It's Not Countries Ripping Us Off—It's Global Companies

V.3, N.30

Whenever I get sucked too far down the political rabbit hole of the moment, I try to schedule a chat with my dear friend Helena Norberg-Hodge. No one has done more to build a global movement for localization. And she reminds us that the biggest threat we face is not this politician or that political party, but the structure of the global economy which, in her words, frees “corporations to extract, produce, transport, and sell whatever, wherever, however they want on the planet, with as few ‘barriers’, regulations, protections for people and nature, as possible.” Globalization, she argues, is built on subsidies, deregulation, tax breaks, and legal favors for multinational companies. Until we address these issues—nationally and, if possible, globally—localization will always be at a competitive disadvantage.

Yet despite disadvantages, examples of local success can be found everywhere on the planet. These are what we must build on.

We’re pleased to feature an interview with Helena in this issue, where she reflects on 50 years of work, her films and organizing platforms, and her upcoming conference in Ladakh, India.

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MS: You have been promoting localization as long as anyone I know, since at least the 1990s. Do you think we’ve made progress—and if so, how?

HNH: Believe it or not, I’ve actually been at it for 50 years! Ever since my experience in Ladakh, or Little Tibet, in the mid-70s, I’ve been trying to raise awareness about the need for economic decentralization.

I think we have made progress, but of course, not much of that appears in the mainstream media or even in social media. We’re lucky in that we at Local Futures have contact with so many different grassroots groups on every continent, so we keep getting information on a daily basis about localization efforts happening all over the world, from Benin to Iceland, and Mexico to New Zealand.

We all have an innate need for connection, not just with each other, but with nature as well. This is drawing increasing numbers of people in the West to give up their corporate lives and seek out a life on the land. In the so-called Global South, there are countless groups that are very grateful for a view of progress that values land-based living and embraces genuine cultural diversity.

I believe this innate human need lies behind many of the localization projects, and in many cases, our message helps to strengthen them and keep them alive.

MS: I’ve always been impressed with how your work reaches into all countries, including the Global South. What are some of the great accomplishments of localization in the Global South that have impressed you and that our readers might be unaware of?

HNH: In many ways, it is from the Global South that the localization movement takes inspiration, since most of the world’s decentralized, land-based, cooperative, local economies exist there. And this is where the majority of people get the majority of their daily goods and services. Reports such as Who Will Feed Us? or Hungry for Land show that small farmers in the Global South provide food for nearly 80% of the global population, using 25% of the world’s resources and land. By contrast, the industrial food chain uses 75% of the world’s resources to feed less than 30% of the world’s people.

The international peasant movement La Via Campesina, which started in the Global South, is an incredible network of 180 organizations in 81 countries, representing about 200 million small-scale food producers.

Besides the still-surviving traditional localized economies, there are countless inspiring examples from across the geographic South of deliberate localization in action in sectors including locally owned decentralized renewable energy, place- and craft-based education, ecological building, and sanitation.

The list of inspiring examples is very long indeed. We’ve tried to document a small selection in our Planet Local Library and in our collection of Maps of Alternatives.

MS: Yes, these are great resources that I often rely on myself. Alongside these hopeful projects, however, is a depressing reality: Globalization has created multiple crises long before Donald Trump initiated his tariff wars. What do you think are the worst of these crises?

HNH: The scale and number of these crises are so vast, it’s hard to know where to begin, but in a nutshell: ecological destruction, inequality and poverty, mental and physical illness, spiritual impoverishment, and the destruction of diversity of all kinds.

Rather than rehearse the grim statistics here, I point readers to some past articles on Local Futures’ blog (examples are The Great Deceleration, Mental Health and Globalization, The Globalized, Industrialized Food System Is Destroying the World, and Chak Chok: A Campaign Against Junk Food).

Basically, globalization is about freeing up corporations to extract, produce, transport, and sell whatever, wherever, however they want on the planet, with as few ‘barriers’, regulations, protections for people and nature, as possible. This manic system, fueled by the relentless drive for ever-higher profits, has put global industrial growth into hyperdrive, fomenting extractivism on one side and empty consumerism on the other. It is converting the planet into a monocultural waste dump, a system whose only logical end is total exhaustion.

As I have written elsewhere, the most tragic failing of our global economic system is that it is eviscerating the Earth itself for the systematic production of unhappiness.

MS: The tariff wars seem to be the last nail in globalization’s coffin. Should we be thankful for them?

HNH: For decades, our deepening reliance on faraway markets and supply chains has left us unable to meet even our most basic needs—from food to jobs to medicine. We’ve become chronically dependent on the whims of global businesses and banks.

So there is a real need to move away from this dependence by diversifying our national economies. However, this means protecting our local, regional, and national economies not from other countries that Trump believes are “ripping us off” but from global monopolies.

Today, multinational corporations hold more wealth and power than many nation-states, and they owe allegiance to no country. Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses in trade treaties allow corporations to sue governments for trying to protect people or the planet. From Thailand to Germany, governments have been sued for “lost profits” over everything from banning toxic mining to raising minimum wages. This paralyses national governments and makes a joke of democracy. It leaves no doubt about who calls the shots in the global economy.

Against this backdrop, tariffs offer no path to freedom. They are outdated, antagonistic gestures that pit countries against one another at a time when we should be uniting against our real common oppressor: corporate rule.

MS: I completely agree. And you were way ahead of the pack in calling for our movement to globalize. You released your film, The Economics of Happiness, in 2011. I still show it to my economics students, and honestly, its arguments seem as powerful today as they were fourteen years ago. What was the thesis of the film, and why do you think the film was so influential?

HNH: The thesis of The Economics of Happiness was that most of our most pressing problems—from climate change to terrorism, financial insecurity to the epidemic of depression—can be traced back to an unsustainable global economic system. The film also shows that economic localization is a strategic way to address each of these problems simultaneously.

I think the film also helped name what many people were and are feeling about what’s wrong. The majority of people are actually experiencing a sense that this consumerist rat race is not only environmentally destructive, but it’s also inhumane. As I said earlier, people everywhere are yearning for re-connection to each other and the natural world, and yearning for lives of meaning and purpose.

The film also offered a powerful message of hope for the future. The thinkers and activists we interviewed—including you!—came from every continent. Their message was simple and powerful: localizing our economies can heal the planet and ourselves.

MS: Following the film, you held a series of conferences around the world, the most recent one in Bristol, United Kingdom. I’ve attended maybe a dozen of these, and one lesson I’ve learned is how different cultures around the world interpret localization in very different ways. Do you see this as well?

HNH: I don’t think it’s so much a question of a different interpretation of localization, but what is so wonderful is that we still have very significant differences between cultures, so that cultural diversity is something that you see reflected in our gatherings, where we have people from all over the world.

But as I mentioned earlier, there is also a difference between so-called rich countries and so-called poor countries. In the poorer countries, many more people are still farming, living in smaller villages or cities, so contact with the land for them is more important. They also emphasize the importance of intergenerational relationships, because they still experience a deeper connection between old and young.

And again, as I say repeatedly, the connection to the land and others is something that is very important for us at Local Futures. We have seen so much evidence of how it’s a prerequisite for human wellbeing. So we are trying to bring that perspective into the more industrialized, urbanized cultures. This is important because many Westerners are not aware that they often blindly support a path where 100% of the population will be urbanized. To avoid that, we all need to focus much more on the food economy.

MS: Your next conference is on September 3-5 in Ladakh, India, a region you’ve written about extensively and figures large in The Economics of Happiness. What do you hope comes out of this conference?

HNH: Well, this relates back to the previous question.

In Ladakh, we really hope that Westerners will have their eyes opened to the profound personal and spiritual benefits of a strong community—deep connections to others. In addition, even though Ladakh has changed dramatically since I first went there in 1975, there is still evidence of the beauty, peace, and joy that comes from a way of life where people are more connected to the soil, the water, and the animals on which we depend.

At the same time, for the Ladakhis, it’s incredibly important to learn from the Westerners who come that the images in the media that portray a consumer culture as some kind of paradise are very misleading, to put it mildly. So there’s so much to learn from both sides of this divide, of the so-called poor and the so-called wealthy.

MS: Every year, in June, you hold a World Localization Day, featuring events all over the world, and sometimes introducing new films. What are your plans this year, and how can readers of The Main Street Journal participate?

HNH: In 2020, when the pandemic hit, we convened our first World Localization Day as an online event on June 21, and we continue to celebrate World Localization Day each year throughout the month of June. The aim of these events is to showcase localization projects around the world. We want to spread the good news that these groups aren’t operating in isolation, that they are, in fact, part of a worldwide movement.

Michael, your readers can participate in many ways, even by simply hosting a potluck dinner with neighbors and friends, because getting to know your neighbors is the first step to restoring your local economy! People can also host a screening of one of our considerable catalog of films, followed by a panel discussion. You can check out some of the many examples from last year’s calendar here. Your readers can also check out our resources for hosting a World Localization Day event.

MS: If I could get you $1 billion to accelerate localization, what would you organize, where, and how?

HNH: How I would love to have that billion! I know exactly what I would do. I would fund a global campaign for economic literacy. A lot of money would be needed to ensure that it got out more widely. Most ministers in most governments have no idea that they have been unwittingly destroying both people and the environment by blindly supporting globalization. This has meant that global corporations and banks have no rules, no regulations, and they don’t pay tax; instead, they’re subsidized. At the same time, governments are busy taxing and regulating you and me and every business that’s place-based.

This campaign would show, with the help of people like you, Michael, that turning in the opposite direction, towards localization, rapidly brings with it multiple, massive benefits. It helps restore health to ecosystems, to communities, to individuals. The countless projects now demonstrate how connection to others and nature restores mental health. And we create more visible and accountable structures, and therefore the preconditions for democracy.

I’m quite convinced that the majority of people do not want the system that we have now, but as I say, they’ve unwittingly supported it, because there hasn’t been a clear look at either the global path or the local path. A big picture campaign could make a big difference.

MS: Okay, my final question: How have you and your husband, John, been able to invest locally?

HNH: In order to keep up with our many partners in the northern and southern hemispheres, John and I paradoxically live a fairly global life in the sense that we live between two houses, one in Devon, UK, and one in Byron Bay, Australia.

Having said that, we have lived in both places for over 25 years and are deeply embedded in both communities, where we invest a substantial amount of our time and effort. We have initiated projects such as farmers markets, funded seed networks, eco-housing initiatives, and played advisory roles in local enterprises.

We’ve also contributed by holding several workshops, conferences, and meetings in both regions. In Byron Bay, the workshop we held with you, Michael, on your last visit here, catalyzed the setting up of a new group called Relocalize Northern Rivers.

MS: Yes, the connections you’ve built in your communities are profound. Thank you so much for talking with us and for the important work you do.

Read all of our past interviews here.