Archive for August, 2008

Changing the World from Home: The Relocalization Movement, August 29

August 29th, 2008 | 1 comment

From climate change to food shortages to high energy costs, globalization is proving itself to have a negative impact on our world. There’s a group who believes that thinking locally is not only the best form of protest–but the only sure-fire way to survive. With Post Carbon Institute’s Celine Rich, Path to Freedom’s Jules Dervaes, and Small-Mart’s Michael Shuman, leaders of the Relocalization Movement.

Listen to the Full Episode | Download MP3

Celine Rich is the Executive Director of Post Carbon Institute and has been working there since its inception in 2001. She worked for 3 years as a Research Strategist with the University of British Columbia’s Development Office. In addition, she created and led community cultural development projects in Vancouver for six years. Celine has a MA in Design for the Environment from the Chelsea College of Art and Design, UK; a BA in Fine Arts from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Canada, and a Certificate of Marketing from Kwantlen College, Canada. Celine currently lives in Sebastopol, California, USA.
Visit PostCarbon.org and Relocalize.net for more details about Celine’s work.

Part 1: Interview with Celine Rich | Download MP3

Michael Shuman is vice president for Enterprise Development for Training & Development Corporation (TDC). An economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur, Shuman has authored, coauthored, or edited seven books, including The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition (Berrett-Koehler, 2006) and Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in the Global Age (Free Press, 1998). Shuman is helping to lead development of TDC’s Worksphere Program, a national effort to support worker well-being through a variety of programs promoting “sustainable employability” and “global community capitalism.” He received an A.B. with distinction in economics and international relations from Stanford University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. Shuman has given an average of more than one invited talk per week for 25 years throughout the United States and the world.
For more information about Michael, his book, and his other writings, visit Small-Mart.org.

Part 2: Interview with Michael Shuman | Download MP3

Jules Dervaes is the founder of Path to Freedom, a family-operated, viable urban homestead project established in 2001 to promote a simpler and more fulfilling lifestyle and to sow a “homegrown revolution(tm)” against the corporate powers that control the food supply. Since the mid-1980s, Mr. Dervaes and his three adult children, Anaïs, Justin, and Jordanne, have steadily worked at transforming their ordinary city lot in Pasadena, CA, into a thriving organic garden that supplies them with food all year round. These eco-pioneers also run a successful business providing fresh produce to local restaurants. This helps them fund their purchases of solar panels, energy-efficient appliances, and a biodiesel processor to further decrease their homestead’s reliance on the earth’s non-renewable resources.
The family has been the subject of numerous articles in newspapers around the world, including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), and was recently featured on ABC’s Nightline and CNN.

For more information, please see www.PathtoFreedom.com, the blog Little Homestead in the City, and social networking site for backyard gardeners, Freedom Gardens.

Part 3: Interview with Jules Dervaes | Download MP3

Technorati Tags: climate change, Peak Oil, Self-sufficiency, Relocalization, Security

New Home, New Website, New Direction

August 28th, 2008 | post a comment

Hello to all those who listen to our program. Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you. Today marks our first broadcast on WLUW in Chicago. We also have a new website, we welcome your comments on useful you find it.

From the inception of Business Matters, our purpose has been to serve two roles.

The first is to bring you new perspectives that provoke. We are committed to bring important issues that have an impact on the quality of life we can experience. Through the stories of our guests, we aim to offer you insights that will have you say, “Hey I like to be an agent for change” So that’s goal one..

The other goal we have is activation. Its not enough to know you want things to be different. It requires each of us to bring ourselves into action. Action that is an example of the change we desire.

This weeks program is a perfect example of our ambition. This is a program about bringing vitality back to our local communiites.

We start the program with Celine Rich. Celine is a co-founder of the Post Carbon Institute. They have been activist for creating local activation that is a direct response to the crisis of fossil fuel depletion and climate change. Celine with several collaborators crystalized the concept of “Relocalization” They defined this phenomena as bringing back to our local communities self-sufficiency in food and energy production and the development of prosperous local economies. Our interview with Celine will help you understand what’s driving this trend and how it could be brought into your local community.

Our second interview is with Michael Shuman. Michael has also been on the beat of relocalization for over 10 years. In 1998, he wrote “Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age” , Since then, Michael has been an advocate for reclaiming our local economies and shifting the political power from being the exclusive domain of big business to being shared with small, local businesses. Michael has served as the catalyst for the Business Alliance for Local Living and Economies.

Finally, we talk to Jules Dervaes. Jules and his 3 adult children are true practioners of relocalization. They have developed on 1/10 an acre near downtown Pasadena, Ca a sustainable micro-farm that produces 6000 pounds of food per year. This is something that all the “experts” say is impossible. They sell part of the produce to local restaurants. They also have a number of home-based businesses that support them. You can find out a lot more at their website Path to Freedom.

Finally, we extend an invitation to you. First we invite you to see how you can become involved in even a small way in being a catalyst for bringing back to our local communities (even in downtown Chicago) food and energy production. Also what can you do to support our local merchants who keep their profits right in your town.

If you have any stories you want to share, please leave them hear or drop us a line - we would love to hear from you.

Until later,

Thomas