A growing number of young people know what must be done to cure our ailing global economy. They are not only protesting a failing system but are also building its replacement. New agrarians are being met by fellow new economists in urban neighborhoods, small towns, and remote villages. They are coming home—a Generation Local. You will find them in farm fields, small-batch manufacturing, local marketplaces, recycling ventures, renewable energy coops, farm-to-table restaurants, house concerts, food pantries, and Grange meetings. They are forming the foundation of a green, place-based, face-to-face economy built on democratically structured institutions.
How do we equip this new generation of local economists? How do we train them in the same disciplined way that the sustainable agriculture community has developed apprenticeship programs for future farmers? How do we strengthen their values, align their initiatives, unify their voices, and amplify their impact? How do we bring a movement to scale?
The Schumacher Center is working with partner organizations to meet this challenge and opportunity. Your support is needed. Tax-deductible contributions can be sent to Schumacher Center for a New Economics, 140 Jug End Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230 with “Generation Local” in the memo line.
BALLE Features BerkShares Businesses
Businesses using local currencies understand the web of connections involved in creating vibrant regional economies. That is clear in the BerkShares Business-of-the-Month profiles written by Alice Maggio and now featured on the BALLE website:
We’ve selected five of those businesses … Goods, lodging, farming, restaurants, and transit establish living essentials that, in the Berkshires, are being satisfied by a local currency. The stories are all fantastic, truly capture the spirit of the region, and are worth checking out!
Michelle Long and Jodie Evans join Advisory Board
Michelle Long, the charismatic executive director of BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies), has joined the Advisory Board of the Schumacher Center, furthering the partnership between the two organizations. Michelle is one of the most articulate spokespersons for the theory, practice, and potential of local economies.
Jodie Evans is co-founder and co-director of Code Pink. She has been an activist for peace, the environment, women’s rights, and social justice for forty years, founding and serving on the boards of multiple organizations. She knows that shaping a new economy is a necessary part of achieving the goals of her activism. Her energy and commitment inspire us deeply.
We are pleased to welcome Michelle and Jodie to the Advisory Board.
Videos Posted
The video of Peter Barnes’ sold out Schumacher Lecture at the American Institute for Economic Research may now be watched online, along with the video of Michelle Long’s July presentation at the Schumacher Center’s Library:
Library News
Fritz Schumacher’s daughter, Nicola Schumacher, and her family traveled from England to visit the Center’s Library. She wanted to see first hand how we were caring for her father’s books and papers. Her husband, David Craddock, tweeted back to the family:
When long-time Schumacher member, Martha Shaw, moved from her farm house to an apartment at Forest Row, a neighborhood of the Community Land Trust in the Southern Berkshires, she donated her extensive collection of books on Permaculture, Appropriate Technology, Gandhian Economics, and Self-Reliant Communities to the Center. Librarian Amelia Holmes helped Martha with the transition and is now working with intern, Silvina Calderaro, to catalogue the collection. Our thanks to Martha for her donation, which includes many valued classic titles.
Development
Recent Harvard graduate, Rina Kuusipalo, joins the Schumacher team through September to develop funding proposals for the Center’s programs. A native of Finland, Rina interned with us in 2011 ahead of organizing the ‘Transition to a New Economy’ student conference in 2012, which drew in more than 150 activists from around the country. Rina has worked for Stakeholder Forum in the lead-up to the Rio+20 Earth Summit, for the New Economics Foundation on the Great Transition campaign, and on human rights law cases at Leigh Day & Co. She will begin her law degree in October at Cambridge University in England.
Save the Dates
October 10th—Judy Wicks will give a Schumacher Lecture in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. 7:30PM.
November 15th—34th Annual E. F. Schumacher Lecture in New York City. 9:30 AM to 3PM. Speakers: Caroline Woolard and Matt Stinchcomb.
Registration for both events opens mid September.