Local Futures Podcast

Local Alternatives to Globalized Development: A View from India with Ashish Kothari

In this extended episode, Local Bites interviews scholar/activist, Ashish Kothari about his book, Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India, co-authored by Aseem Shrivastava. During the first half of the interview, Kothari provides a sobering account of the social and environmental impacts of globalized development in India, arguing persuasively that the costs outweigh the benefits, and calling into questions a number of taken-for-granted assumptions about "economic growth", "progress", and the so-called inevitability of urbanization. In the second half (28:24), Kothari highlights a diverse range of localist alternatives taking place in communities throughout India, forerunners to what he calls 'radical ecological democracy', that can "take us all to higher levels of well-being, while sustaining the earth and creating greater equity."

How to Feed the World? A Political Agroecological Approach with Dr. M. Jahi Chappell

In this episode, Local Bites interviews Dr. M. Jahi Chappell of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy on the question, "What kind of food and farming system do we need to feed a growing world population in an ecologically sustainable and socially just manner?" His responses challenge widely-held notions about the future of our food supply.
 

How corporate ‘free trade’ deals threaten local communities and economies worldwide with Brian Emerson

In this episode host Brian Emerson interviews Helena Norberg-Hodge on how "free" trade treaties undermine local communities, economies and democracies around the world, and why localists need to join the global resistance against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA, also known as TTIP). Norberg-Hodge ends her interview by suggesting an alternative international framework for supporting more democratic, localized solutions to global problems.