Abstract
The starting point of Bill McKibben's Deep Economy is the familiar problem that Americans consume too much of the world's resources. The prolific Harvard–trained and Vermont–based environmental activist moves beyond a narrower focus on pollution and resource depletion and unveils his treatise of a new global economic order. The philosophy underlying a “deep” economy is that people need to experience a deep connection to their communities to achieve satisfaction and that this connection is also a prerequisite for a sustainable economic order that relies on small–scale, local production integrated into larger, multinodal networks. Deep Economy focuses on the unintended consequences of an oil–fueled, “hyper–individualized” economy, but optimistically points to concrete solutions, citing striking statistics and innumerable cases across the globe that may have universal applicability. McKibben articulately crafts the argument that the “more is better” philosophy propelling capitalist economies is past the point of diminishing returns: increasing prosperity ironically has depressed the quality of life not only by increasing environmental degradation but also by increasing inequality, economic insecurity, and social isolation. The basic point is that the current global system of production based on ever–increasing market shares and growth has become less effective at allowing homo economicus to maximize his personal satisfaction or utility function. Simultaneously, it is quite effective at producing dysfunctional social forms, outstripping the world of its natural resources, and benefiting the few while causing increasingly greater numbers of people to bear the negative externalities of growth.
A core assumption is that global destruction is inevitable as countries such as China and India adopt the “doctrine of endless expansion.” However, McKibben's goal is not to pull up the “ladder” to prevent others from achieving prosperity. Instead, he proposes a paradigm shift that entails transitioning from “Wal–Mart World” to “Farmer's Market World.”“Wal–Mart World” is characterized by relentless consolidation and concentration leading to shocking statistics replete in Deep Economy, such as four firms control 85 percent of global roasting coffee; five companies control 75 percent of the global vegetable seed market. “Farmer's Market World” presents an alternative model, a way to build a new economic reality from the ground up, one that uses less energy and increases human connection with “one–tenth the energy, ten times the conversation” (p. 128). McKibben provides a window into a new economic future in which the economy would operate much like the web: “small nodes hook together into something much larger, but not so monolithic it can't easily hive off into new sites and communities and forums” (p. 174).
Deep Economy also contributes to the debate on livable cities and urban sustainability. The way cities are structured wastes energy and destroys human connection, but simply “going green” is not the solution. People living in cities need to dramatically alter consumption patterns, but this must be combined with the overthrow of the highly centralized distribution system that requires food and energy to be transported from great distances to service people in cities and surrounding suburbs. “Cheap oil coaxed us to build sprawling suburbs,” McKibben argues (p. 17) and poses simple questions such as: Why do most apples consumed in New York come from California when New York produces enough apples to be self–sufficient and when eating imported foods increases household energy use by 20 percent? Why does electricity come from thousands of miles away when 78 percent of energy produced in coal–burning power plants gets lost en route due to waste and inefficiencies? As alternatives, McKibben offers examples provided by cohousing projects in Denmark and New York; urban farms in Shanghai that provide 90 percent of the city's eggs and milk; community–supported agriculture (CSA) systems such as the one in Vermont that supplies 8 percent of all fresh produce consumed in nearby Burlington; and community–scale power systems in Hull, Massachusetts. In these and numerous other examples, McKibben demonstrates that the wastefulness of long distances between production and distribution sites have long been overlooked owing to the affordability of fuel. Climate change and peak oil are beginning to render these costs visible, but the solution is not to find alternative fuel sources (e.g., biofuels) to lower costs, but rather to reduce the distances that give rise to these costs in the first place, through having workplaces and residences within close proximity of one another, creating and supporting local farmers’ markets and energy grids, and converting vacant lots and brownfields into urban gardens.
While it seems deceptively simple, changing the world through increments of local actions presents real–world structural challenges that McKibben encounters first hand in his year spent subsisting on food grown near his home in Champlain Valley. The tenacity McKibben demonstrates to pull off this feat is admirable, but not so easily replicated. Indeed, Deep Economy is replete with success stories of local counterprojects that are effective at meeting local needs, building neighborhood empowerment, and using less energy. A criticism might be seen in its consensus–oriented approach that assumes that all people basically get along. In this, McKibben pays little attention to the role of conflictual (e.g., racial) relations in the new world order. In general, McKibben appears to be addressing upper–middle–class Whites, suburbanites, and exurbanites as his audience, making it easier to skirt issues of conflict and diversity. In addition, while McKibben's goal is to break down the mega–conglomerates of global capitalism, he provides few concrete details on how to mollify their growth dynamic. His paradigm shift is predicated on the incremental replication of local success stories whose increasing numbers presumably will eventually replace the current growth–driven, agglomeration–focused global economy. Hence, Deep Economy is a book that imparts a vision for how life could look on top of the next hill, without considering how to cut through the bramble of corporate profits, development interests, racial and class divides, and big government that litter the valley in between. Despite this, the problems McKibben lays out and the solutions he supports are timely and likely to draw notice at a time of heightened attention to greenhouse gases and energy dependence in the public discourse. Deep Economy has a hopeful message and is inspiring to read.