COMING HOME: E.F. Schumacher & the Reinvention of the Local Economy

COMING HOME: E.F. Schumacher & the Reinvention of the Local Economy from Christopher B. Bedford on Vimeo.

COMING HOME: E.F. Schumacher and the Reinvention of the Local Economy, is a new 37 minute film that tells the story of a series of revolutionary innovations by the community of Great Barrington, MA to address, at the local level, some of the economic challenges of our nation’s current hard times. In 1973, British economist E.F. Schumacher wrote “Small is Beautiful – Economics as if People Mattered”, – a book that offered a vision of an economy driven by a desire for harmony, not greed; a local economy based on community and ecological values, not global financial derivatives. In the 1970s, “Small is Beautiful” helped launch a back-to-the-land movement that is the ancestor to the Local Food Revolution of today. For the last three decades, the E.F. Schumacher Society has transformed Schumacher’s ideas into a series of practical innovations – reinventing much of the local economy of Great Barrington, Massachusetts and southern Berkshire County in the process. Chris Bedford’s new 37 minutes film, COMING HOME: E.F. Schumacher and the Reinvention of the Local Economy tells the story of the Society’s remarkable work that includes founding of the nation’s first CSA, economic development based on Community Land Trusts, and the creation of the nation’s most successful local currency – BerkShares. “COMING HOME is a timely and profound documentary about an alternative kind of economy, the opposite of the ‘free-market’ capitalism that has led us into our current morass,” writes Professor Albert Nigrin, Director of the New Jersey International Film Festival. “This film offers anyone thinking about relocalization of their community’s economy an inspirational model and a practical guide to that change,” said Denise O’Brien, candidate for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture. “Schumacher’s vision has never been more relevant.”