Regrowing Local Roots - David Narum

Regrowing Local Roots

Arcata Eye, 3/31/10
By David Narum

In the movie Being There,“Chance” the Gardener, played by Peter Sellers, observes that “As long as the rootsare not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden.” Chance, who was not a deep thinker, was speaking literally about the garden he tended, but he is taken by key policymakers (including the President) as a profound policy wonk who was using a garden metaphor to speak about the national economy. There are many funny moments.

But as it turns out Chance’s commentsdi d have a deeper meaning: our roots have been severed, and all is notwell in our (economic) garden. The U.S. economy rests on a fragile and poorly-rooted foundation. Over the pastcentury we have created unstable and far-reaching connections for our energy and material needs. We areheavily dependent on foreign energy sources, on aging and centralized power systems and infrastructure, and ona food system that has most Americans eating low-quality food produced and processed often thousands ofmiles from where they live. And creating these long connections has had the unintended consequence ofdisconnecting people from each other and the local resources that in the not-so-distant past allowed communitiesand regions to largely support themselves.

But we can draw on traditional American values, including individualism, community, creativity andinnovation, to envision another way—to re-grow our roots in our local economic“gar dens.” We may need tospend some time getting the old weed mat up, but once we turn the soil over it should reveal a number ofopportunities for new connections and new growth. And with the right adjustments, we should be able to createan economic soil that is more receptive to the“i dea seeds” of local entrepreneurs and the growth they canproduce if given the opportunity. Basically, we need to figure out what grows best here and then fertilize theheck out of it (with organic fertilizer, or course).

Local energy and resource (e.g., food) systems would not meet all of our needs, but they can meet far more ofthem than they currently do, and reconnecting local economies to these local supply bases can provideopportunities for job growth, innovation, and for cleaner energy and healthier food. Of course we will alwaysbe connected to the broader world for many things (they will want our exports, for example), but we shouldstructure these connections more on our own terms.

Some of the strategies for strengthening local economies include reducing barriers to entry for business start-ups, creating local capital funds (e.g., Economic Fuel) and groups such as community corporations to invest inor grow local enterprises, revitalizing local banks and community currencies, developing local and regionalmarket identities (e.g., Humboldt Made), workforce education, business incubators, university/communityconnections, and so on. We need to foster creative thinking as well as be creative in how we capitalize thosewho have good ideas but who have no practical way to turn those ideas into business opportunities. Hewlett-Packard started in a garage, but lucky for them they had access to both ideas and capital. The innovationecosystem worked for them, and it can work here, too.

Local economies will be stronger if we take the time to understand what our local places can provide for us. We can make our local economic gardens flourish by breaking up the dry, colorless, compacted and sterile clods of our existing economic system and by liberally sprinkling over this newly turned soil the nutrients needed for new ideas and ventures to thrive. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get out the garden rake.

David Narum is a Principal of GreenWay Partners in Arcata.

For more on how to relocalize our economy come to the Fourth Annual Plan It Green Building Green Communities Conference, April 3, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., at the Arcata Community Center. This year’s conference is titled “Local Self-Reliance: Making Connections.” It’s free and open to the public. Details are available at humboldtplanitgreen.org.