What Does Localist Living Really Look Like?

Some people think Localism means everyone farming and huddling over a fire in poverty, whatever part of the world they happen to live in:  

source

But I don't believe it does. This is what I believe living a localist lifestyle looks more like:

Claire Gregory, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

I don't believe Localism is a fantasy or a myth--I believe it can be lived. And I am trying to live it, very hard! So in this thread I will describe choices I make to actually live by Localist principles, and shift my daily decisions ever more in that direction. Commentary (and cheering!) will be very welcome.

Localist Living Principle 1: Doing without

Let me lead this post off with someone else's words:

r ranson wrote:I hate shopping, I hate shopping more than I hate just about anything else in the whole world, except perhaps eggplant - that stuff is just not edible to me.  My parents taught me not to use the word 'hate' as it's a super-strong and powerful emotion.  I HATE shopping!

https://permies.com/t/56235/Spending-save-money#470799
So it's not just me, y'all. But I will admit that I think the deck is stacked for those of us who feel this way. (Goodness, I even have a dislike for many physical objects into the bargain, which helpfully fuels my de-cluttering sessions.) All of this results in the fact that I don't "need" the stuff that Little Sister, who has literally been doing her own shoe shopping since she was 18 mos. old, seems to need. I am so grateful for that.

If you can learn to do without the many non-essentials of modern life, that heavily advertised stuff of very questionable value, made who-knows where--then you are well on your way to being a Localist. Eschew advertising, shopping centers and malls, and purveyors of new goods in general--it is quite possible, and feels so freeing. (Still have to convince Little Sister but she may be just starting to come around...)

(It's so hard to put numbers on all these ideas, they are all very important. Let's just call this one #2 even though there are others that could also be this important.)

Localist Living Principle 2: Cook from your area

There are two important ideas in this one. First of all, the "cook" part, which is still a trial for me, but I have improved so much in the last couple of years! Cook virtually every meal your family eats in your own kitchen, and reap the many advantages of less food cost, less waste, fewer calories, and much less toxic gick.

The second part of this idea is about where you source your cooking ingredients. First of all, I highly recommend growing and raising as much as your situation allows for. If that's basil on a windowsill, great! If you can have a quarter-acre garden, chickens, and maybe an Irish Dexter cow, also great! The more you can provide for your kitchen from your own space, the more connected I think you will feel. And what you can't grow or raise yourself, can you find neighbors or folks nearby you can source the ingredients from?

I am lucky enough to be able to get all of my beef from a farm outside town. As a small chicken farm here also expands its offerings, I will buy more chicken from here too. We have two weekly farmers' markets, where I bought all my plant starts from for my kitchen garden a month ago, and the farmers there will soon be selling their produce as they harvest it as well.

I know I'm lucky to have these opportunities, and also I know everyone doesn't, but I am hoping by describing in this post what I have recently learned to do, it will spark ideas for others of what they can begin to investigate where they are. There are lots of surprises out there if you are willing to do some metaphorical digging!  

I think Localism as far a diet is achievable. We lived the 100 mile experiment for six months just to see. Not a long time but enough to see what supply issues we might encounter. The one thing I did miss was citrus.  
The radius gets larger looking at modern conveniences that need repaired. But I think that much of that could be addressed by living simpler.

This one is the hard principle to write about--this one is the "Poverty" one, and here Localism enthusiasts usually lose a lot of their listeners! But if you do read on, please ask yourself if what I describe seems unrealistic because of 1) the ideas behind Localism itself OR 2) (my opinion) because of the non-Localist direction the (Western) Economy has constantly been shifting in for the last 200-some years?

Localist Living Principle #3--Income from a local source

No, I don't think everyone on my block needs to run off and become 12th-century subsistence farmers on feudal lands (--not that this is even possible, I have noticed...) but I do wish everyone would start asking an important question: Can I generate income for my life as I truly want to live it, with opportunities in my area? This type of questioning can lead to Localism.

If we decide that the things in our current  lifestyles are not worth the price paid for them by the wages we earn for them, possibilities may open up. My father-in-law sometimes worked three jobs when his kids were growing up so he could afford to travel the country and race motorcycles. My husband makes vastly different choices than his dad did, and needs much less income for our lifestyle. (This means fewer hours of employment compared to his dad, which is just the way my husband likes it!) We aren't poor though--we have a house, and I stay home to homeschool, volunteer, and pursue a side-hustle hobby for the fun of it! My husband earns enough wages to support the three of us by driving trucks in the counties around us every weekday night, and we have everything we need and a lot of what we want. But I know what we want, which is not what all other people want. To each, his own.

To each, his own--but truly, what is his own. (Even Permies can be tempted to keep up with the Regenerative-Ag Joneses!) Paring down the lifestyle not to poverty but to what one really needs may allow opportunities not possible for someone trying to support a daily eating-out-at-restaurants cycle or unaffordable car payments. Again, I am not saying everyone can live a simple enough life to support a family laying bricks full time in his native place, but I do think everyone can embrace this mindset: learn what you really need, and then figure out possible arrangements for those needs to come into in your life as close to home as possible. I could (and likely will!) write more about this big topic, but arrangements for our life's needs can come from things besides just one employer's wages/salary.

Maybe the idea of "income from a local source" doesn't seem as unrealistic now, looked at with this lens?



Jamain, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Creating that "Localized Community" where the communities wants are simpler is the crux. I fault current urban planning with it to some degree. I remember small grocery stores (not a Mini-Mart) that were in neighborhoods. They delivered groceries to neighbors. By making exclusive housing only areas and retail areas the opportunities for mom and pops disappeared.

You raise an excellent point.  Where I grew up, there were 3 neighborhood grocery stores within 6 blocks of our house.

I like the idea of localist living.  As soon as you want something that you can't get from the land you need people in manufacturing and everything that supports that manufacturing.

A lot of people look up to Henry David Thoreau or for similar reasons.  But he could only live that simple because the rest of society was still functioning that he could buy cheap grain and barrow tools from.  Yet he preached how he was so right and everyone else was so foolish.

The same is true of my lifestyle.  I can only have the second hand tools and equipment I have because someone else bought them new.  I can focus on my garden and lots of variety because I can get cheap staples from the store.

I don't think one would have to operate at the level of the status quo. Could I get the staples locally? A difficult jump from the ease that I have come accustomed to, just jump in the car and go buy food that is out of season for me locally. To live a localized life would require a forward looking plan and as much as we all hate to sacrifice it might include sacrifice to achieve the Zen of simple living.

J Hillman wrote:I like the idea of localist living.  As soon as you want something that you can't get from the land you need people in manufacturing and everything that supports that manufacturing.

A lot of people look up to Henry David Thoreau or for similar reasons.  But he could only live that simple because the rest of society was still functioning that he could buy cheap grain and barrow tools from.  Yet he preached how he was so right and everyone else was so foolish.

The same is true of my lifestyle.  I can only have the second hand tools and equipment I have because someone else bought them new.  I can focus on my garden and lots of variety because I can get cheap staples from the store.

I want to be a both/and type of person, not an either/or type, and so hopefully no one ever thinks I am totally against manufacturing! What I do think would be nicer in this case is if your second-hand tools had originally been made in a factory in your town/city, or even in your state, you know? Once there were such things as local factories--my grandmother recently told me that she remembered the pickle factory in her little northern Indiana town that supplied the area grocery stores of the 1930s with local pickles, but the factory closed even before the war began, and then the stores sold pickles from really big factories farther away (most likely Chicago-way).

Bottom line: The closer to me that any object I obtain is made, handmade or otherwise, the happier I am about it from the Localist perspective.

I didn't grow up on the East coast but my wife has a Charles Chip tin from a potato chip company that would deliver chips locally much like the milk man I am told. milk man and a potato chip man those would be local jobs

What would contribute to being able to live local in a medium sized urban area now? :
Relaxation of zoning to allow mixed housing and businesses
Encouraging urban farming on vacant lots and individuals farming of others back yards.
What else would allow transitioning to local living?

Robert Ray wrote:What would contribute to being able to live local in a medium sized urban area now? :
Relaxation of zoning to allow mixed housing and businesses
Encouraging urban farming on vacant lots and individuals farming of others back yards.
What else would allow transitioning to local living?

So I've divided up my ideas of what can be done into two categories, and see both as valuable:

(Top-Down) The Laws category: Change zoning as you say, make taxes and tariffs much higher for the Big Guy than for the Mom 'n' Pops,  legally favor co-operative organizations, etc.

(Bottom-Up) The 'We-the-People' Category: Shop at the local consignment shops and scratch-and-dents, buy foods from local farmers, patronize local restaurants when you do eat out, organize a guild of local businesses, attend your community theater. Our small city, population ~20,000, has all those things, and I do all of the above. But it would be even better if I got some things started myself, like a local Permaculture group.  

There are more things, but I wanted to post a reply before compiling a list of every possible idea ever!