Local Futures Podcast

Debal Deb is scientist, biodiversity conservationist and ecologist committed to working with traditional farmers in Eastern India to conserve indigenous seed diversity from extinction. Through his folk rice seed bank ‘Vrihi’ and his agroecological farm and research center ‘Basudha’ in Eastern India, he has helped save more than 1,480 indigenous rice varieties (along with many varieties of other crop and non-crop species) and disseminate these seeds and the traditional ecological knowledge with which they are intimately linked back to the communities from which many of them originated. In this wide-ranging interview for Planet Local Voices II, Debal explains the true genius and contributions of countless generations of small-scale traditional farmers in breeding a breathtaking variety of context-specific seeds that hold vital importance for resilience and survival in the face of climate chaos, and which furthermore no modern scientific breeding or genetic engineering can match. Beyond helping ensure food security, traditional seed landraces are also indispensable for protecting local food sovereignty against the corporate control of food systems around the world. Today’s global agroecology movement is sustaining and building upon this legacy of indigenous farmers, where highly diverse polycultures continue sustaining cultures and the land, and are far more productive per area than industrial monocultures. Debal emphasizes the interlinked importance of agroecology, a communitarian ethos, and localization for pushing back against the dominant and destructive power of states and corporations. While not flinching from a sober assessment of the catastrophic scale, momentum and consequences of this dominant system, Debal maintains an abiding hope in the cooperative and altruistic nature of humans, and our ability to eventually “destroy the destructive system.”

Stanzin Dorjai Gya is a multi-award-winning filmmaker and cultural leader from Ladakh. Born in one of Ladakh’s oldest villages called Gya, Stanzin lived a partly-nomadic childhood, spending half the month tending his family’s herd of yaks and cashmere goats in the mountains above 4000 metres, while attending school during the other half. As a teenager, he dropped out of conventional high school, and began attending Ladakh’s alternative school, SECMOL, where he discovered filmmaking. Stanzin’s much loved documentary films generally deal with issues of climate change, cultural change and cultural survival. The Shepherdess of the Glaciers, which is probably his most celebrated work, is a touching portrait of his elder sister, Tsering, who still lives a nomadic life in the mountains, tending her family’s sheep and goats. In this episode, Stanzin shares the gems of wisdom he’s gathered high in the Himalaya – from the interdependence of all beings to the profound inner peace borne of farming and shepherding. He talks about his films, his family, his village and his childhood. He questions and redefines education and intelligence, and reflects on Ladakh’s deep past, its modernisation, and its future.   

Warwick Smith is an Australian economist, ecologist, writer and policy analyst, working across many areas of economic research, from labour and taxation to environmental and wellbeing economics. He has He’s an honorary fellow at the University of Melbourne's School of Social and Political Sciences, co-founder and economist at the Castlemaine Institute and a co-founder of the Castlemaine Community Investment Co-operative. He’s been putting strategies for localised economic development into practice for many years. In this episode, Warwick introduces his town of Castlemaine on Dja Dja Wurrung country in Victoria, Australia, and the range of interesting projects happening there. He shares the process of starting the Castlemaine community investment cooperative, which is acquiring real estate for the community and by the community, remove it from rampant speculation to support the local culture, community and economy instead. He stresses relationship building as a key part of this hands-on work, and reflects on ways to help ordinary people and public policymakers understand and put into practice alternative economic development ideas.  

This episode features our very own Anja Lyngabek. Anja is the Managing and Programs Director at Local Futures, and has been working tirelessly and internationally to strengthen the localization movement for decades. She is an activist and analyst, with a particular passion for food and farming and much experience in that arena. She’s happiest with her hands in the soil, growing food, either with her husband and community in the cloudforests of Mexico, or on the small island of Denmark where she’s originally from. In her interview for Planet Local Voices II, Anja discusses the cascade of social and environmental harms being caused by the global growth-obsessed corporate-controlled economy, and conversely, the multiple benefits to people and nature the accrue from a systemic shift towards the local. This dynamic is, she argues, most starkly visible in the food system, which under corporate globalization is destroying the planet, local economies and health, but under a shift to localized, ecological production and consumption models heals our interlocking polycrises simultaneously. Anja issues a rousing call to get involved, become an activist - especially a food activist - and link up with others to heal our relationship with the land beneath our feet, but also to transform the system that is driving catastrophe. Millions of people are already doing this, she reminds us, and from this realization we can draw inspiration and hope in dark times.

Vu Truong is a program coordinator at VCIL Community, Vietnam, a grassroots movement towards well-being and regenerative society re-imagining every aspect of life through social innovation in alternative education, rethinking development, new economy and community building. Thien Quach is a community builder, regenerative educator, and social innovator with VCIL Community. He is passionate about reimagining education and rethinking development through alternative education, post-growth entrepreneurship, regenerative tourism, and solidarity-based finance. In this episode of Planet Local Voices II, Vu and Thien paint an evocative picture of the deeply relational, humble and nurturing traditional values and lifestyles that prevailed until recently in Vietnam, and how these have been dramatically undermined and degraded by the race for material wealth and "success" brought about by recent decades of mainstream development, modernization and "progress". Still, beneath the pavement and within the cracks of development, the old values still survive, and with them more and more people are turning away from the soul-deadening, polluting mainstream to create "many streams" of regenerative, life-affirming, meaningful alternatives - a process that VCIL Community is playing a vital role in nurturing. They emphasize the importance of changing mindsets, values, and worldviews in order to effect systemic change, and conversely, the need for systemic change to enable and encourage these inner transformations. It is a story that will resonate with communities and cultures across the world who are facing similar pressures, which is to say, it will resonate everywhere.

Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn is a Māori human rights and environmental advocate from the Ngāti Kurī and Te Rarawa peoples of Aotearoa (New Zealand). A lawyer by training and longtime activist by calling, she has spent decades working on Indigenous rights, climate justice, Treaty negotiations, food sovereignty and more, and applied herself from local campaigns close to home to international advocacy at the United Nations. In this episode, we go deep into metaphysics, ‘staying with the trouble’ of the current moment while also seeing the bigger picture. Catherine leads us in drawing lessons from Maori language and worldviews, and we think through the cycles of time to find life-sustaining hope for the future. We were delighted to get to know Catherine at the Planet Local Summit, and I have no doubt that her vibrant energy will also come through in the airwaves!

Lars Veraart is a veterinarian and agroecological farmer. Together with his wife Robyn, Lars moved from the Netherlands to a small village in the mountains of Romania, where he co-founded ALPA – Land for Life — an initiative supporting small-scale ecological farming, young farmers and bioregional regeneration. He and Robyn also run Provision Transylvania, an example farm and centre for agroecology and non-violence. In this episode of Planet Local Voices II, Lars offers a concise and lovely story of social, cultural, and ecological regeneration in action. He describes the process of 'becoming a peasant' in Romania and the surprise of the local villagers as he and his family began to emulate their ways. He speaks of change and ecocide, but also of hopeful signs, stressing the oft-overlooked relationship between small-scale farming and wild biodiversity conservation. He also shares about how non-violent communication and localisation have informed his work. 

Mattias Desmet is a professor of clinical psychology in the Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences at Ghent University (Belgium), a practicing psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and author of The Psychology of Totalitarianism. In this episode of Planet Local Voices II, Mattias explains how the poly-crises roiling the world today ultimately stem from a metaphysical crisis, a "de-souling" of the world produced by a rationalism in Western science that lost sight of its own limitations. Excessive rationalism, he argues, is actually deeply irrational, and the socio-ecological breakdowns we are witnessing today, in many cases produced by the most advanced science applied to technology, are a clear illustration of this. Unless subordinated to deeper values and ethics, science and rationalism will continue to lead the world to ruin. Mattias also argues that the fading of local exchange, craft and economy have contributed to the psychological crises of loneliness and meaninglessness. Accordingly, rebuilding local, grassroots economies are vital to repairing peoples' sense of meaning, purpose and mattering.

Shrishtee Bajpai is a researcher, writer and activist working at the intersections of environmental justice, earthy governance, indigenous worldviews, and systemic transformations. She is a member of Kalpavriksh , and coordinates Vikalp Sangam (Alternatives Confluence) in India. She is part of the facilitation team of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives. She also serves on the executive committee of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature.  In this episode of Planet Local Voices II, Shrishtee lays out the profound nature of indigenous worldviews rooted in collective care and respect for, and intimate relationship with, the rest of the living Earth, and the work of bringing this ancient sensibility into contemporary practice through movements for the Rights of Nature and Earthy Governance. She explains how local, indigenous and other land-based and communities around the world are defending their territories and building locally-rooted alternatives to the destructive dominant economic system. Finally, she reflects on the political nature of hope, as a disciple through which we push back against the closure of the imagination, and allow ourselves to dream of - and enact - better futures.  

Jason Nardi is the European coordinator of RIPESS - the Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy, president of RIES (Italian Solidarity Economy Network) and co-founder of Solidarius Italia. Jason is an active member of the International Council of the World Social Forum and promoter of the World Social Forum on Transformative Economies. Jason currently lives in Florence, where he promotes Community Supported Agriculture projects, mutualism and the Forum Firenze Beni Comuni (Florence Forum of the Commons). In this episode of Planet Local Voices II, Jason defines the social and solidarity economy concepts and diverse practices including collective ownership, cooperation, sufficiency- and needs-based production and exchange, and connects these to the localization and bioregionalist movements. Jason reminds us of our collective power and true wealth, and argues that by weaving together the multiplicity of diverse alternative economic initiatives that respect people and nature, we can change the system. This podcast episode forms part of the Planet Local Voices II series, produced by Local Futures, an international non-profit organisation, dedicated to renewing ecological and social well-being by strengthening communities and local economies. Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/8oil0IQVhx8 Follow the Planet Local Voices Series II series: https://www.localfutures.org/programs/planet-local-voices-series-2/ Explore our work: https://www.localfutures.org/ Sign up for our newsletter to never miss an episode — exploring localization as a pathway to ecological balance and community resilience. Sign up here: https://www.localfutures.org/sign-up-to-our-newsletter/