, we are doing our utmost toraise the voices of the hundreds of millions ofpeople around the world who are opting for a very
different future – one that involves coming home tocommunity and to the Earth. In this vein, we
continue to highlight real-world examples that
demonstrate the benefits of local food and farming– something we have championed since the 1990s(long before it became a popular cause).
As part of our local food campaign this year wepublished a number of blogs and articles on foodand farming, and curated a “farms of the future”
film series (page 5) that looks at hopeful trends –including the young farmers movements. Even as
they struggle against the structural biases of an
inhuman economic system, the localization
initiatives showcased in the films and in our Planet
Local series (page 4) are truly inspiring examplesof human ingenuity and perseverance.
In uncertain times, these quiet, grassroots efforts
give me more joy than anything else. At Local
Futures, we are in the fortunate and all-too-rare
position of hearing good news stories from every
corner of the globe on a regular basis, and, from
our international perspective, we are party to theglobal cross-pollination of localization initiatives. It
is this holistic, life-affirming movement that we arecommitted to promoting in all of our work. I hope
you will enjoy reading about it in the following
pages.

3 ▪ Local Futures Annual ReportLocal is Our Future
Steve GorelickHelena Norberg-Hodge doesn’t waste
time getting to the point in her latest
book, Local is Our Future: the first
sentence reads, “For our species to have a future, it
must be local.” Helena not only makes acompelling argument for an economic shift fromglobal to local, she describes the steps needed atboth the policy and grassroots level, and gives
examples of inspiring initiatives alreadyunderway. She also counters many of the myths
that prevent people from embracing localization.

“Local is Our Future is an inspirational manifesto.
Globalization is destroying our communities andour planet, but Helena presents a compelling,
positive solution.”~ Alice Waters, restaurateur andlocal food activist
You can find Local is Our Future on our website, orat your neighborhood bookstore.

Local is Our Future includes chapters devoted to theroot causes of extremism, the inaccurate depictionsof traditional ways of life, the crucial importance of
local food, the need for “big picture activism,” andmany other timely topics. The book concludes
with the transcript of a personal conversation
Helena had with her good friend, Wendell Berry.
Local Is Our
endorsements:

Futurehas

received

glowing“At a time when any thinking person would havegood reason to despair, Helena Norberg-Hodge
provides a wonderfully positive vision of the
future.”~ Joanna Macy, co-author of
Active Hope: How to Face the Mess
We’re in Without Going Crazy“The argument for economic decentralization,
powerfully and passionately presented in this finebook, is one that we can no longer ignore.”~ David Suzuki, environmental activist
and television presenter“The wisdom contained in these pages, whichreflect a lifetime of Helena Norberg-Hodge’s workin dozens of countries, has the power to pull Earthback from the brink.”~ Michael Shuman, author of
The Local Economy Solution

Planet Local
Carly GayleP

lanet Local is our web series showcasingsome of the grassroots localization projects
springing up all around the world.
Currently in its sixth year, the Planet Local online
library includes nearly 150 projects, now
searchable by location on a map. New entries in2019 take us from a waste-free café in Croatia to a
fossil fuel-free electric power grid in Denmark;from harvesting urban fruit in Canada toharvesting plants for herbal medicine in rural

4 ▪ Local Futures Annual ReportNigeria; from peer-to-peer solar energy networks
in Bangladesh to an entire region of France that is
shifting towards organic agriculture.
Planet Local also profiles outstanding initiatives ingreater depth through articles on Medium. These
include: Tosepan, a 35,000-member network ofcooperatives in Mexico that provides for the full
spectrum of human needs through agroecology,
community banking, and other self-organizedsystems; and the Seneca Creek Joinery, a verticallyintegrated
community-scale
sawmillnear
Washington, DC that illustrates how urban wood
recovery can preserve forests and support thriving
local economies.
In the coming year, Planet Local will continue toexpand the library, aiming for 250 entries by theend of next year, and will increase the number of
longer articles published, with a continued focus
on projects creating land-based livelihoods in the
global North and South. We hope these casestudies will make the diverse localization
movement even more vivid and accessible –inspiring people who wish to embark on new
projects and connecting those around the world
who are already hard at work in their local
communities.

Planet Local Short Film Series 2019
Isabel MarlensLocal Futures has committed to a broad,multi-year local food campaign because
we’ve long believed that transforming thefood system is one of the most powerful tools forbuilding a more just and sustainable economy. But
today, as the average age of farmers worldwide
hovers around 60 years old, the question has
become pressing: who will grow the food of the
future and what will their farms look like?
In February and March, we released the Planet
Local Short Film Series, a collection of films — allfreely available online — that offer a vision of afuture in which farms are small, diverse, andregenerative places of connection and celebration.
Many of the films focus on the new generation ofyoung farmers around the world, on the many
inspiring forms their farms can take, as well as onsome of the challenges they face. To accompany
the films, we published a blog post — “The Farmsof the Future” — that offers a more in-depth
exploration of the ways the food system intersects
with other timely issues like climate change,
diversity in its myriad forms, economic inequality,
and the epidemic of loneliness (see page 19).
The blog post and the films
were shared widely online,
and will remain available on
our website; food andfarming groups have also set
up screenings to show theseries
in
their
local
communities. We plan to add
to the collection as new films
are released, and haveencouraged those in our
networks — including theInternational Alliance for
Localization — to make andshare short films about theirown local food projects.

Stearns Farm CSA featured in Planet Local film series

5 ▪ Local Futures Annual ReportInsane Trade Campaign
Steven Gorelick and Sean KellerT

he way trade works in the global economy
can be absolutely insane. For example,
countries like the US and the UK import
thousands of tons of staple food products every
year – while simultaneously exporting the same
foods; fish caught off the coast of Scotland,
meanwhile, are routinely shipped to China to beprocessed before being sent back to the UK to be
sold. Practices like these add to the bottom lines ofglobal corporations, but they waste resources,
worsen climate change, and undermine thelivelihoods of small-scale food producers andworkers in both the global North and South. Thisdamaging system is the inevitable consequence of
deregulatory “free trade” agreements, along withbillions of dollars in supports and subsidies (bothdirect and hidden) that make long-distancetransport artificially cheap.
As part of an ongoing local food campaign, we
decided to highlight the absurdity of global foodtrade in its current form with a humorous 3minute film called Insane Trade! The film wasproduced in the style of a trailer for a 1940s film,
and was designed to be an entertaining, tongue-incheek introduction to the topics of redundant
trade, re-importation and other mind-boggling
trade practices.

To accompany the film, we created a referenced
four-page factsheet that delves into greater depth
on insane trade. The factsheet describes how
companies create convoluted global supply chainsin order to minimize labor costs and takeadvantage of lax environmental and healthregulations. It also discusses the climate cost of
trade: the shipping industry alone is set to produce
17% of global emissions by 2050 if the volume ofglobal trade continues to grow at its current rate.
As with the short film, the factsheet aims to makethe often bewildering and convoluted issue of
trade policy not only comprehensible, but
emotionally resonant.
The release of the film and factsheet marked thestart of an organized Insane Trade campaign. We
reached out to our individual supporters and likeminded organizations with links to the materials,
and launched a week-long social media blitz
during which we and other activist groups sharedstats and clips from the film and factsheet, alongwith the #InsaneTradeWeek hashtag.
We followed this up with a more focused attempt
to reach climate change groups with information
about the climate impacts of increased trade. We
wrote and posted a blog about this confluence ofissues, which was picked up by numerous media
outlets, and we organized a conference call with

6 ▪ Local Futures Annual Reportclimate activists from around theworld to discuss how the tradeclimate link could be incorporated
into their work. Among theparticipants were Rupert Read, oneof the leading spokespersons for theExtinction Rebellion movement in
the UK; Chittrajan Kumar ofExtinction Rebellion India; Soumya
Dutta from India Climate Justice; andothers from the UK, US, and Spain –a mix of activists and academics
whose work centers on climate justice, local food,and alternatives to conventional development
economics. Participants shared lessons learned
from their own campaigns, and honed in on thequestion of how to effectively communicate therelationship between trade and climate chaos topeople with differing priorities on different
continents. We made valuable connections andplanted the seeds of future collaborations.

“African-grown coffee is being
packed 3,500 miles away inIndia, Canadian prawns areprocessedin
Iceland,andBolivian nuts are being packed in
Italy.”~ UK Times, 2007
Some collaborations are already underway. The
UK Landworkers Alliance, for example, asked us
to help with their position paper on trade. Helena
Norberg-Hodge recently met with the head ofGreenpeace UK, who expressed interest in theinsane trade campaign, and we submitted written
testimony to the UK Parliament’s inquiry on trade
and the environment.
As topics like climate chaos, Brexit, and the rise ofright-wing authoritarianism continue to makeheadlines around the world, we continue to draw
attention to the ways in which trade deregulation
is tied up in all of these hot-button topics, often inpivotal ways. We are encouraged that groups like
Extinction Rebellion are including economic issues
in their analysis, and that Greta Thunberg’s
address to the United Nations mocked “thefairytale of perpetual economic growth.” The time
is right for economic policy – including
government support for insane trade – to be an
integral part of the debate around the climate
crisis.

“The US imports over $100 million
worth of tomatoes per month, evenduring peak US tomato-growing
season.”~Congressional
Research Service, 2017
The Insane Trade! film and factsheet can be foundon our website, along with our article about insane
trade and climate chaos. We encourage you toshare these resources widely as a way to draw
attention to both the absurdity of the current
system and to the solution-multiplying benefits oflocalization.

“California imports as manycherries and almonds as it
exports.”~ A Place-Based Perspective ofFood in Society, 2015

7 ▪ Local Futures Annual Report

The
LadakhProject
Alex JensenIn addition to a truly inspiring Economics of Happiness conference (see page 11), the 2019 season in
Ladakh was brimming with activity, from workshops to daily film screenings and discussions toharvesting in villages.
Mindful Futures 3: Reweaving the Fabric of Community
For the third year in a row, Local Futures joined with the Ladakhi group Flowering Dharma to organize“Mindful Futures”, a four-day residential workshop for Ladakhi youth that looks at contemporary socialand environmental challenges, as well as locally-based, sustainable solutions. Participants included over 30
young people, ranging in age from 14 to late-20s, and coming from all regions of Ladakh. Responding toemerging problems in Ladakh – including the deterioration of mental health among youth – the theme ofthis year’s workshop was “Reweaving the Fabric of Community.” The role of the globalized economy,
consumerism, advertising and other political-economic factors in worsening mental health trends was
examined during the first two days; on day three we pivoted to the importance of rebuilding localized,
cooperative and sustainable economies and livelihoods as a way to arrest and reverse the social isolationand environmental breakdown tearing at Ladakh today. Sharing their inspirations, motivations, andexperiences were young local entrepreneurs who have started traditional Ladakhi food restaurants, and amember of a passive-solar, earthen building design company. We also travelled to the village of Gya tomeet an organic farmer and hear about his farming philosophy and approach, camping out in a field next tohis house. The following day, we engaged in hands-on work trying out the various stages of woolen fabricmaking, from carding and spinning to weaving local sheep’s wool. The participants took to this part of theworkshop with an encouraging level of gusto.

8 ▪ Local Futures Annual Report

The workshop was graced by the presence ofrenowned Tibetan philosopher, spiritual leader
and longtime friend of Local Futures, Samdhong
Rinpoche, who delivered two talks full ofprofound wisdom – one exclusively for theparticipants of Mindful Futures, another open to
the public. In both talks, Rinpoche provided ascathing critique of the values taught by themodern education system and media, and thestructural violence inherent in mainstream
capitalist economics. He also spoke of the urgent
need for systemic alternatives rooted incompassion and tolerance.

Help with the Harvest
From mid-August to mid-September we organizeda core group of volunteers to travel to villages tolive with and help local families at harvest time.
This is a very meaningful program for both theparticipants and the hosts, hitting all the notes ofwell-being: connection to other people and nature;
vigorous physical activity; meaningful work;
laughing, singing, cooking and eating together;clean air, water, soil; beauty/awe; and sense of
belonging and purpose. The host families of course
benefit from the free labor which otherwise mustbe hired for numerous days, but the scarcity oflabor and family members – including children – isa tragedy that our project does not ultimately
resolve. Rather, we are simply recognizing andresponding to a situation caused by systemic
factors, and facilitating the sort of deep
intercultural
exchangethat
hasalwayscharacterized Local Futures’ work in Ladakh.
Little Tibet Film Festival
In early August, Local Futures co-sponsored the
Little Tibet Film Festival, organized by alternative
travel enterprise and community space, Tendrel.
Our films Ancient Futures, The Economics ofHappiness, and Mindful Travel in Ladakh were eachscreened twice, drawing a positive response frommixed international, Indian and Ladakhi
audiences.

9 ▪ Local Futures Annual ReportNaropa Fellowship Talks and Workshops
Local Futures was invited multiple times to screen
films, lead discussions and conduct full-day
workshops for the Naropa Fellowship, a 9-monthprogram in social entrepreneurship for youth fromacross Ladakh, the Himalayan region, and otherparts of India. These interactions were very
enthusiastically received, with many of the fellows
seeking follow-up meetings and guidance for theirprojects from Local Futures staff. Two fellows were
hired by us for the remainder of the season, andwere invaluable in running our programs andorganizing our Economics of Happiness
conference.

food future in Ladakh. The book was formallylaunched by Satish Kumar at the Economics ofHappiness conference. Ladakh Project Coordinator
Alex Jensen was one of the editors of the book, andwrote the Introduction and a chapter on Food andEnvironment.

Dhontang: Food in Ladakh
This summer, Local Futures co-published a new
book titled Dhontang: Food in Ladakh, with theCentral Institute of Buddhist Studies incollaboration with the organizations Snow
Leopard Conservancy and Kalpavriksh. The book,intended mainly for Ladakhi youth, looks at thetraditional food system, recent changes, futurechallenges and new initiatives for a sustainable

10 ▪ Local Futures Annual ReportAnja Lyngbaek and Alex Jensen

In 2012, we hosted our first International
Economics of Happiness conference, inBerkeley, California. At the time, we had no
idea whether other conferences would follow. Yet
this year we held our 24th conference in what has
become a worldwide conference series with broad
impact.
From the beginning, our “big picture” critique ofthe global corporate economy was eye-opening tomost conference attendees, as was our promotionof localization as a systemic solution. As the
problems linked to the global growth model
became clearer and the search for alternatives
more urgent, we increasingly heard from people
asking us to host an economics of happiness
conference near them. As a result, we havecollaborated over the years with a wide range ofindividuals, groups, institutions and even local
governments, to host transformative events that
address the why and how of economic models that
support the wellbeing of people and planet.
During the past eight years, we have asked
ourselves many times whether an international
conferences series is worth the long hours andhard work required. But because we receive somuch positive feedback – from participants andpresenters alike – we are convinced that thesegatherings continue to play an important role inpaving the way for a new economy. That is
because they provide so many people withinspiration and concrete strategies for systemicchange, and a broad perspective that allows themto see how their individual and place-based efforts
are helping build a global movement for
localization.
This year our efforts were focused on Asia, where

we co-hosted four conferences: Leh, Ladakh;
Bangalore, India; Jeonju, South Korea; andYokohama, Japan.

Leh, Ladakh
It was particularly meaningful for us to hold an
Economics of Happiness conference in Ladakh,
where Local Futures has deep roots. We co-hosted
the two-day event with the Central Institute of
Buddhist Studies (CIBS), Julay Ladakh, theHimalayan Film House, and the Ladakh
Autonomous Hill Development Council. The main
themes of the event were traditional wisdom andphilosophies, place-based education, and food andfarming.
The conference offered a rich pool of inspiring
plenary sessions and workshops, combined withfestival-feel provided by local NGO and foodentrepreneur stalls. Among others, a number ofinternational thinkers and activists spoke:
Satish Kumar, the much-loved peace andenvironmental activist, gave an inspiring talkabout re-connection between humans and theEarth, along with lessons from his experiences at
Schumacher College, which Satish co-founded.
Afsar Jafri, from the international small-farmer
advocacy group GRAIN, spoke about the severe
threats to Indian farmers and consumers posed by“free-trade” treaties, and how farmers’ movements
are pushing back and building healthy local foodsystems.
Geshe Dakpa Kalsang, Dean at CIBS, whoquestioned the mainstream belief that only
economic growth and material accumulation canyield happiness.

11 ▪ Local Futures Annual ReportKeibo Oiwa, founder of the Sloth Club in Japan,
described the spiritual impoverishment andecological degradation that have come withindustrial growth-based development in Japan.

together to discuss how to prepare present andcoming generations for healthy lives within
ecological limits.

Sonam Wangchuk, founder of the Student’s
Ecological and Cultural Movement of Ladakh(SECMOL), articulated a vision of a localized, reruralized future Ladakh.
Tsewang Namgail, Director of the Snow Leopard
Conservancy, similarly called for a development
model that is “slow, sensible and sustainable.”
Over twenty different workshop sessions provided
participants with opportunities for deeper
engagement on issues ranging from alternativeeducation to the impacts of globalization on
mental health, from natural building to the role ofsheep-herding in Ladakh. There were also wellattended sessions on rethinking tourism, on youth
perspectives on the future of Ladakh, and on thepossibilities for a sustainable future under Union
Territory status. The conference celebrated
Ladakhi culture with a broad range of local foods
and traditional music and dance.

Moderator, Abhishek Thakore, in Bangalore

Seetha Ananthasivan and Rema Kumar, leadersin alternative education, talked about the Bhoomi
experience, which provides a beacon of hope foryoung activists in search of meaningful lives.
Claude Alvares, founder of the Goa Foundation,spoke with great humor in favor of walking awayfrom meaningless schooling and corporate lives.
Aseem Shrivastava, an environmental economist
and philosopher, provided a trenchant critique ofmainstream development drawing on Gandhi andTagore .
Devinder Sharma, a food and trade policy analyst,
talked about the social and environmental costs ofthe global economy, with a particular focus on theplight of Indian farmers.
Rebecca Martusewicz, an educator from EasternMichigan University, USA, drew from decades ofexperience to speak about ecojustice education.

Performance in Ladakh

Bangalore, India
For our second conference in Bangalore (we held aconference there in 2014), we again joined forces
with Bhoomi College, this time for an event withthe twin themes of “Decoding Economics and Rethinking Education”. We were joined by 450
educators, activists, farmers, NGO representatives,
entrepreneurs, and young people – all coming

Alejandro Lopez Musalem, environmental
activist, shared about agroecology and campesino
movements in Mexico.
Anja Lyngbaek,
Alex Jensen and Henry
Coleman, members of Local Futures staff, covered
topics related to media literacy, the economics ofhappiness, and big picture activism, with aparticular focus on how to inform others about
these issues.

12 ▪ Local Futures Annual ReportIn addition to plenaries and workshops, theconference had its own particular identity that
included music, singing and humorous emceeing –including a sarcastic “devil’s advocate” whowould continually butt in to express mainstream
values and extol conventional measures of“progress.”

Group discussion with educator and researcher, Erach
Bharucha,

As was true of the Ladakh conference, the majorityof the participants at the Bangalore event wereyoung people looking for transformation – both ona systemic level and in their personal lives. In
Ladakh, the youth were looking for opportunities
for dignified lives in tune with their own
traditional culture and natural environment, whilein Bangalore, many of the young are searching fora way out of jobs in the corporate sector and ways
in to more meaningful lives, for example, throughland-based livelihoods.
Jeonju, South Korea
In Jeonju, South Korea, we co-hosted our fifth
annual conference there, in partnership with
Mayor Kim Seung-soo’s government.
This year, the focus of the conference was on
public banking, urban regeneration and local foodpolicies. Ellen Brown, President of the Public
Banking Institute in the US and author of dozens
of books about banking, was the keynote speaker.
Self-described “renegade economist” Della
Duncan spoke about urban regeneration, drawing

on experience from the San Francisco Bay Area in
the US. Local Futures Associate Programs Director
Anja Lyngbaek spoke about the progressive
policy initiatives for healthy local food systems
underway worldwide.
It is notable that while the push for systemicchange in most places comes from the grassroots,
in Jeonju the government is leading the way andencouraging civic society to follow suit. Our first
Jeonju conference, in 2015, resulted in the Jeonju
Declaration on the Economics of Happiness, which
established the city’s ongoing commitment tolocalization.
Among the concrete results of our collaboration
with the city of Jeonju is a local food plan
supported by public policy measures, with targets
that expand year by year. Local Futures remains
in contact with Jeonju’s food planning commission,
providing information and linking them withinternational expertise.

Speakers and performers in Jeonju

After learning about local currencies at one of ourconferences, the city government launched andtested its own local currency. The Jeonju Mayor’s
office is now looking into the possibilities of setting
up a public bank.
Yokohama, Japan
Our final conference of the year took place at Meiji
Gakuin University in Yokohama, Japan, co-hosted
by our close friend and colleague, Keibo Oiwa.
This conference – our third in an ongoing series inJapan – was hugely inspiring, with an enthusiastic
audience of 1,200 packing the hall.

13 ▪ Local Futures Annual Report

The conference brought together a powerful anddiverse array of voices:

Helena Norberg-Hodge, who remains an ongoinginspiration to the localization movement in Japan.

Saad Dagher, Palestinian agro-ecology expert andcommunity leader, who brought heartwarming
stories of renewal from his homeland.

Among the conference attendees was the famous
Japanese singer, music producer, and activist
Takeshi Kobayashi, who was very impressed with
our “big picture” perspective. He has already set
up a local food and farming education center, andwants to collaborate with us – including screening
our film The Economics of Happiness on a regularbasis.

Masahiko Yamada, Japan’s former Minister ofAgriculture, who is now one of the country’s
leading critics of large-scale farming and the global
food system.
Michael Shuman, US-based local economy expert,
longtime Local Futures collaborator, and core
member of the International Alliance for
Localization.

Our conferences in Japan serve as a focal point forthe country’s growing localization movement, and
we look forward to many more such conferencesin the future.

Staff Talks and Presentations

Every year, Helena Norberg-Hodge speaks
publicly to a wide range of audiences. The
far ends of that spectrum were neatly
demonstrated this past year by two events, one in
Melbourne, Australia, the other in Brussels,
Belgium.

Keibo Oiwa and Michael ShumanPatricia Moguel Viveros, a leading ethnoecologist, who told us that Mexican president
Andrés Obrador’s government is now basing its
rural policy on the example of Tosepan, the largely
indigenous network of cooperatives (see Alex
Jensen’s excellent blog, “Tosepan: Resistance andRenewal in Mexico”).
Wen Tiejun, co-founder of the New Rural
Reconstruction Movement in China, who told usthat the Central Committee has reversed course
and is now promoting small-scale farming, naturalbuilding materials, local food and other features of“ecological civilization”.

The first of these took place at the Sustainable
Living Festival, at which Helena and five others –including climate activist Greta Thunberg –participated in “The Great Debate”, with eachtrying to convince the audience that theirs was“the most effective form of disruptive change.”
Helena’s argument for “big picture activism” won
the day. Helena also gave a keynote address at theFestival to an enthusiastic packed house.
A very different event was the Brussels Economic
Forum, organized by the European Commission.
Unlike the Sustainable Living Festival, this was anopportunity for Helena to speak to people firmly
committed to the idea of global growth. Other
panelists were Marco Buti, the European
Commission’s Director-General for Economics andFinancial Affairs; Aranch Gonzáles, Executive
Director of the International Trade Center; andHanneke Faber, a top executive at the global foodcorporation Unilever. Among other things, Helena
urged the panelists to “look through their haze of

14 ▪ Local Futures Annual Reportnumbers at the ecological and cultural realities on
the ground.” You can watch the panel here. Whileat the Forum, Helena also presented a screening of
our film The Economics of Happiness, and had
fruitful discussions with the IMF’s chief economist,with Nobel Laureate Sir Christopher Pissarides,
and with Spain’s Finance Minister. She found allof them surprisingly receptive to the idea of
localization as a strategic way forward.
Other events in 2019 included the Newkind
Festival in Tasmania, where Helena gave a keynote
address, led an Economics of Happinessworkshop, and participated in a number of panels;a conference in Madrid called “Despierta, el
planeta te necesita” (“Wake up, the planet needsyou”); and Defend the Sacred, a conference inPortugal, where she spoke alongside the initiatorof the first resistance camp at Standing Rock,
Ladona Bravebull Allard, Diné (Navajo) activist
Pat McCabe, Palestinian agroecologist Saad
Dagher, and Alnoor Ladha of The Rules.
Helena gave other talks, including one at Medicine
Festival in the UK, with Gail Bradbrook, cofounderof Extinction Rebellion, and several lectures tostudents at Schumacher College. She also
participated in online events, including: the Powerof Community Online Summit, organized by the
Global Ecovillage Network; an hour-long webinar
called “Transitioning from Global to Local
Economies in the 21st Century”, organized by Gaia
Education; Findhorn’s Sacred Ecology, Sacred
Economy workshop; and Bayreuth University’s
Bayreuther Dialoge on “Empowering communityled initiatives for a quicker climate transition”.
Helena had a very productive visit to South Korea,
as she mentioned in the Director’s Note. She spokeat the Transition City International Conference, at
a two-day conference for teachers, and at the
Ecological Civilization conference, along with
theologian John Cobb – at age 93 a truly inspiringcolleague/soulmate. The interest in South Korea
was so great that Helena returned only a few
weeks later, invited this time, among others, by the
Korean Women’s Environmental Network.

The past year was also a busy one for other Local
Futures staff. Associate Programs Director Anja
Lyngbaek spoke at our “Happiness in a Time of
Crisis” event at The Gaunts House in the UK, gave
a talk at the “This is Not a Design” conference in
Maastricht, Netherlands, and presented keynote
talks at three Economics of Happiness Conferences– in Ladakh, Bangalore and Jeonju (see page 11).
In addition to running a number of workshops in
Ladakh this summer, Researcher and Project
Coordinator Alex Jensen also presented at the
Bangalore conference and gave a keynote talk at
the Seoul International Appropriate Technology
Festival.

Sustainable Living Festival

Project Coordinator Henry Coleman participatedin a number of events in Australia: he addressed a
crowd of young people at the Rainbow Serpent
Festival in Victoria, spoke on a food-and-farming
panel at the Sustainable Living Festival in
Melbourne, and talked about “Big Picture
Activism and Systemic Thinking” at a Deep
Ecology workshop in Sydney. He also presented
at a number of our workshops in Ladakh thissummer, and at our EoH conferences in Ladakh
and Bangalore.

15 ▪ Local Futures Annual Report

“Happiness In A Time Of Crisis”,
Dorset, UK
Anja Lyngbaek

T

wenty-four people joined the residential
course we organized at Gaunts House in
July, arranged with the support of the
Richard Glyn Charitable Foundation. The goal wasto reawaken people’s deep ties to community andnature, and to explore the actions, attitudes andpolicy shifts that can lead to a happier, healthierand more equitable world.

Helena Norberg-Hodge brought together severalof her friends and colleagues for rich and inspiringdays filled with talks, discussions, fireside chats,role playing, yoga, spiritual ceremonies andbeautiful walks. With its 2,000 acres of forests,
meadows, organic gardens and parkland, Gaunts
House was the perfect setting.
Presenters included peace and environmental
activist Satish Kumar, eco-warrior Mac Macartney,
and Brazilian climate policy expert Camila
Moreno. Rupert Read, spokesperson for Extinction
Rebellion UK, addressed the climate crisis. Jyoti
Fernandes from the Landworkers’ Alliance (theBritish arm of the worldwide peasants’ movement,
Via Campesina), informed us about the People´sFood Policy initiative in England.

Camila Moreno facilitating break-out groupfarm diversification, and the value of livestock forhealthy soils and food systems. Direct democracy
champion Peter Macfadyen charmed and inspired
us with the story and strategies of Frome, theEnglish town where local residents created a
coalition of independents that won all of the town
council seats – leading to new community-oriented
policies with wellbeing in mind.

The course was a big hit, and we are planning
another one at Gaunts House in 2020.

Satish Kumar and participants around the campfire“Big Picture Activism”, Byron Bay,
Australia

Speakers and workshop participantsDavid Wilson, who manages Duchy Home Farm at
Highgrove and has worked alongside PrinceCharles for 30 years, spoke passionately about
farming in tune with nature, the importance ofFebruary is in the middle of Australia’ssummer – a perfect time for an evening of“Big Picture Activism” at Byron Bay´s
Community Centre. All of the 246 seats were full,

16 ▪ Local Futures Annual Reportleaving the theater packed with an enthusiastic
and energetic crowd.
The evening started with series of short talks byeach of the speakers: Camila Moreno (Brazil),
Manish Jain (India), Michael Shuman (USA), Keibo
Oiwa and Kai Sawyer (Japan), along with Helena
Norberg-Hodge and Anja Lyngbaek, followed by adynamic Q&A session moderated by charismaticradio host Mark Swivel. The evening concluded
with an invitation to the participants to share theirown big picture activist proposals. This made foran upbeat ending, with ideas and commitments
ranging from the creation of a directory of local
investment opportunities to the restoration of anabandoned farm, with regenerative farming andcommunity in mind.

localization principles. For decades, the “disaster
capitalism” model has used crises to double down
on globalization and corporate control of
economies by exploiting people at their mostvulnerable. Rupert and Kristen propose a new
approach of “disaster localization”, where a visionof localized transformation is already in place forwhen disaster strikes. Such a vision draws on thenatural inclination of people to come together andhelp each other in times of crisis, rather thandepending on government and big business – thus
further entrenching dependency on distantbureaucracy. At its core, a localized approach torebuilding in the wake of disaster would mean adeliberate fostering of community and low-impact
living.

The evening event followed on from a closed
retreat involving the speakers, as well as a few
international observers. The retreat was anopportunity for a deep, face-to-face exchange ofideas about localization as a strategy for systemicchange from different cultural and politicalperspectives.

New Book Collaboration:
Facing Up to Climate Reality
Since 2015, Local Futures has collaborated with
Green House – a progressive think tank in the UK– on various projects, including workshops andpublications. This year, Green House produced a
new book, Facing Up to Climate Reality: Honesty,
Disaster and Hope, pulling together contributions
from numerous writers, teachers, and activists,
each of whom confront climate change adaptationin constructive, radical and creative ways. Kristen
Steele, Local Futures’ Director of Special Projects,
co-wrote one of the chapters with Extinction
Rebellion spokesperson Rupert Read, titled“Making the best of climate disasters: on the needfor a localised and localising response.”
As the title suggests, the chapter addresses theinevitability of climate-related disasters – floods,
fires, storms and so on – and suggests we use themto transform the future through applying

The book is available for sale in print and ebook
formats and is featured in a recent post on our
blog.

Local Futures Blog
Steven GorelickW

e were quite pleased to hear that the

Local Futures blog was named one of
the “Top 100 Economics Blogs” by thewebsite The Intelligent Economist. If that makes
our blog sound overly wonkish to those unfamiliar
with it, regular readers will know that not all ofour posts have a strictly economic focus: westarted the year, for example, with “Old Mother
Forest”, Indian writer Suprabha Seshan’s lyricalpaean to the natural world.

17 ▪ Local Futures Annual ReportAs part of our local food campaign we ran
numerous essays on food and farming, including
those by Local Futures staff contributors Anja
Lyngbaek, Sean Keller, Alex Jensen, Isabel Marlens
and Helena Norberg-Hodge.
Several guest
authors also weighed in, including Organic
Consumers Association founder Ronnie Cumminsand journalist Catherine Tumber. Other posts
focused on the climate emergency, the rise of
authoritarianism, the dangers of technophilia, thehealing power of localization, and more.

Below are excerpts from a few of the past year’s
blogs. The full posts – and many others – can befound on our website.
Groomed to Consume
Anja Lyngbaek
Most of us are aware that excessive
consumption is a prime feature of modern life, andthat it is the cause of multiple social andenvironmental problems. We are living in a socalled “consumer culture” – a rather fancy title forsomething that has more in common with anabusive affliction, like bulimia or alcoholism, thanit does with real living culture.
Variety, Survival, and the Revenge of the Luddites
Damaris Zehner
Ironically, life keeps growing more
complicated for those of us who prefer a simpler
life. Every year there are more things I can’t dobecause I refuse to use a smartphone, forexample: parking spaces I can’t pay for, coupons I
can’t take advantage of, group activities inmeetings I can’t do. I and people like me, however,will persist in keeping more primitive technologies
alive, because we know that they may mean
survival in an unknowable future.
Growthism: Its Ecological, Economic and EthicallimitsHerman Daly
We have many problems – poverty,
unemployment,
environmental
destruction,
climate change, financial instability, etc. – but only
one solution for everything, namely economic
growth. We believe that growth is the costless,win-win solution to all problems, or at least thenecessary precondition for any solution. This is
growthism. It now creates more problems than itsolves.
Degrowth: A Call for Radical Abundance
Jason Hickel
For 150 years, economists have predictedthat “In the very near future our economy will be
so productive and replete that we will all have towork no more than a few hours a day.” But theprediction never comes true, because capitalism
transforms even the most spectacular productivity
gains not into abundance and human freedom, but
into scarcity. It’s strange, isn’t it? The ideology ofcapitalism is that it is a system that generates
immense abundance (so much stuff!) But in reality
it is a system that relies on the constant productionof scarcity.

Sean Keller’s blog post featured in the Ecologist

Connecting the Dots: Insane Trade and Climate
Chaos
Sean Keller
Imagine a world where food routinely getsshipped thousands of miles away to be processed,then shipped back to be sold right where it started.
Imagine a world in which, in most years since2005, China has somehow managed to import
more goods from itself than from the USA, one of

18 ▪ Local Futures Annual Reportits largest trading partners. This may sound likethe premise of some darkly comic, faintly
dystopian film – albeit one geared towards policy
wonks. But it’s no joke – in fact, it is the daily
reality of the global economy.
The 9% Lie: Industrial Food and Climate ChangeRonnie Cummins
Regenerative food, farming and land use arejust as essential to our survival as moving beyond
fossil fuels. So why aren’t more people talking
about this? Why is it that moving beyond
industrial agriculture, factory farms, agro-exports
and highly-processed junk food to regenerating
soils and forests and drawing down enough excesscarbon from the atmosphere to re-stabilize ourclimate is getting so little attention from the media,
politicians and the general public?
Unlike a Globalized Food System, Local Food
Won’t Destroy the Environment
Helena Norberg-Hodge
To significantly reduce the many negative
impacts of the food system, small-scale food andfarming initiatives need to spread all over theworld. Unfortunately, this has not happened,because the transformation of farming requires
shifting not just how food is produced, but also
how it is marketed and distributed. The foodsystem is inextricably linked to an economic
system that, for decades, has been fundamentallybiased against the kinds of changes we need.

The Farms of the Future
Isabel Marlens
Every day, food is tended, harvested,transported, stored, and served up on ourtables. In a very real sense, food cannot be
separated from life itself. And so it has been
said that changing the way we grow and eat
food is one of the most powerful tools we havefor changing our economies and society as awhole. So when we ask: what will the farms of
the future look like? We should really be asking— what do we want the future to look like?

Jacques Ellul: A Prophet for Our TechSaturated Times
Andrew Nikiforuk
By now you have probably read about theso-called “tech backlash” against Silicon Valley
and its peevish moguls. This media backlash,however, typically ends with nothing moreradical than an earnest call for regulation or abreak-up of Internet monopolies such as
Facebook and Google. The problem, however, ismuch graver, and it is telling that most of thebacklash stories invariably omit any mention oftechnology’s greatest critic, Jacques Ellul.
To Leave or Remain: Dichotomy orDistraction?
Helena Norberg-Hodge
At first glance, the two sides in the Brexit
debate seem to have almost nothing in

19 ▪ Local Futures Annual Reportcommon. Dig beneath the surface, however, and afundamental similarity is revealed: both Leave andRemain are under the spell of the global market
and see trade-based economic growth as the
panacea for all our problems. They are not alone.
Governments worldwide – whether led bynominally left or right political leaders – aresystematically encouraging more consumption,
more trade, and more energy-dependent, jobdestroying technology.

Tosepan: Resistance and Renewal in Mexico
Alex Jensen
Throughout Mexico, there is a florescence ofinspiring resistance and alternatives, some longestablished, some only now springing up. In thesouthern state of Puebla, the lush, cloud-forested
Sierra Norte mountains bordering Veracruz are
home to one of the oldest and most inspiring ofthese movements of “the other Mexico” or México
profundo: the Unión de Cooperativas Tosepan.

Is 5G Worth the Risks?
Iishana Artra
5G is being touted as a necessary step to the‘internet of things’ – a world in which ourrefrigerators alert us when we’re low on milk, ourbaby’s diapers tell us when they need to bechanged, and Netflix is available everywhere, all
the time. But what we’re not hearing is that
evidence-based studies worldwide have clearly
established the harmful effects of human exposure
to pulsed radiofrequency radiation from cell
towers, cell phones and other devices – and that
5G will make the problem exponentially worse.

Old Mother Forest
Suprabha Seshan
If you want to create cultures ofsustainability, listen to the green ones, and visit anancient forest. Here, the mighty trees with theirswirls of tender plants, and interweaving fungal
allies, and flashes of colorful animals can show you
how community, fecundity and diversity lead toimmortality. Relearn the old ways here, how to
relate with other beings, how to sustain each otherand the whole culture indefinitely. Who createdthe biosphere? And who knows best how to keep it
going?

20 ▪ Local Futures Annual ReportTranslations
Victoria ClarkeFor a small organization we are remarkablyinternational, with a staff that works in six
countries on four continents. Our volunteer
base is even more international – especially in
Ladakh, where we continue to work alongside
young people from all over the world. Just as
importantly, we are continually contacted byvolunteers eager to translate our books, reports,
blogs and films into their native languages. The
result is that our materials have been translated
into a total of 47 different languages, from
Afrikaans to Vietnamese.
In the past year, the Insane Trade! film andaccompanying factsheet were translated into 13
languages, ranging from Korean to Spanish to
Hindi. We also created a Ladakhi version of Going
Local, our short animated introduction to
localization, as a way to preview some of thethemes of this year’s Economics of Happiness
conference in Leh. With an Economics ofHappiness conference planned for Mexico City in
2020, we are very grateful to the dedicatedvolunteers who recently translated nearly a dozenof our resources into Spanish. These will befeatured in a Spanish version of our website now
being developed for the Mexico event.

Scene from Going Local

We were also happy to hear that Los Libros de laCatarata, a respected publisher in Madrid, decided
to bring out a Spanish-language version of Small is
Beautiful, Big is Subsidized. The book, which details

howtaxes,
subsidiesandregulations
systematically support the large and global at theexpense of the small and local, was last updated in
2002; and though French, Polish, Italian, Russianand Slovakian editions have been published, thosetranslations were done many years ago. But
Catarata’s editors believe that the nearly 20 yearold book “is still very relevant and necessary”.
Since so little has changed at the policy level in theintervening years, we have to agree with that. The
Spanish edition, including a new introduction by
Helena Norberg-Hodge and a preface by theecological economist Federico Aguilera Klink, is
now available from Catarata. The English version
is available from our online shop.
And finally, the Korean version of Local is Our
Future (see page 4) has been a big hit in South
Korea: published less than a year ago, it has
already gone through three printings!

To see which of our publications and films havebeen translated into various languages, check out
the new Translated Resources page on our website,where many of the materials can be downloaded
for free. And if you’d like to help us expand the listof translated materials even further, contact us at
info@localfutures.org

21 ▪ Local Futures Annual Report

The Economics of Happiness Film
Screenings

Now in its eighth year, our film The
Economics of Happiness remains asprescient and popular as ever, withnumerous public screenings held in Australia,
USA, UK, Spain, India and elsewhere during 2019.
As an antidote to the consumerist frenzy thatbegins with Black Friday each year in the USA,
Films for Action asked us to allow free streamingof the film on their site from November 21 throughDecember 4, 2018. The film was seen more than
7,000 times in the span of a week, with clips fromthe film garnering more than 100,000 views in thatsame period.
Films for Action describes the film as “one of themost important and useful films for inspiringchange that has been made in a generation.” Rob
Hopkins, co-founder of the Transition Network
and Transition Town Totnes said, “this passionate
film presents a clear and articulate vision of what ashift in the scale at which we do things would look
like.”
The film has already been translated into 26
languages, but we hope to reach an even wider
audience, especially in the global South. For thatreason, we continue to seek volunteers to translate
the film and its supporting materials into
additional languages.

Tribute to Army ArmstrongWe were saddened to hear that ourfriend and collaborator Elmer (Army)
Armstrong passed away this summer.
Army was the editor of our film Ancient Futures,and two decades later worked on an early roughcut of The Economics of Happiness.
Sprightly, bearded and ponytailed, Army had
boundless enthusiasm and a mischievous smile.
Like all of us, he was very troubled by theincreasing environmental and social destruction
being wrought by modern industrial society, but
he was always
upbeat, always
keen to dwellon solutions
rather thanproblems. He
was anaccomplishedfilmmaker, but
he believed so
passionately inwhat we atLocal Futures
were doing that
he offered histime for a fraction of his normal fee. What’s more,
he and his wife Cec volunteered countless hours to
the rather thankless task of organizing themountains of footage we accumulated for The
Economics of Happiness.
Army would be proud to know that Ancient
Futures continues to inspire audiences around theworld, and that we are constantly told that its
message is as relevant as ever. Just one example:
as we go to print, New Philosopher magazine – thebiggest-selling philosophy journal in the world –has chosen Ancient Futures as one of its featured
videos.
Thank you, Army, for all your help, creativity andencouragement – and for your unfailing belief thata better world is possible.

22 ▪ Local Futures Annual ReportFinancials(figures represent the 2018 fiscal year)

Expenses (total: $330,061)

Fundraising($28,467)

Management and administration($24,690)

Global to Local education programs($135,798)

International Alliance for Localization($17,306)

Economics of Happiness program($60,344)

Ladakh and counterdevelopment programs($63,456)

Screening, streaming and broadcast fees($8,461)

Revenue (total: $365,348)

Conference, workshop, study group fees($5,854)
Grants($238,070)

Sales of publications and videos($12,697)
Lecture and writing fees($9,637)

Interest($813)

Miscellaneous income($948)

Donations ($88,868)

Local Futures core team
Helena Norberg-Hodge, Founder and Director
John Page, International Programs Director
Steven Gorelick, Managing Programs Director
Anja Lyngbaek, Associate Programs Director
Kristen Steele, Director of Special Projects
Marjana Kos, Executive Assistant
Sean Keller, Media and Outreach Coordinator
Isabel Marlens, Special Projects Coordinator

Anja Light, Social Media Coordinator
Alex Jensen, Researcher and Project CoordinatorHenry Coleman, Project Coordinator
Carly Gayle, Project Coordinator
Laura Tyley, Digital Outreach Coordinator
Victoria Clarke, US Administrative Coordinator
Samantha Salmon, UK Administrative Coordinator
Shankari Raj, Associate Director
Tracy Worcester, Associate Director

23 ▪ Local Futures Annual ReportWebsite and Communications
Sean Keller and Laura Tyley

W

ith more and more people visiting the Local Futures website and an ever-growing list ofresources, films and publications available to view there, our digital team has been
focused on improving the experience of new website visitors and making sure
LocalFutures.org is as interactive and informative as possible. As part of this project, we've redesigned
our homepage and created a number of new website pages, including a Learn and Take Action page,
as well as detailed pages that give new visitors an overview of the central issues we explore in our
work: Globalization, Localization, and Big Picture Activism. The aim of these new pages is to take our
website visitors on an educational journey through the problems with the global economy, the multifaceted solution of localization, and the steps it will take to get from here to there. At the same time,these pages also introduce new visitors to the full array of resources on our site, and point the way
towards further actions they can take locally.
At the same time, we've launched a new series of welcome emails for our email newsletter subscribers.
From now on, people who sign up to the Local Futures email list will be sent a series of four emails
over four weeks, introducing them to who we are and to the key issue areas of globalization,
localization, and big picture activism. If you would like to access this new learning resource, feel free
to subscribe to our email list yourself (or, if you're already on the list, unsubscribe and thenresubscribe)!

Photos: cover Lindsay Charlop; p2 Anja Light;
p5 Mass. Office of Travel and Tourism; p8 Jeny
Nevard; p9 Alex Jensen; p10 Jeny Nevard,
Alex Jensen; p12 Sonam Dorjai,
Suhasini Pasbola

p13 Suhasini Pasbola, Jeonju conference
organizers; p14 Japan conference organizers; p15
Julian Meehan; p16 Laura Tyley; p19 Isabel
Marlens, Peg Diaz; p20 Sarah Sherif Saleh Ali;
p22 Lee Waldman

Local Futures/International Society for Ecology and Culture
www.localfutures.org
USA: PO Box 36, East Hardwick, VT 05836, Tel: 802-472-3505
UK: PO Box 239, Totnes TQ9 9DP
info@localfutures.org

Compiled and produced by Kristen Steele
Edited by Helena Norberg-Hodge, Steve Gorelick and Marjana Kos

24 ▪ Local Futures Annual Report