16/5/2020
Local Stories![]() As a member of the Local Futures network a global organisation that recognises - the future lies with the local community. We share ideas, stories and models of operating that work in our localities with the aim of developing socially inclusive and sustainable communities. So, we understand in this network, that all our communities globally are distinct, so a response to a problem should vary and be culturally appropriate to that locality and environment. Just as our natural environments are biologically diverse, our community cultures have developed matching this diversity with their own uniqueness. For example, Wyong is different to Woy Woy, is different to Terrigal, Tuggerah Lakes, and is different to Mangrove Mountain, Mooney Mooney. They however, are interconnected, giving the Central Coast its distinct identity. When we buy locally grown seasonal foods, this reduces the carbon footprint with reduced transport costs and supporting local famers and growers. It cuts out the middle person so to speak, essentially farm to table, its seasonal, keeping us in touch with nature and her regenerative cycles. Local growers generally tend to use less pesticides as they are more accountable to their customers, rather than a faceless overseas market. Buying locally made products, supports local businesses that employ locals (ten times as many in fact), developing a deeper relationship with our suppliers as they are our part of our community. This builds our sense of belonging and connecting to our locality, each rich and unique to its local natural environment. So, when we have a blanket policy, or development that might sit well in an urban suburb of a metropolitan city, but is out of character with a beachside suburb of the coast or is next door to one of the most biologically diverse wetlands integral to Central Coast’s clean water supply. It is then, we see the unsustainable nature of globalisation which excludes the community in informing how their locality should look or function. Whereas localism reconnects us with our natural environment, each other and keeps us healthy and sustainable as a community, into the future. We are in this together |
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