The Mad Farmer, Flying the Flag of Rough Branch, Secedes from the Union Wendell Berry iii
Introduction Ron Miller 1
PART ONE Empire and Overshoot 11
Voices for Independence Ian Baldwin 13
The Collapse of the American Empire Kirkpatrick Sale 16
Liberals and Conservatives: Relics of the Past Thomas Naylor 20
Our Land, Our Destiny: Vermont Independence Convention Keynote Address James Howard Kunstler 22
PART TWO Global Problems, Local Solutions 27
ECONOMICS 29
The Real Economy Robert Costanza 31
Economics of Scale vs. the Scale of Economics: The New Movement for Responsible Living Kirkpatrick Sale 42
Local Living Economies: Toward Basic Principles of a Bioregional Economy Judy Wicks 47
MONEY 00
Money and Liberty Adrian Kuzminski 49
Sovereignty and the Money Problem: A New Beginning Charles Eisenstein 54
Local Currency: A Revolution That Sounds Like a WhisperAmy Kirschner 59
The Buck Slows Here: Slow Me the Money, Vermont Woody Tasch 63
ENERGY 67
Powering Vermont’s Future by Embracing the Peak-Oil Challenge Carl Etnier and Annie Dunn Watson 69
The Way of All Empires: The United States on the Eve of Peak Oil Ian Baldwin 74
The Great Hydropower Heist: How Corporations Colonized Our Watershed Commons Dr. Richard Foley and Hervey Scudder 80
Energy Crisis, Energy Opportunities Gaelan Brown 88
FOOD 95
What Will You Eat if Vermont Secedes? Amy Shollenberger 97
The Food Less Traveled Enid Wonnacott 102
Putting the CSA Model to the Test Robin McDermott 107
The Case for Local Wheat and Bread in Vermont Erik Andrus 110
A Portrait of Food Sovereignty Ron Miller 115
INFORMATION 119
(Un)Covering the Empire Rob Williams 121
Project Censored: News Media Checking in at the ICU Taylor Silvestri 123
Beyond Facebook: Building an Electronic Front Porch (An Interview with Michael Wood-Lewis) Rob Williams 128
Decentralizing Educational Authority Ron Miller 132
COMMUNITY 139
The National Healthcare “Debate”: Greed, a Fear of Death, and a Vermont Alternative? Thomas Naylor 141
From Common Wealth to Common Property Peter Barnes 146
Vermont’s Common Assets: From Banana Republic to Sovereign Commonwealth Gary Flomenhoft 149
RESILIENCE 153
The Great Re-Skilling: Inventing a Twenty-First-Century Vermont Rob Williams 155
Designing Our Future in a Changing World (An Interview with Ben Falk) Rob Williams 157
When the Ecofads Fade, Ditch the Carbon-Footprint Calculator and Pick up a Shovel Ben Falk 164
Be Here Now, and in a Thousand Years: Toward a Tree-Crop Culture Ben Falk 167
PART THREE Decentralism and the Vermont Tradition 175
Left and Right: An Introduction to Decentralism John McClaughry 177
The Decentralist Movement: A Third Way Kirkpatrick Sale 184
Distributism: Beyond Capitalism and Socialism Kirkpatrick Sale 188
The First Populist Republic Adrian Kuzminski 191
The First Vermont “Republic”: What’s in a Name? James Hogue 197
Vermont’s Genetic Code: Toward a Decentralist Manifesto Frank Bryan 200
The Cultivation of Our Own Tradition Rowan Jacobsen 203
PART FOUR Sovereignty and Secession 207
The Violence of the Centralized State Donald W. Livingston 210
War and the Second Vermont Republic Ben Scotch 216
Origins of the New England Secession Tradition Donald W. Livingston 219
Beyond Our Independence Daze: Secession, Common Sense, and the “Spirit of 1777” Rob Williams 223
The Second Vermont Republic: Frequently Asked Questions Thomas Naylor 227
The Fall of Empire: A Time for Renewal Ben Hewitt 231
Afterword Ron Miller 233
Postscript: V for Vermont: A Concluding Call to Action Juliet Buck and Rob Williams 239
Appendix: The Middlebury Declaration 241
Resources for Further Reading 252
Index 256