Linking people, land, and community by building local economies
The E. F. Schumacher Society, named after the author of Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered, is an educational non-profit organization founded in 1980. Our programs demonstrate that both social and environmental sustainability can be achieved by applying the values of human-scale communities and respect for the natural environment to economic issues.
Building on a rich tradition often known as decentralism, the Society initiates practical measures that lead to community revitalization and further the transition toward an economically and ecologically sustainable society. ==================================
Information here provided by E.F. Schumacher Society
********************************** THIS FROM THE E.F. SCHUMACHER SOCIETY - WHERE SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL
Dear Friend,
One of our favorite books is "Why the Village Movement" by Gandhian philosopher and economist J. C. Kumarappa. We turn to it again and again to be reminded of core principles for keeping economic transactions local.
Kumarappa's works are now out of print, but we are lucky to have Fritz Schumacher's personal copies here at the E. F. Schumacher Library. You might find them through a used book search at your independent neighbor- hood bookstore.
As you are planning your holiday shopping, we share the following excerpt from his chapter on "The Role of Women" written in 1936 and imagining the women of rural villages of India.
Warm holiday wishes,
Susan Witt, Michael Gordon, Kristen Fix, and Christopher Lindstrom E. F. Schumacher Society 140 Jug End Road Great Barrington, MA 01230 efssociety@smallisbeautiful.org
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CONSUMERS DUTIES
Often buyers are only concerned with satisfying their own requirements as near as possible and as cheaply as they can. This way of going about the business is to shirk one¹s duties. What are the duties of an effective consumer or buyer? When buying an article of everyday use one has to take account of the full repercussions of one¹s transaction.
1) One should know where the article comes from,
2) Who makes the article?
3) Under what conditions do the workers live and work?
4) What proportions of the final price do they get as wages?
5) How is the rest of the money distributed?
6) How is the article produced?
7) How does the industry fit into the national economy?
8) What relation has it to the other nations?
DISCRIMINATE BUYING
If the buyer has to make her influence felt, the further afield she goes for her goods, the less will be the power of her influence at such distance, the less the chances of her information on various points raised being accurate, and the less will be her personal interest. If the goods come from a source which may be tainted with exploitation, either of sweat labor or of the political, financial or economic hold over other nations, or classes, or races, then the buyer of such goods will be a party to such exploitation, just as a person who buys stolen articles from a "chore bazar" creates a market for stolen goods and thus will be encouraging the art of stealing.
Therefore, any one who buys goods indiscriminately is not discharging her full responsibility when the sole criterion of her buying is merely the low price or the good quality of the goods. Hence, we should buy good only from sources from which full information is readily available and which source can be brought under our influence; otherwise we shall have to shoulder a share of the blame for sweat labour, political slavery, or economic stranglehold. We cannot absolve ourselves of all the blame by merely pleading ignorance in regard to the source.
If the raw materials for making cocoa are obtained from plantations on the West coast of Africa which use some form of forced native labour, are carried by vessels on sea routes monopolised or controlled by violence, manufactured in England with sweated labour and brought to India under favorable customs duties enforced by political power, then a buyer of a tin of cocoa patronises the forced labour conditions in the West coast of Africa, utilizes the navy and so partakes in violence, gains by the low wages or bad conditions of the workers in England and takes advantage of the political subjection of India. All this responsibility and more also is put into a little tin of cocoa!
Are we prepared to shoulder this grave responsibility and pander to our palate or shall we content ourselves with a cup of nutritious milk drawn from a well-kept cow at our door? These considerations are not far-fetched but actual. Anyone who looks on life seriously and as a trustee cannot afford to ignore these far-reaching consequences of her actions.
1)Peak Oil Activists Gather, Plan for Hard Times, Will Lead the Way (Report from the Fourth U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions) 2)Conference DVD Proceedings 3)Upcoming Events 1)Peak Oil Activists Gather, Plan for Hard Times, Will Lead the Way
By Megan Quinn Bachman The Community Solution
YELLOW SPRINGS, OHIO – Former professor and author David Korten told close to300 applauding peak oil activists that they are not a fringe minority but the leading edge of a super-majority “and it's time we start acting like it.”
Korten issued his rallying call in Octoberat the “Fourth U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions” where activists from 30 some states discussedways to respond to declining oil production and other coming planetary woes. Korten joined a dozen other speakers in “Planning for Hard Times,” the theme of the three-day conference sponsored by Community Solution at Antioch College.
“The day of reckoning for our profligate ways has arrived,” Korten said. “Peak oil, climate chaos, exhaustion of freshwater, species extinction, financial collapse, and social disintegration are causing a great unraveling.” Now is the time, Korten said, for a great turning from a 5000-year history of empire, driven today by a suicidal competition over the earth's remaining resources, to a cooperative earth community which shares resources to maintain healthy communities, families and natural systems.
Korten, author of The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, said that empire “elevates the most power-hungry and ethically challenged to the highest positions of power.” And the former Harvard University business professor, also author of When Corporations Rule the World, said the corporations that perpetuate this empire system are best described as “gigantic pools of money with artificial legal personalities and required by law to behave like sociopaths.”
Korten cited opinion polls showing 90 percent of Americans believe that large corporations have too much power and more than 80 percent want to see greater priority given to the needs of children, family, communities, and a healthy environment. And he described economic growth as an engine of environmental destruction which also increases the income gap between rich and poor, with the need instead to focus on living better with less (negative economic growth) and moving toward equality through redistribution of wealth from rich to poor. Other speakers promoted cooperation and community to create local sustainable businesses, turn millions of Americans into local farmers, and find ways to reduce energy use in housing, transportation and food production.
2)Conference DVD Proceedings The following presentations and resources are available for free download on our website:
Conference Welcome, Megan Quinn Bachman Conference Introduction, Pat Murphy “Going Home” – The End of Industrial Agriculture, Pat Murphy Curtailment and Community – Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change, Megan Quinn Bachman Reducing Energy Use in Existing Homes Resources, Linda Wigington Internet Ridesharing & Carpooling Resources, Bob Steinbach These conference DVDs are available: Opening and Closing: Pat Murphy, Megan Quinn Bachman, Richard Heinberg David Korten: The Great Turning – From Empire to Earth Community Pat Murphy:“Going Home” – The End of Industrial Agriculture Larry Halpern: Low-Tech Home Energy Retrofit Bob Steinbach: Riders – the Missing Ingredient in the Jitney Model Linda Wigington: Achieving Deep Energy Reductions in Existing Homes Sharon Astyk: Home Economics 101: What’s for Dinner in Hard Times? (Includes Personal Preparation Panel: Murphy, Halpern, Steinbach, Wigington) Thomas Princen: From Efficiency to Sufficiency – Principles for Sustainability Richard Heinberg: Peak Everything – The Coming Century of Decline Judy Wicks: Local Living Economies Megan Quinn Bachman: Curtailment and Community – Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change (Includes Localization Panel: Heinberg, Wicks, Faith Morgan, Peter Bane)
Individual presentations cost $10 - $20 each. Full sets are available for $124. Download the DVD order form here:
3)Upcoming Events 21st Annual Miami Valley Planning and Zoning Workshop Sponsored by the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission David H. Ponitz Center, Sinclair Community College, Dayton, Ohio Friday, December 7, 2007, 8:00am – 6:00pm Megan Quinn Bachman will be giving a presentation on “Energy Depletion and the Transition to Low-Energy Communities” from 1:15 – 2:30pm
Community Solution Annual Membership Meeting & Potluck Rockford Meeting House, Yellow Springs, Ohio Saturday, December 8, 2007, 9:00am – 2:00pm
Come celebrate with us the fifth year of Community Solution’s work. We will be giving an overview of this year’s activities with a look at what’s next. We’ll discuss the progress on our “Agraria” community, and other major projects.
RSVP to info@communitysolution.org or call 937-767-2161 Weekend Permaculture Design Course Columbus, Ohio Dates: February 22-24, Feb. 29-March 2, March 14-16, 28-30, April 11-13, 2008 Description: Over five weekends on Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday, we will present the permaculture design curriculum with special emphasis on urban applications, strategies for changing climate and building local networks of support. One of the design projects will be rehabilitating an old orchard as a forest garden.. Instructors: Peter Bane, Rhonda Baird and guests. Cost: $895 including weekend lunches and course materials, $150 deposit required. Some work-trade scholarships will be available.
Contact: Peter Bane 812-335-0383 Association for Regenerative Culture P O Box 5516 Bloomington, IN 47407 pcactivist@mindspring.com
Findhorn Positive Energy Conference: Creative Community Responses to Peak Oil and Climate Change Findhorn Community, Scotland March 22 – 27, 2008 This conference will bring together many of those pioneering creative and effective solutions to the problems associated with Peak Oil and Climate Change. These include Joanna Macy, Dorothy Maclean, Richard Heinberg, Richard Olivier, Rob Hopkins, Megan Quinn Bachman, and Jonathan Dawson.
For more information: http://www.findhorn.org/positiveenergy ** [Article continued from above] “It’s about creating a new society, and it begins with us,” said Pat Murphy, executive director of Community Solution, which organizes the annual conference. This need for a societal transition was a continuing conference theme.
“Duringthe lifetime of the boomer generation, roughly half the world’s important non-renewable resources will have been used up…forever,” said Richard Heinberg, a leading peak oil educator and author of The Party’s Over, Powerdown and more recently Peak Everything. Heinberg said this will lead to less available energy, more labor needed in agriculture, widespread relocation of people and a massive replacement of infrastructure.
And he asked: “How do we accomplish this enormous societal reorganization without chaotic breakdown?”
Start with personal solutions, Heinberg said, adding “adjust your own oxygen mask before helping others.” He suggested working locally and regionallybecause“higher levels of administration may not be in a position to help much with local needs.”
But, he warned, without national and international agreements, irreversible ecosystem collapse is likely.
“There is no hope for a soft landing, business as usual…normallife as we’ve come to know it,” Heinberg said. “So get ready for hard times,” he said. “If it’s not too late,” Heinberg concluded, “what we do now will determine whether the outcome is desirable or merely survivable.”
Homeowner Larry Halpern’s personal account of dramatically curtailing his energy use illustrated this potential. “I don’t wish to see other people suffer because I was unwilling to be inconvenienced and I don’t wish to suffer later because I didn’t have the time for an inconvenience now,” he said.
After learning about peak oil in 2004 and being disillusioned with traditional activism, Larry said heand his wife, Gail, decided to “take a time out trying to change the world, and focus a little more on trying to change ourselves.”
Thanks mostly to behavior changes and do-it-yourself projects in their Springfield, Ohio home, over the next four years they reduced electricity usefrom around 400 kilowatt hours per month to 36 kWh, cut natural gas use by a third, and lowered water use by a factor of five.
Halpern observed “no electricity days” and removed his energy-guzzling air conditioner and refrigerator. He then replaced some of his appliances with low-energy alternatives, including a solar cooker, an LED reading light, solar battery re-chargers and a composting toilet.
The couple, both professional musicians,alsoate exclusively from their own garden, a Community Supported Agriculture subscription farm, the local farmers’ market and a food cooperative.
“When people are presented with the big picture of peak oil they often get overwhelmed and close off,” Halpern said. “I’ve decided to focus less on trying to get people to see things my way and more on just trying to help them live more sustainably and cooperatively.”
Another speaker with a post-peak oil way of life was Judy Wicks, restaurant owner and co-founder of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies and the Sustainable Business Network of Philadelphia. HerPhiladelphia restaurant, The White Dog Café, is a model for just, local, sustainable business.
The café sources all produce in season from local organic family farms, uses only humanely raised meat and poultry and gets all fish and seafood from sustainable fisheries. Wind power generates much of the cafe's electricity, the first business in Pennsylvania to do so. Entry-level employees make a minimum living wage.
“Business is about relationships with everyone we buy from and sell to, and work with, and about our relationship with Earth itself,” Wicks said. “We’ve become disconnected from each other and from our places and without direct relationships, few of us think about the consequences of our economic transactions.”
Wicks said that“business has been corrupted as an instrument of greed rather than one of service to the common good. Yet we know that business is beautiful when we put our creativity and care into producing a product or service needed by our community.”
Sharon Astyk, author of the forthcoming book A Nation of Farmers, shared Wicks’ vision of creating sustainable local food economies. She said the United States needs 50 million farmers and 200 million home cooks. “We need to get everyone back in the kitchen,” Astyk said, citing statistics that show one out of every three meals in the U.S. is from a fast food place and only 80 percent of Americans own a frying pan.
Murphy,from Community Solution, also went on to emphasize eating a low-energy diet, including less grain-fed meat and manufactured foods, where 15 to 30 calories of fossil fuel energy are used to produce each calorie of food energy.
Among the other detrimental effects of our industrial food system, according to Murphy, are poor health, tortured animals, lack of crop diversity, deteriorating soil, poisoned waterways, and the drawdown of “fossil” water. He compared this to a more agrarian country, China, where 38 percent of the people are in agriculture, and where they generate six times the amount of calories per acre compared to the United Stateswhile conserving their soil.
Murphy also discussed lifestyle changes in transportation and housing, pointing out that Americans annually generate 20 tons of carbon dioxide per person while the International Panel on Climate Change estimates the limit should be one ton per capita.
Bob Steinbach, a Dayton-area transportation planner shared ways to reduce transportation fuel through ridesharing while Linda Wigington of Affordable Comfort, Inc. explained how to reduce the energy use of existing buildings.
With suburbia’s low population density, motor vehicles are the most viable short-term transportation option, Steinbach said. He added that Community Solution’s “Smart Jitney” proposal, a ridesharing scheme using cell phones, is important because, “fuller cars mean fewer cars, which means less oil is needed.”
Steinbach discussed the biggest obstacle to the success of ridesharing programs –willing passengers. “The mindset has to change,” said Steinbach, noting that the privacy and flexibility of driving alone currently trump the environmental and financial benefits of sharing rides.
Wigington discussed “deep retrofit” strategies for existing homes to cut their energy use by 80 percent, using a standard called the “Passive House.” The principles of this German-based model include tight, super-insulated homes, with a thickbuilding “envelope” and high performance windows and doors.
“Our housing is facing a crisis of obsolescence,” Wigington said, “and we have a lion share of existing houses that need to be dealt with to reduce energy in the near term.”
Wigington said home energy use is not just a function of appliances or the structure. “How a family lives in a house has a major impact on it,” she said.
Another speaker who emphasized a fundamental societal change was Thomas Princen, author of The Logic of Sufficiency. “One of the dominant principles of our economy, efficiency, is not up to the task of dealing with peak oil and climate change,” he said.
Princen described efficiency as the basis of an economic order where raw materials are extracted rapidly and thoroughly, converted into products people buy, and disposed of in the least costly and visible manner possible.
In contrast to claims that we can “grow our economy with green products and pollute more efficiently” Princen said that efficiency too easily leads to more consumption, not less, and sufficiency, which is geared toward curtailing excess, would be more useful.
Participants returned to their communities with both a framework for widespread change and the practical strategies to reduce their personal and local energy use. “This has become a special core community to serve the formation of the new world that's being created next in the midst of total breakdown and crisis around us,” said participant Peter Jones of nearby Dayton.
Eric Morrison of Battle Creek, Michigan, said, “Now I have a path to take and…to show others the way too.”
“History does not entrust the care of freedom to the weak or timid.”~Dwight D. Eisenhower Copyright 2007-2008TALK CITIZEN ™ is a trademark of LobaTek Incorporated
