Developing Convivial Technologies for Right Livelihood

  As the 50th anniversary of Small is Beautiful, 2023 is our opportunity to advance solutions to today’s social, economic, and environmental challenges that build on Schumacher’s original vision. To do so, the Schumacher Center is convening a monthly series featuring New Economic thinkers, builders and activists from a range of fields. “Schumacher Conversations: Envisioning the Next … Continued

Danny Haber

Danny is a master’s student at Yale’s School of the Environment focusing primarily on working lands conservation and food access. Realizing the shortcomings of the conservation movement’s efforts both in keeping working lands sustainably managed and in equitably providing for the community, Danny views the community land trust model as an innovative tool in addressing … Continued

"Creating a Global Renewable Energy Commons" Allied Organizations

    Our June list of organizations is highlighted as part of our 50thAnniversary Celebration of E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful “The power of ordinary people… lies in placing their sympathy and support with minority groups which have already started.” — E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful The intent of our 2023 “Schumacher Conversations” series is … Continued

"Creating a Global Renewable Energy Commons" Allied Organizations

Our June list of organizations is highlighted as part of our 50th Anniversary Celebration of E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful “The power of ordinary people… lies in placing their sympathy and support with minority groups which have already started.” — E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful The intent of our 2023 “Schumacher Conversations” series is to … Continued

Reallocating Land: From Market to Commons

April’s panelists are those pioneering radical forms of land tenure that challenge the private property norm. Combined, their experience with voluntary land gifting and community trusteeship of working lands spans three continents.

“Reallocating Land: from Market to Commons” Allied Organizations

April’s list of organizations is highlighted as part of our broader 50th Anniversary Celebration of E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful “The power of ordinary people… lies in placing their sympathy and support with minority groups which have already started.” — E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful The intent of our 2023 “Schumacher Conversations” series is to … Continued

Sjoerd Wartena

Sjoerd Wartena is a sustainable food systems advocate and Founder of Terre de Liens, a civil society organization devoted to ecologically-friendly agriculture and securing affordable access to farmland. Created in 2003, Terre de Liens addresses the difficulties faced by organic and peasant farmers in securing agricultural land. Land prices are high and land market so … Continued

Localizing Production: Communities Supporting Industry

As the 50th anniversary of the book Small is Beautiful, 2023 is our opportunity to advance solutions to today’s social, economic, and environmental challenges that build on Schumacher’s original vision. To meet this calling, the Schumacher Center is convening a monthly series featuring New Economic thinkers, builders and activists from a range of fields. “Schumacher Conversations: Envisioning … Continued

BerkShares in The Natural Farmer

BerkShares: An Alternative Vision for Thriving Regional Economies was published in the Winter 2022-23 issue of The Natural Farmer, under the theme of “Challenging Corporate Capture.” 

BerkShares: an alternative vision for thriving regional economies

…the presence of community-issued BerkShares currency over the past fifteen years has contributed to an alternative story here in the Berkshires: one of a more circular regional economy that leaves space for local exchange and production as a basis for resilience.

Elizabeth Henderson Archives Research Guide

The Elizabeth Henderson Archives consist of three main collections centered around community supported agriculture (CSA), farming, and social justice. Elizabeth Henderson farmed at Peacework Farm in Wayne County, New York, producing organically grown vegetables for the fresh market for over 30 years. As a farmer, activist, and writer, she has exerted an enormous influence on … Continued

Special Collections Archives

The Special Collections Archives contain materials such as notes, papers, articles, tapes, videos, and more. These items have been donated to the Schumacher Center by various people involved in new economics-related areas of work. The archives currently include materials from Elizabeth Henderson and John Emmeus Davis.The Elizabeth Henderson CollectionA collection of articles, correspondence, notes, papers, … Continued

Rural Development: Rich Land for Poor

Slater King, Robert Swann, and others discuss the Community Land Trust model and other forms of community self-help and local economic democracy (1968).

Toward an Agricultural Ethic

Toward an Agricultural Ethic Which is Personal, Community-Responsible, Globally Appropriate, Practical, Undeniable, and Pleasing.

The Economics of Permanence

If human vices such as greed and envy are systematically cultivated, the inevitable result is nothing less than a collapse of intelligence. A man driven by greed or envy loses the power of seeing things as they really are, of seeing things in their roundness and wholeness, and his very successes become failures. If whole societies become infected by these vices, they may indeed achieve astonishing things but they become increasingly incapable of solving the most elementary problems of everyday existence. The Gross National Product may rise rapidly: as measured by statisticians but not as ex­perienced by actual people, who find themselves oppressed by increasing frustration, alienation, in­security, and so forth.

Germany Community Land Trusts

BioBoden GenossenschaftDorfstraße 5817321 RothenklempenowGermany+49 (0) 234 414702 00mitglieder@bioboden.dehttps://bioboden.de/startseite/Year Created: 2015Purpose: Secure land for environmentally sustainable agriculture.Land Holdings: 2868 hectares of land with 53 organic farms in Germany.Additional Information: BioBoden holds agricultural land and leases it to farmers in the form of long term affordable leases. Partners: Access to LandKulturland eGHauptstr. 1929456 HitzackerGermany+49 5862 9411033info@kulturland.dehttps://www.kulturland.de/de/english-informationYear Created: 2014Purpose: Preserve farmland for long-term community use. Land Holdings: 26 … Continued

Addressing Land Insecurity for Small Farms

Land and housing insecurity are challenges faced by many small farmers. Citizens working through community land trusts can create a solution to land insecurity and thereby help achieve greater regional food sovereignty and climate resiliency.

E.F. Schumacher: An Appreciation

Fritz Schumacher used to say that he most enjoyed those responses to his book, Small ls Beautiful,  that did not praise its originality, but rather that he had articulated what his readers had always known to be true. Above all, Schumacher believed in the common sense of ordinary people and their ability to expand their awareness … Continued

Community Forestry Associations

I want to welcome you on behalf of the Schumacher Society and Simon’s Rock College. This is the second conference sponsored by the Schumacher Society and we think appropriately on a subject which was very close to Dr. Schumacher’s heart. In the latter part of his life his interest turned increasingly to trees, tree crops, … Continued

New Alchemy: ecological design ‘Mecca’

Starting in 1969, one future-thinking group pioneered new avenues in bio-technology research and design. The New Alchemy Institute in Falmouth, MA on Cape Cod was founded as a research center to pioneer organic agriculture, aquaculture, and bioshelter with minimal reliance on fossil fuels. Its work was to discover and model greener, self-sustaining systems. Founders John Todd, Nancy Jack Todd, and … Continued

The radical roots of CSAs

Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) is one of those rare ideas which combine transformative potential with an elegant simplicity. The CSA model of funding and sustaining locally-rooted agriculture has grown exponentially around the globe over the past four decades. Since the formation of one of the first formal CSAs at Robyn Van En’s Indian Line Farm in … Continued

Inflation and Social Justice

To judge by the flood of public utterances on the state of the nation, we are in the later phases of a bad economic crisis  which has a number of disagreeable features, inflation being the worst. We are told that we must cut the rate of inflation by half, so as to be more nearly … Continued

Sandy Bishop

Sandy Bishop is the Executive Director of Lopez Community Land Trust  (LCLT).  She was a co-founder in establishing LCLT in 1989. LCLT’s first affordable housing project was considered the premiere community land trust project on the west coast and was featured in national publications.  Sandy has over 30 years of project management for local community based developments. In … Continued

Informed by Place, Supported by Citizens

The small business owners of the Berkshires are my heroes. They have adjusted to the restrictions of COVID; they are meeting the economic challenges brought on by the pandemic with good spirits. I want to support them with the same good spirit and enthusiasm, letting them know the Berkshires are a better place because they … Continued

“The Road is Long, Get up Early” – Lindisfarne Podcasts

The Lindisfarne Tapes are a collection of conversations with visionary thinkers about culture, society, economy, and technology. The late William Irwin Thompson first convened the Lindisfarne gatherings in the early 1970s, yet the conversations have maintained their relevance, informing a new generation of thinker/activists. Our colleagues David Fix and Caleb Stone have begun the process of converting the tapes to podcasts … Continued

Çaca Yvaire

Çaca is the Terran Shield and Community Conservation Co-Director for the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust (NEFOC). He is an Afro-Indigenous territorial scholar-practitioner and student of planetary science, political geoecology, and the arts. Therein, he brings a unique lens to conservation work. He is primarily invested in stimulating and uplifting an infrastructure that supports … Continued

Wes Jackson and David Orr in Conversation

  In celebration of 40 years of the Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures, and in anticipation of the October 25, 2020 Lectures with Kali Akuno and George Monbiot, we are highlighting the work of past speakers, asking for updates of their earlier remarks, and inviting them to reflect on current conditions. On Thursday, August 13 … Continued

Wes Jackson and David Orr in Conversation

Wes Jackson is a geneticist. He thinks in terms of generations. His work to restore the prairies, devastated by the effect of tractors turning over the sod to plant corn and soybeans, began in 1976 with the founding of The Land Institute. It has taken forty-four years to breed and test a perennial grain sufficiently … Continued

Greg Watson and John Todd in Conversation

  In celebration of 40 years of the Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures, and in anticipation of the October 25, 2020 Lectures with Kali Akuno and George Monbiot, we are highlighting the work of past speakers, asking for updates of their earlier remarks, and inviting them to reflect on current conditions. On Thursday, August 6 … Continued

Greg Watson and John Todd in Conversation

The mission of the New Alchemy Institute was: To restore the lands, protect the seas, and inform the Earth’s stewards. Among our major tasks is the creation of ecologically derived human support systems – renewable energy, agriculture, aquaculture, housing and landscapes. The strategies we research emphasize a minimal reliance on fossil fuels and operate on … Continued

Richard Heinberg and Helena Norberg-Hodge in Conversation

Heinberg and Norberg-Hodge are experts on climate change, localization, and sustainability. Their past lectures have been almost prophetic in their accuracy, and their ideas are more relevant now than ever. In celebration of 40 years of the Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures, and in anticipation of the October 25, 2020 Lectures with Kali Akuno and George Monbiot, … Continued

Wes Jackson and David Orr in conversation

In celebration of 40 years of the Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures, and in anticipation of the October 25, 2020 Lectures with Kali Akuno and George Monbiot, we are highlighting the work of past speakers, asking for updates of their earlier remarks, and inviting them to reflect on current conditions. On Thursday, August 13 at … Continued

Greg Watson and John Todd in conversation

  In celebration of 40 years of the Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures, and in anticipation of the October 25, 2020 Lectures with Kali Akuno and George Monbiot, we are highlighting the work of past speakers, asking for updates of their earlier remarks, and inviting them to reflect on current conditions. On Thursday, August 6 … Continued

Garden Cities of To-Morrow ~ Ebenezer Howard

Ebenezer Howard’s book, originally published in London in 1898 as To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform and then in 1902 as Garden Cities of To-morrow, proposed a peaceful but inherently radical experiment in city, town, and regional planning aimed at creating more healthy, self-sufficient, and just places to live and work that balanced the … Continued

The Culture of Cities ~ Lewis Mumford

Much writing about New Economics focuses on small communities and rural areas. What then is the role of the city? For many, Lewis Mumford provided a guide to how cities can be designed to serve humanity and work in harmony with nature. His writings can be found in the collections of E. F. Schumacher, George … Continued

Hazel Henderson & Amory Lovins

Energy is at the heart of every economic system. Whether it be human, animal, oil, or solar, some form of energy must be used to transform the natural resources of the earth into the food, shelter, and goods that we need to live in this world. If we wish to get the economics right, it … Continued

In Community We Trust

The Berkshire region of Massachusetts has been a pioneer in cultivating economic self-reliance for 40 years.

A Global Perspective on the Green New Deal

Thank you, David; I want to make sure you’re around to write my obituary. I’m going to talk about global perspective on the Green New Deal. I’m using the Green New Deal because a lot of the work I do, especially as I start to pursue the concept of World Games, seems to be a … Continued

Actionable Responses to Climate Change

Penniman tells us a story about race and the food system and how we can decolonize and re-indigenize our relationship to land and to food. She reminds us that the land we stand upon is stolen land and that the food system was built upon it with stolen labor. Today, the Black farming movement still faces racism and discrimination, but in spite of that, she says, “we’re trying to reclaim that inherent connection, that right to belong to the earth and to have agency in the food system.” In order to move toward Black agrarianism and toward new economies for Black and Brown people, repatriation and reparations need to take place. Penniman adds that we need to think seriously about our relationship to the earth, because we have the knowledge and means of indigenous and ancestral methods that can feed the planet without destroying it. She uses examples from Soul Fire Farm, which she co-founded in 2011, to show how it is helping to put an end to racism and injustice in the food system.

Canada

CanadaBritish ColumbiaCommunity Land Trust220-1651 Commercial Dr. Vancouver, BC V5L 3Y3604-879-5111info@cltrust.cacltrust.caDate Incorporated: 1993Purpose: To provide stable, quality housing for low and moderate income household and support mix use developments that include residential, retail, and community space.Land Holdings: More than 20 housing co-ops  with sites located throughout Victoria, Abbotsford, Maple Ridge, Vancouver, Surrey, New Westminster, Burnaby, Coquitlam, … Continued

Annual E.F. Schumacher Lectures

Annual E.F. Schumacher Lectures </p> <img src=”data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7″ data-wp-preserve=”%3Cstyle%3E.vce-row-container%20.vcv-lozad%20%7Bdisplay%3A%20none%7D%3C%2Fstyle%3E” data-mce-resize=”false” data-mce-placeholder=”1″ class=”mce-object” width=”20″ height=”20″ alt=”<style>” title=”<style>” /> <p> 1st Annual E.F.  Schumacher Lectures Mount Holyoke College; South Hadley, Massachusetts October 24, 1981 People, Land, and Community  by Wendell Berry A Call for a Revolution in Agriculture by Wes Jackson 2nd Annual E.F.  Schumacher Lectures Cathedral of … Continued

Sallie Calhoun And Greg Watson Videos Available For Viewing

“This year’s theme—actionable responses to climate change—was nothing if not timely.  Speaking on this topic were Sallie Calhoun—co-owner with her husband Matt Christiano of Paicines Ranch, a 7,600-acre (11.875 square miles) farm near Monterrey, California, and founder of an impact investing fund, Cienaga Capital—and Greg Watson, former Massachusetts Commissioner of Agriculture and a student of Buckminster Fuller, whose work centered on holistic approaches.”

Stewarding a Legacy of Innovation

The project underway is to build out the ground floor level, an additional 1,600 square feet, providing a light and humidity controlled environment. By moving a significant part of the existing collection downstairs, it will mean additional room upstairs for educational programs.

Land Access in the News

Land Access in the NewsArticles that address the mounting problem of land inaccessibility and its consequences.It’s Public Land. But the Public Can’t Reach It.Ben Ryder Howe, The New York Times11.26.2022 When public land is “landlocked” by private land, is it really public? This article describes how hunters are raising the questions of what is considered “private” … Continued

Community Land Trusts in the News

Community Land Trusts in the News Articles that offer insight and further the conversation as the CLT movement grows.How Land Banks and Community Land Trusts Can Partner for Racial JusticeBeth Sorce and Kim Graziani, Nonprofit Quarterly11.09.2022 A look into how collaborative efforts from land banks and community land trusts can further racial justice in local communities by offering … Continued