“Wherever something is wrong, something is too big”, Leopold Kohr is quoted as saying in Paul Kingsnorth’s important new book, Real England. Kingsnorth vividly describes his wanderings over England and discussions with ordinary people who describe their often losing, but valiant struggles to keep afloat their local pub, small farm, post office, or local industry, to stop what he calls “the homogenisation of our landscapes and cultures”. In my own wanderings over England, Wales and Scotland several years ago as a snoopy Czech researcher, I was on the contrary looking for those who had actually succeeded in creating an alternative to this process which the New Economics Foundation calls “cloning” and Ivan Illich calls “enclosure”. I was looking for people who, despite the odds, had created a homegrown, human-size and viable economic project with a goal to help their communities and nature. Among the most interesting projects I found then, back in 2002, was WyeCycle. Richard Boden generously gave of his time, showed me around and explained that not only were they recycling people’ s waste, they were actually going further: trying to minimise waste by giving people an opportunity to buy local farmers` produce at nascent farmers` markets and supporting a local organic box scheme. The work of WyeCycle pointed to the important fact that rubbish creation is caused by our system of production and consumption patterns, and to truly live sustainably, we must try to support and re-forge local links, most especially links involving food.
By and by I published my book, Living in the Cracks (it can be ordered or downloaded at
http://www.feasta.org/documents/living_in_the_cracks/index.htm), and this year returned to Wye to see how WyeCycle was getting on. Again, I was met by Richard, this time accompanied by a little dog at intervals chewing surreptitiously at its leash. We hopped in a van, including the dog, and Richard showed me around. I was really happy to learn that not only were WyeCycle’s original projects, including the composting, furniture refurbishment, biodiesel production, etc., thriving, but it had actually gone a big step further. Richard and his friends in WyeCycle have helped create a farmland community land trust, Wye Community Farm, where some cattle and sheep are already grazing and which will hopefully, as at other places where such projects are coming into existence in Britain, not only help the environment, local food security and health, but draw people together and enhance their skills into the bargain. The project is still very young, relying on volunteers to keep it going. Richard`s optimism and good humour however, which did not waver even when the dog did finally succeed in snapping her leash in two pieces, are catching and I have no doubt the project will succeed. On the train back to London I reflected on the onerous regulations and bureaucracy which we also discussed and which prevent more community businesses such as WyeCycle from taking root and more local farm projects from thriving. Paul Kingsnorth is right. We must unite somehow to fight on the side of the “small” and “local” in this undeclared war. Because, as he quotes Wendell Berry as saying: “If you don’t know where you are, you don’t know who you are.”
Nadia Johanisova, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, nadiaj@volny.cz
