This is why I'm happy to be living in Mendocino County, said Ells Cooperrider.

Cooperrider, keynote speaker for Mondays A Mendo Network of Localizers, was looking out at more than 150 people from all parts of Mendocino County who had gathered at the City Hall Community Center Monday night to trade information and possibly goods and services through the growing localization movement.

I want to thank you on behalf of my children, and my grandchildren, and their grandchildren, said the candidate for 5th-District County Supervisor, who spearheaded the successful anti-GMO Measure H initiative.

The rest of the evening served to broaden the definition of localization from food, energy and economic independence within a relatively small area to include strategic alliances among adjacent communities.

Wed like to trade for your salt and fish from the coast, Annie Weller of Willits Economic LocaLization (WELL) told Christiane Heckeroth of Coast Economic LocaLization (CELL). What do you want from us?

The Coast

Heckeroth said WELL, the oldest of the countys localization groups, had already provided organizational experience, research, and speakers to help expand the movement to the coast.

CELL, in its turn, organized an alternate energy forum, bringing 140 people to Fort Bragg and resulting in the creation of an alternate energy task force.

CELL is also working with the Fort Bragg city council to pass a resolution calling for reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, with the schools to create a renewable energy curriculum, and with emergency providers to expand the concept of disaster preparedness to include the food and water supply.

Future plans call for a late February food chat conference focused on restoring the local produce lost when agricultural land was replaced by housing developments, and an economic development conference designed to promote local businesses.

Anderson Valley

For members of the Anderson Valley FoodShed Project (AVFSP), action is more appealing than conferences.

Willits was doing a lot of research, but we said, Lets get going, reported organizer Sara McLamant, who is also a member of the Emerald Earth Community.

McLamant said her group was inspired by the San Francisco locovores, who pledge to buy only foods grown within a 100-mile radius.

Accordingly, AVFSP members organized community support networks for local farms, obtained a grant to help low-income residents buy local organic produce, helped school children measure the distance to the origins of the food they consume, and taught food preservation classes.

The majority of those signing up for the classes, McLamant said, turned out to be low-income and Hispanic.

The group is also working on Come Home to Eat, a guide to local food sources.

In Hopland, local producers inspired by AVFSP brought their offerings to a local restaurant, creating a three-hour dinner event, something like a solid-food version of wine tasting.

Citing the example of one Anderson Valley farmer, McLamant recommended each community develop a single source of 15 to 20 acres of grain, rather than attempting to add grain to small, bio-intensive gardens. She also recommended the cultivation of proper attitudes:

We do things for joy and celebration, she said, not just for survival.

Laytonville

Action is also key for Alison Pernell of Sustainable Laytonville. She said the concept of independent living was nothing new in her agricultural community with off-the-grid electricity. Conscious localization however, has brought people together for area planning.

Were unincorporated, she stressed. Theres no official mechanism for local decisions.

Unofficial mechanisms included organizing around road maintenance, which evolved into a biodiesel car cooperative; identifying parcels with natural gas to serve as sites for community-wide food refrigeration; development of a skills bank including old homesteading and modern organizing; food parties bringing together hippies, loggers, ranchers, and World War II vets; and bulk purchase of olive trees to determine which variety grows best.

Vegetables taste much better with a little olive oil, Pernell explained.

A community kitchen to supply restaurants and other local businesses may also be in the works.

The most innovative result of Laytonvilles localization action was the creation of a yak cooperative.

Dont laugh, Pernell advised the audience.

Yaks, she explained, provide rough outer hair for rope making, soft inner hair for clothing, meat, cheese, butter, and a lighter impact on the land than cattle.

Turning from food and clothing to energy sources, Pernell said Sustainable Laytonville invited neighbors and officials to a Flip the Switch party when Spy Rock School installed a 1.8 KW solar system:

They got to watch the meter turn backwards!

Laytonville, however, could use help with drawing up a legal structure for its cooperative enterprises.

Ukiah

Cliff Paulin of the Greater Ukiah Localization Project (GULP) just happens to be an attorney. Will legal services be traded for yak butter and olive oil?

GULP, which is only about four months old, has sponsored a panel discussion that brought in about 75 people, a visit from County Supervisor Michael Delbar, and a positive response from city government.

Beyond that, Paulin said, the localization concept has been slow to catch on in Ukiah, which he called a conservative bastion in a liberal state.

All together

The old liberal/conservative dichotomy, however, may lose much of its meaning in a post-oil economy.

Carefully defining true conservatism as related to a desire to conserve community assets, event moderator Lanny Cotler introduced mystery guest Marge Handley, president of the Howard Hospital Foundation. Handley, who once agreed to be WELLs token Republican, drew applause for announcing her intention to help build the first rural green hospital in California.

She said she had been really amazed at the knowledge base within WELL, a group that includes electrical engineers and university instructors, and had recruited members of the group to meet with hospital architects. A community garden on hospital grounds may be part of the design.

Handley also met with the developer of the proposed 58 residential units adjacent to the hospital, urging him to incorporate green building concepts into the architecture.

I suspect it never would have happened without WELL, she said.

Richard Willoughby, president of the Bank of Willits and another surprise guest, said the localization movement has been healing the split in a community with a history of polarization over political issues.

Youve had a healing effect, he said, bringing the business community and other aspects of the community together.

He also reminded listeners that his bank receives deposits and makes loans primarily within the local community.

County Supervisor Hal Wagenet told those present he drives a hybrid vehicle to make a point about the availability of alternate energy sources, advocates restoration of working railroads, helped pass an ordinance allowing installation of biodiesel stations with a minimum of red tape, and would love to see a Hall of Future Power added to the Mendocino County Museum. He said he would like to turn his own mill property into a model of a walkable community.

Challenger John Pinches expressed his interest in ethanol production and organic farming. He said he opposes governmental regulations that stand in the way of similar projects.

Madelin Holtkamp of the Economic Development and Financing Corporation (EDFC) cited three funding sources that could promote localization: EDFCs loans to local businesses to create jobs in the county, school-based workforce training programs, and emergency preparation allocations.

Another key impetus for localization, Holtkamp said, is the simple act of asking local businesses to carry local products and shopping elsewhere if they dont.

Vote with your dollars, she urged.

Patrick Burnstad of the Cloud Forest Institute invited partners to join him in creating 153-acre self-reliant farm in the Willits area. He called communication the key to ongoing localization work and offered the use of Cloud Forests interactive website. He also suggested drawing up a list of barterables connecting the communities with one another.

At the end of the evening, Cotler, offering his last surprise, announced that Greg Green, producer of The End of Suburbia, a film used throughout the country to pass the word about the predicted end of affordable oil, plans to use Willits as a base for a sequel about the localization response to the changing scene.