The “Freedom Garden” borrows its name from the Victory Garden movement (but dropped its the militaristic overtones). Victory Gardens were popular during World War II, during which many Americans ramped up local food production as a means to bolster the economy and support the war effort. (Hard to believe anyone ever considered gardening to be patriotic.)

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A body of data and stories has been collected by Julia Christensen, author of the recently published Big Box Reuse. Her book, published by MIT Press, offers a detailed overview of ten communities that have transformed vacated Wal-Marts and Kmarts into civic structures.

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According to the peak oil experts, we need better personal and collective plans for fossil fuel depletion. Randy White, an early member of Portland, Oregon’s Peak Oil Task Force, agrees. His Bright Neighbor is taking on the practical functions that he believes should be executed by the powers that be—were they up for the job.

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In Small Is Possible: Life in a Local Economy, Estill chronicles the failures and victories of an ongoing movement for sustainability and local resiliency in Chatham County, located in the piedmont region of North Carolina. Estill is a legitimate source on the subject: he co-founded Piedmont Biofuels, a biodiesel co-op that went from backyard operation into an industrial plant in a few short years. He has recorded his adventures with biodiesel and other sustainable businesses in his first book, Biodiesel Power, as well as in local newspaper columns and on his own Energy Blog.

The Daniels of Chatham County

The characters in Estill’s world are both entertaining and endearing. Many of them show a flinty defiance, positioning themselves as courageous Daniels against the Goliaths of corporate greed and globalization. Just as important, they are also innovators and risk-takers. The author often leads the charge with business incubators, co-housing experiments, agricultural experiments, and college loan schemes that keep money in town.

Keeping track of this book’s huge cast of characters is not easy. It doesn’t make for smooth reading, but it does illustrate Estill’s intimate knowledge of his neighbors and the gains he’s made to foster interdependent networks of sustainable enterprise. “Good ‘economic development’ is little more than an effective Rolodex,” he writes, thereby dispelling the mystery. What Estill calls “Hometown Security” is possible. Theory can become practice.

Readers interested in academic arguments for local economies can find other books on the subject, but if they want a compelling story about noble attempts to walk the talk, Small Is Possible delivers.

Image Credit: The Abundance Foundation

As experts wrestle over the question of when global oil demand will outpace supply, a number of municipalities, regional agencies, and even state governments in the U.S. and Canada have commissioned studies and drawn up plans to anticipate the decline of our oil reserves, according to an online report by Post Carbon Cities. The original study was compiled by Daniel Lerch, the organization’s program director and author of Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty.

Grassroots citizen groups that have begun planning for a post-peak oil future—or, at least a future without cheap oil—are clearly more numerous than local governments with such a focus, as indicated by the nearly 150 awareness groups that make up the The Relocalization Network. However, that official peak-oil resolutions been passed at all is a sign that various awareness campaigns around this issue have worked. City and state officials have heard the alarm and responded—at least in a handful of communities.

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Formed as a coalition of schools, Mid-Atlantic-based nonprofit organizations, and the USDA, the Small Farm Success Project is “dedicated to helping small and emerging farmers improve their financial success.” Project researchers keep raising that million-dollar question:  How does a small farmer committed to sustainability find success?

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A growing segment of eco-conscious citizens are recognizing how both living green and supporting the local economy are integral to a more sustainable world.

Here are five strategies adapted from a complete action item list at small-mart.org, a web site inspired by The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition by Michael Shuman:

1. Buy Fresh. An age-old tradition of supporting local agriculture is experiencing a resurgence. More people are shopping at farmers markets, joining co-ops, and buying shares at community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs. Many such businesses are listed in directories provided by sustainability business networks.

It doesn’t need to stop with buying local produce. Supporting other food operations like the neighborhood baker, cheese maker, or caterer also helps bolster the local economy. All of these local food practices help communities lessen their carbon footprint by forsaking a broader distribution network and the environmental costs of long-distance shipping.

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Under the direction of Philly’s White Dog Cafe, its proprietor Judy Wicks, and other local pioneers, a sustainable business network has served as a prototype for a local Living Economy that advances the triple bottom line (”People, Places, Profit”).  This group has proven that business owners and entrepreneurs can be green and socially conscious and still be prosperous.

Wicks founded the White Dog Cafe in 1983. It subsequently grew from a coffee-and-muffin shop to a full-service restaurant serving organic and locally produced food. Committed to supporting humane farming practices, Wicks continued to search out the right food vendors until she could say for sure that the White Dog featured a cruelty-free menu. Her restaurant continued to reap profits, but she wasn’t content with simply staking out a market niche. She also wanted to share the knowledge she had acquired with other businesses, even if that meant helping out the competition.

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