Bringing the Food Economy Home: Local Alternatives to Global Agribusiness

If the many social, environmental and economic crises facing the planet are to be resolved, a good place to start is to rebuild local food economies. Food is something everyone, everywhere, needs every day, so even small changes in the way it is produced and marketed can offer immense benefits.

This title shows how a shift towards the local would protect and rebuild agricultural diversity. It would give farmers a bigger share of the money spent on food, and provide consumers with healthier, fresher food at more affordable prices. It would reduce transport, greenhouse gas emissions and the need for toxic agricultural chemicals. It would lessen the need for storage, packaging, refrigeration and artificial additives, and it would help revitalize rural economies and communities in both the industrialized and the developing world.

Helena Norberg-Hodge is the founder and director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC) and a regular scholar in residence at Schumacher College in Devon. She is the co-author of From the Ground Up: Rethinking Industrial Agriculture (Zed Books, new edition 2000).

Steven Gorelick is the US Programs Director of ISEC, and a member of the editorial board of The Ecologist magazine.

Todd Merrifield has a master's in geography from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Helena Norberg-Hodge is the founder and director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC) and a regular scholar in residence at Schumacher College in Devon. She is the co-author of From the Ground Up: Rethinking Industrial Agriculture (Zed Books, new edition 2000).

Steven Gorelick is the US Programs Director of ISEC, and a member of the editorial board of The Ecologist magazine.

Todd Merrifield has a master's in geography from the University of California, Los Angeles.