The Local Food Revolution: How Humanity Will Feed Itself in Uncertain Times

by Michael Brownlee

Overview

Demonstrating that humanity faces an imminent and prolonged global food crisis, Michael Brownlee issues a clarion call and manifesto for a revolutionary movement to localize the global food supply. He lays out a practical guide for those who hope to navigate the challenging process of shaping the local or regional food system, providing a roadmap for embarking on the process of righting the profoundly unsustainable and already-failing global industrialized food system. Written to inform, inspire, and empower anyone—farmers or ranchers, community gardeners, aspiring food entrepreneurs, supply chain venturers, commercial food buyers, restaurateurs, investors, community food activists, non-profit agencies, policy makers, or local government leaders—who hopes to be a catalyst for change, this book provides a blueprint for economic action, with specific suggestions that make the process more conscious and deliberate.

Brownlee, cofounder of the nonprofit Local Food Shift Group, maps out the underlying process of food localization and outlines the route that communities, regions, and foodsheds often follow in their efforts to take control of food production and distribution. By sharing the strategies that have proven successful, he charts a practical path forward while indicating approaches that otherwise might be invisible and unexplored. Stories and interviews illustrate how food localization is happening on the ground and in the field. Essays and thought-pieces explore some of the challenging ethical, moral, economic, and social dilemmas and thresholds that might arise as the local food shift develops. For anyone who wants to understand, in concrete terms, the unique challenges and extraordinary opportunities that present themselves as we address one of the most urgent issues of our time, The Local Food Revolution is an indispensable resource.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623170004
Publisher:	North Atlantic Books
Publication date:	10/18/2016
Pages:	456
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 12.00(h) x 3.80(d)

About the Author

Michael Brownlee has long been a catalyst in the process of food localization in Colorado, working to ignite, inspire, guide, and empower those who are facing the challenges and opportunities of localizing our food supply. He is the cofounder of nonprofit Local Food Shift Group (formerly Transition Colorado, the first official Transition initiative in North America).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

Prologue xiii

Part 1 What Must Be Said Now 1

1 Toward a Local Food Revolution 3

2 The Local Food Declaration of Independence 15

3 The Coming Revolution 17

4 Note to the Reader 33

Part 2 The Making of an Evolutionary Catalyst 43

5 Beginnings: The Convergence of Global Crises 45

6 Going Local! A Coherent Community Response 57

7 In Transition: A Movement Dies, Another Is Born 67

8 The Evolution of Transition in the United States 75

9 Diving into Food 89

Part 3 The Full Extent of Our Predicament 105

10 Peak Everything Revisited 107

11 Climate Collapse: The Rogue Factor 119

12 Stories from the Front Lines 129

Part 4 Emergence: The Evolutionary Perspective 133

13 The Problem with Peak Everything 135

14 Patterns of Emergence: The Evolutionary Process 143

15 Human Evolution at the Turn 165

16 Message to Students 185

17 Radicalization 189

Part 5 Toward Deep Revolution 197

18 A Truly Revolutionary Revolution 199

19 Deep Revolution and the Evolutionary Catalyst 205

Part 6 Field Notes for the Emergence of a Foodshed 213

20 How the Local Food Revolution Can Unfold 215

21 Toward a Pattern Language for Food Localization 221

22 Deadwood: A Parable 229

23 Overview of the Process 231

24 The Evolutionary Catalyst and the Emerging Foodshed 243

25 Patterns of Emergence in an Awakening Foodshed 249

Part 7 Revolution in Practice 317

26 From Theory of Change to Theory of Revolution 319

27 Christopher Alexander and the Evolutionary Catalyst 329

28 The Secrets of Cocreative Collaboration 335

Part 8 The Future of Food 351

29 Preparing for Climate Collapse 353

30 The Moral Challenge of Biotechnology 357

31 The Role of Animals in Local Food and Agriculture 361

32 The Promise of Controlled-Environment Agriculture 365

33 Shifting Local Capital into the Foodshed 373

34 What We All Can Do 383

Afterword: Inhabiting our Foodshed 387

Acknowledgments 391

Appendix 393

References 397

Notes 411

Index 427

About the Author 439

Editorial Reviews

08/15/2016
Brownlee, cofounder of the nonprofit Local Food Shift Group, emerges as an “evolutionary catalyst”: an organizer and visionary seeking to address the global food crisis by empowering local communities to achieve “self-reliance in energy, food, and economy.” He shows that the global industrial food system, profoundly enmeshed in transnational corporate profiteering and dependent on a dwindling supply of fossil fuels, “has itself become the greatest threat to humanity’s being able to feed itself,” undermining communities’ ability to provide for their citizens while also polluting the environment and weakening local economies. As the security of the world’s food sources is bound inextricably with the precarious fate of the climate, the uncertain state of global energy, and vanishing natural resources including soil and water, Brownlee issues a passionate summons to “relocalize” before it is too late. Rooted in his own story of working to reestablish the “foodshed” of Boulder, Colo., Brownlee’s handbook for community-level relocalization offers practical strategies for restoring economic and food sovereignty alongside multidisciplinary research, anecdotes, and seeds of wisdom from thinkers across many fields. Anyone interested in wresting back control over our food supply and confronting the “Long Emergency” of our global food and energy crisis will want to join Brownlee’s revolution. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

This is the local food book that needed to be written. As Brownlee so chillingly details, our globalized food system is in crisis. Food scarcity looms in the all-too-near future. If we’re to continue getting square meals three times a day, we too need to join this quest to localize our food supply.” —Tim Rinne, state coordinator, Nebraskans for Peace; cofounder, Hawley Hamlet Community Garden; and charter member, Lincoln-Lancaster Food Policy Council
 
“The Local Food Revolution is a must-read for anyone who is concerned about the current state of the industrial, global food system and who asks, ‘What can I do to help awaken my foodshed?’” —Veronica House, PhD, associate faculty director for service-learning and outreach, University of Colorado, Boulder
 
“What begins as Michael Brownlee’s own journey from concerned activist to community catalyst becomes a handbook for ‘deep revolution,’ with local and regional food systems at the center of it all. For those concerned that change is not enough, he offers not just a revolutionary call to action, but also a new path forward.” —Philip Ackerman-Leist, professor of sustainable agriculture and food systems, Green Mountain College, Vermont, and author of Rebuilding the Foodshed
 
“Mixing history and philosophy with a hopeful yet realistic call to action, Michael Brownlee’s profound work demands immediate attention. One of the single most important elements of our fate as a species is the state of our global food system grid as it exists in small local equations. Brownlee gives us the perfect opportunity and the tools to once and for all solve for x. The Local Food Revolution is the blueprint for the future wellness of our planetary community.”
—Daniel Asher, executive chef, River and Woods and co-chair, Chefs Collaborative/Colorado
 
“Michael Brownlee’s book is a wide-ranging discussion from his early recognition of the changes affecting our planet and his important, ongoing identification of and engagement with ideas and models from influential leaders, thinkers, and movers (of which he is one). Rather than just observe and report, he is a leader who participates, implements, tests, and catalyzes emerging ideas and concepts. This book is an inspiration to anyone who feels our problems are too big to address and that we can't do anything; they aren’t, and we can.”
—Jack Round, Transition Omaha, Let’s Eat Investment Group
 
“The multi-layered global crisis, and in particular, abrupt climate change, demand nothing less than a local food revolution that reaches far beyond farmers markets and buying local. Every human life going forward depends on a radical transformation of our relationship with food and how we provide it for our communities. Michael Brownlee maps this revolution with laser clarity. If you eat, you must read this book.”
—Carolyn Baker, PhD, author of Love In The Age of Ecological Apocalypse and Collapsing Consciously
 
“Few evolutionary catalysts see the nexus between local food systems and deep cultural transformation with the clarity of Michael Brownlee. Want to find the connections between Thomas Paine, Christopher Alexander, and the organic farmer down the street? They are here for you in this book.”
—Woody Tasch, founder of Slow Money and author of Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money
 
 “As humankind moves towards an uncertain future facing issues related to climate change, water quantity/quality, healthy soil for food production, and more food-resilient communities, The Local Food Revolution provides a road map for those brave enough to embark on its bold manifesto. An early food system pioneer who catalyzed evolutionary change and helped revolutionize the future of local food for Colorado, Michael Brownlee provides a direct and biting reflection on what it will take to revolutionize our local food system while meeting the difficult food demands forecast for our future. His insights and recommendations are well-researched, thoughtful, and brutally honest.”
—Rusty Collins, Denver County Director, Colorado State University Extension
 
“Michael Brownlee raises this ‘call to farms’ (local of course) to inspire an urgently needed revolution in our food system. The urgency is born of declining resources and increasingly disruptive climate change. He gives this call an evolutionary context: every collapse is followed by an emergence of something completely new. He envisions foodsheds that are regional, regenerative and restorative, in stark contrast to the rapacious industrial food system. He invites us to ‘bring food home again’ as ‘a choice for life itself.’ Stories of pioneers revolutionizing all facets of emerging foodsheds are a real treasure. Learn from Michael’s decade of experience cultivating a ‘local food shift’ in Colorado to empower food localization wherever you are.” 
—Janaia Donaldson, Peak Moment Television
 
“This book needs to be widely read by those in the local food movement. Michael Brownlee explains the local food revolution as emerging from an evolutionary shift in ethical and cultural values occurring at the deepest levels of human consciousness, a ‘deep revolution.’ He provides a wealth of philosophical insights and practical information about how to be an effective ‘evolutionary catalyst’ but stresses that deep revolutions arise from within and must be nurtured rather than developed. The local food revolution can only be sustained by a spiritual reawakening to the inherent sacredness of food and farming.”
—John Ikerd, professor emeritus of agricultural economics, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO and author of The Essentials of Economic Sustainability, Sustainable Capitalism, and Crisis and Opportunity
 
“For those of us weighed down with concern for our children’s prospects for a safe and abundant life, The Local Food Revolution provides a high-minded but thoroughly practical primer on how to get started, now, to change that doubt into hope. This book will be recognized as a classic reference that every food activist will keep near at hand for centuries to come.”
—Alan Lewis, Government Affairs and Food and Agriculture Policy, Natural Grocers
 
“Telling a personal journey of transitioning to local food as calling—intense, deep, and transforming—this book holds an important place for those currently involved in localizing foodsheds, and helps us all understand the urgency of saving and re-vitalizing our food systems locally.”
—Nanna Meyer, PhD, associate professor of health sciences, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
 
“Few people in the world have thought longer and deeper about the local food revolution than Michael Brownlee. In a journey reminiscent of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Brownlee traces the evolution of his work in Colorado and the evolution of his thinking about the movement’s global importance. He reveals himself to be as much a philosopher as a practitioner, with provocative, invaluable, and entertaining insights for anyone who wants to reshape his or her own community.”
—Michael H. Shuman, community economist and author of The Local Economy Solution
 
“Buckminster Fuller could have written the preface to The Local Food Revolution: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” A deep bow to Michael Brownlee, who is serving as a lead catalyst and synthesizer of this new model. Join the emerging global awakening to beat the clock of mass extinction.”  
—John Steiner and Margo King, transpartisan/sacred activists
 
 
 

From the Publisher

2016-08-10
An argument that “modern industrial farming amounts to one of the most destructive enterprises on the planet.”According to Brownlee, the co-founder of the nonprofit advocacy group Local Food Shift and co-publisher of its eponymous magazine, the bonds of community are weakened when family farmers are replaced by large corporations motivated solely by profit. The author offers the persuasive argument that even though corporate farming reliably delivers low-cost, abundant food, it degrades the environment and strips food of nutritional value. Brownlee believes that a food revolution, modeled on the 1960s civil rights movement, can change this. A first step, he writes, is to organize “an independent and parallel system” to market local produce while pressuring supermarkets to provide shelf space. This type of massive undertaking would entail meticulous organization of broad-based community support. Brownlee describes how he and a group of fellow activists launched the Boulder County Going Local! campaign on March 15, 2007, at a meeting attended by 250 people. They focused on the perilous state of the environment to mobilize support for local food producers. Their hope—that within 10 years, food grown in Boulder County would account for 25 percent of the market—proved to be overly optimistic, but the author and his associates have not given up the fight. They have engaged in national outreach to similar organizations and have broadened their perspective to include a spiritual dimension to their message, which pops up somewhat awkwardly throughout the narrative. “The fundamental design of the universe calls forth a species of cocreators…to be the vehicle through which the fourteen-billion-year process of evolution becomes not only conscious but also limitless, as if God is at last awakening in the human species,” he writes. Brownlee admits that achieving their goal is a monumental project with no guarantees of success, but it must be undertaken. A useful, if not original, statement of the centrality of food production to our way of life that could have benefited from a more concise, organized formulation.

Kirkus Reviews