Inspiring: Reimagining the Economy Media Articles
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Kenya’s highest court recently struck down as unconstitutional a law that forbade seed sharing, a long practiced traditional means of diversifying crop production and resilience. The law, whether inadvertently or by design, made Kenya another country within the network of those whose seed industry is virtually controlled by a small group of international conglomerates like Bayer—or Monsanto before it was bought out. Advocates on behalf of small-scale farmers and indigenous communities in Kenya said the 2016 Seeds and Plant Varieties Act infringed on their rights to practice indigenous activities, while advocates for seed-saving and seed-sharing say that the practice produces drought-resistant, pest-resistant crops better suited to local areas that don’t require as many imported agrochemicals to grow. In November, Kenyan High Court Justice Rhoda Rutto ruled that by limiting “access to traditional and indigenous seeds, contrary to the Constitution,” the law violated “the petitioners’ and small-scale farmers’ cultural rights” and eroded “the cultural distinctiveness of Kenya’s indigenous peoples.” “This judgment rightly recognizes that seed sharing is not a crime, but a fundamental element of peasants’ identity, resilience and contribution to national food systems,” said the Working Group on Peasants. Like many traditional farming cultures, Kenyan farmers share and exchange seeds after the growing season, and over time this has led to millions of genetically distinct crops.
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A small Wisconsin city has just notched a big win in its fight against a proposed data center, thanks to grassroots community organizing and support from a growing statewide coalition. And to help guide other communities facing similar challenges, organizers in Menomonie have helped develop a toolkit for taking on hyperscale data centers. As of last October, there were about 3,000 new data centers being built or planned nationwide. Soon, a wave of data center projects was washing over Wisconsin towns. Data centers bring few permanent jobs and can drain municipal water resources, drive up electric bills, rob cities of tax revenues, and cause damaging noise, light and air pollution. Residents in Port Washington have complained about the disruption caused by around-the-clock construction at the new data center. Families near the construction in Beaver Dam have reported that their wells have run dry. Menomonie residents took to social media and the streets to raise the alarm about the data center proposal and organize community members. They met to share information, staged demonstrations and began attending city council meetings in growing numbers. By September 2025, there were over 10,000 Menomonie residents and allies in a Stop the Menomonie Data Center Facebook group — more than half the town’s population. Pressure from local campaigners was so great that Mayor Randy Knaack announced at a September 22 city council meeting that he had notified Balloonist that the city would not be moving forward with a development agreement. More good news came in January when the Menomonie City Council voted unanimously to place additional regulations on data center projects. One of the statewide coalition’s greatest achievements is the Big Tech Unchecked Toolkit. Published in December 2025 by Healthy Climate Wisconsin and other coalition partners, the toolkit includes information on what data centers are, their impacts on communities and success stories from struggles across Wisconsin, including Menomonie’s.
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A crisis is looming on European farms as the war on Iran threatens fertiliser supplies and sends fuel prices soaring. But some are more shielded than others. Regenerative farms are less reliant on imported synthetic fertilisers than their conventional counterparts while having very similar yields at much lower costs. They improve the soil’s natural fertility with compost, animal manure, rotational grazing, and cover crops, which are planted in the off-season specifically to build healthy soil. They’re less affected when global supply chains are disrupted. It also secures their future by reducing pollution, encouraging biodiversity and even improving public health. Overuse of synthetic nitrogen-based fertilisers is eroding the resilience of farms by polluting the water and air, degrading the soil, and posing risks to human health. On her farm in Greece, third-generation farmer Sheila Darmos generates nitrogen naturally through plants. “We integrate permaculture, syntropic agriculture, and agroforestry practices, and have been shredding tree prunings and leaving them on the soil for over 30 years, building rich fertile soil through decomposing organic matter,” she explains. “We also grow nitrogen-fixing plants on the farm itself, so the system generates its own nitrogen without needing to import any synthetic fertiliser.” Regenerative agriculture is not only about ecological regeneration and resilience: it also improves social and economic resilience to shocks and crises.
Note: Our latest Substack, "The Pesticide Crisis Reveals The Dark Side of Science. We Have The Solutions to Regenerate," uncovers the widespread conspiracy to poison our food, air, and along with the powerful remedies and solutions to this crisis. Explore more positive stories like this on reimagining the economy and healing the Earth.
The Mt. Airy Babysitting Co-op is a beloved local institution that has been running since 1974. The premise is simple: Families in the co-op provide each other with free childcare. A point system — once tracked in a pen-and-paper ledger, now in Google Sheets — ensures that everyone contributes their fair share. Every half an hour is worth one point, with extra points for things like looking after multiple children or sitting after midnight, explains [Stef] Arck-Baynes, who now serves as the co-op’s membership chair. “If you do a sleepover, points are raining down on you!” With rising living costs and a growing childcare crisis, communal arrangements like this can be a lifeline for parents living far from extended family or still looking to build their “village.” It goes beyond saving money, says Arck-Baynes. Knowing that the evening’s babysitter is a fellow parent can make for a more trusting relationship. There are currently 17 families in the co-op. The logistics can seem overwhelming at first — there’s a vetting and voting process for new families, 16 pages of bylaws and a rotating secretarial role for coordinating sits and recording points. But it becomes second nature once you get a handle on it, says Arck-Baynes. “We’re constantly talking about how to make the process easier.” Mama geht tanzen (Mom’s going dancing) events have spread across cities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and the Netherlands. Their “After-Care Parties” start at 8 p.m. and wrap up by 11, so moms can go clubbing without sacrificing their sleep (or their nerves) the next day. DJ Nikki Beatnik launched Mums that Rave in the U.K. after the birth of her child in 2019.
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Set up in 2019, the Transfarmation Project works with farms across the US that want to ditch industrial animal agriculture, which is typically done as contract work on behalf of big meat companies, and move toward a sustainable, fully independent business model. They provide guidance on how to repurpose existing infrastructure for different crops, but also business advice on how to find the market, set up a website, establish a brand and sell directly to consumers. They also provide research and innovation grants that can help with the finances. The idea is to move beyond a form of intensive farming that has a hugely detrimental impact on the environment, but also to protect the farmers themselves, many of whom find that the concentrated animal-feeding operation (Cafo) model takes a toll on their mental health. “We used to have all these independent farms,” [Iowa farmer Tanner] Faaborg says. “Our family used to have this homesteading lifestyle with some chickens and a big orchard.” That changed for the Faaborgs about 30 years ago when someone from one of the big meat companies knocked on their door. “It became more: we have ... to collect this check, to pay the bills and pay back the loan.” The Transfarmation Project [shows] that a different model is possible, closer to the autonomy of old. For the Faaborgs, the switch has made them feel excited about their work and its connection to nature. They want others to know that a different future is possible.
Note: After meeting an animal rights activist he once viewed as an enemy, a factory farmer took the extraordinary step of exposing the realities of industrial poultry production on his own farm in the New York Times—and now harvests mushrooms and herbs in the very buildings where hundreds of thousands of chickens once lived. Explore more positive stories like this on healing the Earth and reimagining the economy.
At a bustling money changer in northwestern Syria, a 46-year-old farmer gripped a plastic card like a lifeline. She had never heard of cryptocurrency, but the card held $500 of it to help restart her farm after nearly 14 years of civil war. Where had such technology come from, she asked. The answer surprised her: Afghanistan. Blockchain-based cash transfers are not the kind of innovation that many people would expect from a country better known for its repressive Taliban leadership, which views the internet with suspicion. But in a nation that has largely turned its back on the world, an Afghan start-up is building tools that it hopes will transform how humanitarian aid is delivered in countries shattered by conflict. “We’ve lived through these challenges ourselves, so we know how to develop an approach that works,” said Zakia Hussaini, 26, a programmer at the start-up, HesabPay, which designed the technology driving Ms. Almahmoud’s card. An early proponent of the platform was the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The agency uses it to support more than 86,000 families in Afghanistan in one of the biggest public blockchain aid initiatives in the world. Mercy Corps, which donated the funds to Ms. Almahmoud, worked with HesabPay to expand its reach to include Syria, and programs for Sudan and Haiti are in development. Today, the platform has more than 650,000 wallets in Afghanistan, of which about 50,000 are in regular use.
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Fredy Amador is intimately familiar with the financial struggles people face in the current economy. Northern Illinois’ skyrocketing energy bills make the situation even tougher. Now, Amador has become an evangelist for something that can provide a modest measure of relief: A community solar project, built on a Superfund site too polluted for much else in the city of Waukegan where he lives, about 40 miles north of Chicago. Residents who subscribe to get energy from the solar farm are guaranteed to see savings on their energy bills, under a state program incentivizing solar in low-income areas. The 9.1-megawatt Yeoman Solar Project, which went online last month, can provide energy for about 1,000 households, as well as the Waukegan school district, which owns the land. Such brownfields are attractive locations for solar installations because of “existing electrical infrastructure, lower-cost land, and community acceptance,” noted Paul Curran, CleanCapital’s chief development officer. Incentives from the state initiative Illinois Solar for All helped make the project financially viable, even given extra costs incurred from building on a Superfund site. Solar is a good fit for sites that are too polluted for housing or other types of development. Under the terms of the Superfund remediation, residential use is prohibited at the Yeoman Creek site. The company has developed solar on brownfields and landfills in other states, including a new 822-kilowatt site in Maryland.
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For the past decade, every year, Parisians like [Anne-Valérie] Desprez have been able to see their proposals come to life on the streets of the French capital. Under the city’s Participatory Budget, any resident above the age of seven, regardless of their nationality, can propose a project to be paid for by municipal funds. The model, increasingly popular across the globe, is helping authorities spend resources efficiently and boost democratic participation. In Paris, more than 21,000 ideas have been submitted by citizens since the scheme launched in 2014, resulting in 1,345 funded projects and an expenditure of €768 million (almost $900 million), including €263 million set aside for low-income districts. Each proposal must pass a feasibility study by city hall before being voted on by residents. “It is a very good device and it’s important,” says Yves Sintomer, a French researcher and co-author of the book Participatory Budgeting in Europe. It’s led to the creation of rooftop farms, children’s play areas, community art murals, shade structures and baggage storage for the homeless, as well as a number of projects at the [Cherry Sociocultural Center], which was founded in 1999. In 2017, following the center’s first successful budget proposal, benches were installed in the street out front, providing a place for people to congregate for free. Further funding from the participatory budget enabled the center to buy a cargo bike — shared with other local businesses — for short-distance deliveries in 2019.
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The Marshall Islands has introduced a national universal basic income (UBI) scheme that offers payments via cryptocurrency, alongside more traditional methods, which experts say is the first scheme of its kind in the world. Every resident citizen of the Marshall Islands will receive quarterly payments of about US$200 as part of a government effort to ease cost of living pressures. The first instalments were paid in late November and recipients can choose whether the money is paid into a bank account, by cheque, or delivered as cryptocurrency on the blockchain through a government-backed digital wallet. “We the government want to make sure no one is left behind,” Marshall Islands’ minister for finance David Paul [said]. “$200 per person per quarter, which is about $800 a year, does not compel you to quit your job ... but it’s actually like a morale booster for people.” The UBI scheme is financed by a trust fund created under an agreement with the United States, which in part aims to compensate the Marshall Islands for decades of American nuclear testing. The cryptocurrency delivery option – which involves the transfer of a digital token known as a stablecoin, pegged to the US dollar – was designed to address the practical challenge of delivering the money across hundreds of remote islands. Anelie Sarana, the finance manager involved in the rollout, said ... many recipients were using the money immediately for basic needs, like food and essentials.
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In Kent, Ohio, older white women and immigrant families are forging unexpected connections through a time exchange network. Through time exchanges — sometimes called time banking — members earn time credits by helping others, then redeem them when they need assistance themselves. It’s not barter, or charity; time banking emphasizes reciprocal exchange, recognizing that everyone has something to offer, and that we all need help sometimes. With over 530 active members and more than 101,000 hours exchanged over the past 15 years, Kent’s time bank is one of the most vibrant in the world. Last year alone, members completed 3,900 exchanges through the original version of Time and Talents, a free platform. The ... interface is user-friendly. Users can track their time credit balance, and exchange private messages with each other about their needs and skills. Membership isn’t limited to individuals — art galleries, businesses, and even governmental groups have requested volunteer labor in exchange for time credits. Rather than defaulting as a nonprofit with a formal board, groups might experiment with open organizing models where anyone can participate. Madison-based organizer Stephanie Rearick ... helped start a time bank in 2005, after she learned about it as one economic system of many in a book called The Future of Money. “I realized that time banking should address the things in our economy that most need to be addressed ... such as the degradation and devaluation of care and creativity, civic engagement and community work.” Rearick sees common funds as one antidote to co-optation and collapse. Through them, neighbors pool money collectively to support shared projects and one another. After leaving the time exchange in 2017, she helped launch a common fund in 2022 as president of Humans United in Mutual Aid Networks (HUMANS), a global cooperative network focused on building a mutual aid economy. Time exchanges and common funds, she said, are just two tools of many that can be used for cultivating what she calls a neighborly economy.
Note: Learn more about the incredible world of time banking, where thousands of time banks have been established in over 37 countries. Explore more positive stories like this on tech for good and reimagining the economy.
Traditional dairy farms calves are separated from their mothers within 24 hours of their birth. It allows farmers to collect the milk that the calves would naturally drink and sell it to be made into dairy products. But one farmer in the south of Scotland is pioneering an unconventional method of commercial dairy farming - keeping cow and calf together for about six months. David Finlay, who farms 130 dairy cows near Gatehouse of Fleet, claims the system results in higher animal welfare standards and a more profitable business. Now he is calling for the Scottish government to fund a radical new cow-with-calf development programme. The Finlays implemented the cow-with-calf system with their herd, but the decision almost bankrupted the business when they did not have enough milk left to sell to market. After overhauling their business plan and adopting a new approach, the couple found a way of making the system financially viable. David claims that among the benefits are happier cows and staff, healthier animals and an increase in life-expectancy. "What we've found is we can carry 25% more cows on the farm, because the young stock are growing and maturing so much faster and the cows are yielding 25% more milk," he said. "So even with the calves drinking a third of their mother's milk, the system is actually more efficient, more productive and more profitable." Rainton Farm is now the largest commercial cow-with-calf dairy farm in Europe.
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This week, the nonprofit Veterans Community Project (VCP) broke ground on its sixth tiny home village, this time in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to offer more military veterans a fresh start with housing and individualized care. Each 240-square-foot home is part of a larger community designed to help residents regain stability and independence. Since its founding in 2018 when they welcomed their first residents in Kansas City, VCP has helped hundreds of vets transition out of homelessness. VCP has set a new standard for how cities can address veteran homelessness, with its 85% success rate for vets who complete the program successfully and transition to sustainable permanent housing—all in an average of 335 days. Army combat veteran Dave Myers ... had never heard of VCP when his life was spinning out of control three years ago, addicted to drugs after returning home from war. He now smiles recalling a judge’s words ordering him to become a volunteer after he got clean in prison: “He told me, ‘You’re going to spend so much time with these guys that they’re either going to love you or hate you ... I hope it’s the former, and that they offer you a job after.’” Dave is now a full-time operations employee at VCP and is fulfilling his dream to help Veterans. “I was able to connect with our residents in some ways that not a lot of other people can. I’ve been in their shoes.” “This place saved me,” he said proudly.
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California has long led the way on school meals. In 2022, it became the first state in the country to make school meals free for all students, regardless of income. Many districts have implemented farm-to-school programs to bring local foods into the cafeteria. And last year, months before the “Make America healthy again” movement would make its way to the White House, it became the first state in the nation to ban six synthetic food dyes from school meals. This week, it passed legislation that will put it in the lead on school meals in yet another way – banning ultra-processed foods. On Friday, California lawmakers passed a bill that will define, and then ban, ultra-processed foods from school meals. Ultra-processed foods, or UPFs, are industrially formulated products that are often high in fats, starches, sugars and additives, and make up 73% of the US food supply today. The text of California’s new law defines a UPF as any food or beverage that contains stabilizers, thickeners, propellants, colors, emulsifiers, flavoring agents, flavor enhancers, nonnutritive sweeteners or surface-active agents – and has high amounts of saturated fat, sodium or added sugar, or nonnutritive sweeteners. “We actually had food service directors come in and testify,” [state assembly member Jesse Gabriel] said. “Not only had it not cost them more, but in many districts they had actually saved money by switching to healthier alternatives.”
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As I approach India's first Garbage Cafe on a cloudy and foggy winter day in early 2025, the smell of hot samosas immediately makes the place feel cosy. Inside, people are sitting on wooden benches holding steel plates filled with steaming meals, some chatting, others eating quietly. Every day, hungry people arrive at this cafe in Ambikapur, a city in the state of Chhattisgarh in central India, in the hope of getting a hot meal. But they don't pay for their food with money – instead, they hand over bundles of plastic such as old carrier bags, food wrappers and water bottles. People can trade a kilogram (2.2lb) of plastic waste for a full meal that includes rice, two vegetable curries, dal, roti, salad and pickles, says Vinod Kumar Patel, who runs the cafe on behalf of the Ambikapur Municipal Corporation (AMC), the public body which manages the city's infrastructure. Every morning, [Rashmi Mondal] sets out early on the streets of Ambikapur in a search for discarded plastic – anything from old food wrappers to plastic bottles. For her, collecting such detritus is a means of survival. "I've been doing this work for years," Mondal says, looking at the small pile of plastic she has gathered. Previously, Mondal used to sell the plastic she collected to local scrap dealers for just 10 Indian rupees (£0.09/$0.12) per kilogram – barely enough to survive on. "But now, I can get food for my family in exchange for the plastic I collect. It makes all the difference in our lives."
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No toilets, expensive food of dubious quality, crowded housing. This was the reality for many in 1840s Britain. Something had to change. And the Rochdale Pioneers knew it. The group of 28 artisans and cotton weavers ... wanted to start a co-operative society in order to provide their community with affordable and unadulterated food. Their small grocery shop started by selling only flour, sugar, oatmeal and butter and opened just before Christmas 1844. Any profit was shared among member-owners. With this, the co-operative movement took root. Today, these businesses employ some 280 million people around the world – 10% of the employed population. Approximately 3m co-ops with an astonishing 1.2bn members, more than an eighth of the world’s population, exist internationally. Shared Interest is a UK-based social lender that supports farmers and handcraft producers in 47 countries around the world. From sphagnum moss farmers in Peru to coffee farmers in Rwanda, the organisation provides finance for smallholder communities that collectively provide around a third of the world’s food but are often stuck in cycles of poverty. Uganda-based coffee producer Bukonzo Organic Farmers Cooperative Union (BOCU), which Shared Interest has supported since 2014 ... negotiates prices, undertakes marketing and manages export on behalf of 13 smaller primary co-ops. Having this tiered system is crucial for small-scale farmers who don’t speak English.
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Rajabai Sawant used to pick and sort waste on the streets of Pune with a sack on her back. The plastic she collected from a public waste site would be sold for some money that saved her children from begging. Today, dressed in a dark green jacket monogrammed with the acronym Swach (solid waste collection and handling) over a colourful sari, the 53-year-old is one among an organised group of waste collectors and climate educators who teach residents in urban Pune how to segregate and manage waste, based on a PPPP – a pro-poor private public partnership. Swach was set up in 2005 by a trade union of waste pickers, Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP), which was ... envisioned a scheme that enhanced waste collectors’ work instead of displacing them. These [PPPP] partnerships are contracts between the state or local authority and a group of private individuals that aim to provide a public service while simultaneously alleviating poverty. Of the waste generated by the city, Swach sorts and recycles about 227 tonnes a day (82,891 tonnes a year) that is diverted away from landfills. It saves the city £10m that would have been needed for processing, transportation and human resources. Today, Swach has more than 3,850 self-reliant waste picker members, who provide daily doorstep waste collection services to citizens of Pune who pay a small monthly fee. Under the PPPP, each member is a shareholder and earns about 16,000 rupees (£140) a month.
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Parents with small children, teenagers, and senior citizens clustered outside the door and waited to hear their ticket numbers called. They weren’t there for books. They came to shop for groceries. Connected to the [Enoch Pratt Library], the brightly painted market space is small but doesn’t feel cramped. Massive windows drench it in sunshine. In a previous life, it was a café. Now, shelves, tables, counters, and a refrigerator are spread out across the room, holding a mix of produce and shelf-stable goods. On any given day, there’s a range of produce, like collard greens, apples, onions, radishes, potatoes, and cherry tomatoes, plus eggs, orange juice, rice, bread, and treats like cookies and peanut butter crackers. As they exited, shoppers did not need to pull out their wallets: No one pays at Pratt Free Market. Launched in the fall of 2024, Pratt Free Market opens its doors every Wednesday and Friday and serves around 200 people per day. Anyone can pick up food at the store without providing identification or meeting income requirements. For Baltimore residents, 28 percent reported experiencing food insecurity last year—twice the national average. Pratt Free Market ... offers a mix of everything—from healthy, fresh produce to sweets. And every fourth Friday, the marker turns into “Pantry on the Go!”, a farmers’ market-style setup outside the library that offers fruits and vegetables. Last month ... they handed out onions, sweet potatoes, watermelons, celery, and apples.
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Community currencies — alternative forms of money sometimes also referred to as local or regional currencies — are as diverse as the communities they serve, from grassroots time-banking and mutual credit schemes to blockchain-based Community Inclusion Currencies. Local currencies were common until the 19th century, when the newly emerging nation states transitioned to a centralized system of government-issued money as a way of consolidating their power and stabilizing the economy. Far from being a neutral system of exchange, a currency is a tool to achieve certain goals. Inequality and unsustainability are baked into our monetary system, which is based on debt and interest with practically all the money ... being created by private banks when issuing loans. Well-designed community currencies eliminate two main sources of financial inequality: money’s perceived inherent value and the interest rates, which both incentivize people to hoard their money. Like the pipes that bring water to your house, money is the conduit that gives you access to goods and services. The value of money is created in the transaction. In 2015 it was estimated that almost 400 of them are active in Spain alone, and across Africa blockchain-backed systems, like the Sarafu in Kenya, help underserved communities do business without conventional money. Elsewhere, local currencies like the Brixton pound in the U.K. or BerkShares in Massachusetts are a way to keep money in the community, buffering it against the pressures of a globalized economy.
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It’s 4pm on a Friday, and the staff at Home Kitchen, north London’s buzziest new restaurant, are prepping for another busy evening’s service. Not only is the restaurant run not-for-profit, but nearly all of the staff members have experienced homelessness: a first of its kind in the fine-dining industry. The project is run by a five-strong team, which includes two-time Michelin-starred chef Adam Simmonds and Soup Kitchen London director Alex Brown. Home Kitchen partnered with homelessness charity Crisis and social enterprise Beam to fill eight kitchen and eight front of house roles, when they opened their restaurant in autumn 2024. Other partners include the Beyond Food Foundation, the Only A Pavement Away charity and fellow charity, The Passage. Funded by a £500,000 crowdfunding drive and social investment loans, Home Kitchen provides staff with a comprehensive package that’s designed to help them avoid returning to homelessness. The 16 staffers are employed on full-time contracts, paid at London Living Wage, have their travel cards covered for zones one and two, and receive catering qualifications in addition to in-house training. The employee support offered by Crisis and Beam is ongoing, while the Home Kitchen team leaders take it upon themselves to check in with staff every day. “[There’s] a lot of support, a lot mentally. If someone’s upset, straight away they’ll take them to a corner and be like: ‘Talk to me, what’s happening?’ It’s really, really, really nice,” [French-Algerian chef] Mimi says. At the end of daily service, the team sit down and break bread (literally) with a communal meal. “It’s a brilliant team. Everybody supports everybody,” adds Jones, with a smile. “When service starts, we’re all equal.”
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In 2015, [Jo] Nemeth had quit her community development job, given the last of her money to her 18-year-old daughter Amy and closed her bank account. “I was 46, I had a good job and a partner I loved, but I was deeply unhappy,” Nemeth says. “I’d been feeling this growing despair about the economic system we live in.” Her “lightbulb moment” came when her parents ... gave her a book about people with alternative lifestyles. “When I read about this guy choosing to live without money, I thought, ‘Oh my God, I have to do that!’” The first thing Nemeth did was write a list of her needs. "I discovered I really didn’t need much to be comfortable. Then I just started ... figuring out how I could meet my needs without having any negative impacts.” For the first three years, Nemeth lived on a friend’s farm, where she built a small shack from discarded building materials before doing some housesitting and living off-grid for a year in a “little blue wagon” in another friend’s back yard. Instead of paying rent, Nemeth cooks, cleans, manages the veggie garden and makes items such as soap, washing powder and fermented foods. And she couldn’t be happier. She soon started tapping into the “gift economy” more deeply, giving without expecting anything in return, receiving without any sense of obligation. “That second part took a while to get used to,” she says. “It’s very different to bartering or trading, which involves thinking in a monetary, transactional way: I’ll give you this if you give me that. I actually feel more secure than I did when I was earning money,” she says, “because all through human history, true security has always come from living in community and I have time now to build that ‘social currency’. To help people out, care for sick friends or their children, help in their gardens. That’s one of the big benefits of living without money.”
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