ALPA at the Planet Local Summit, Ladakh 3-7 September, 2025
By Lars Veraart
When Helena Norberg-Hodge, founder of Local Futures, wrote me an email last year mid December to invite me to participate and speak at the Planet Local Summit, September 2025 in Ladakh, my initial response was, ‘of course, I will!’ Not only because my personal life journey has been inspired by her work and the global localization movement (see this blog post), but also because the work of Local Futures fits perfectly within the mission of ALPA. I believe we need to unite and work together for our aspired regenerative future on planet Earth. Quickly though second thoughts came in and the little voice on my shoulder whispered first and then screamed loudly: ‘what!? You are planning to fly all the way to India, across the globe, to join a gathering on localization!!??, what hypocrisy is this!!??’ Many months of reflection followed, integrated with numerous back and forth with the summits organizational team and Helena. Finally I decided to go global in order to work local. I do believe traveling on fossil fuels is harmful. I also believe that coming together in person with people from all over the world working on localization does make a lot of sense. The cross-pollination of ideas, contacts, inspiration, the sharing, the celebrating and grieving together, the learning is so important to strengthen the local movements.
So, I went, together with my family, to Ladakh, the region in the trans-Himalayan plateau, the most northern part of India, bordering Tibet and Pakistan, to be part of a global gathering on localization, the Planet Local Summit 2025.
The summit brought together over 200 people from 25 different countries and was organized by the Local Futures, an international non-profit organization promoting ecological and social well-being by strengthening local economies and communities, advocating for “localization” as an alternative to globalization’s negative impacts, to build a global movement for systemic change, focusing on food, culture and decentralization.
Gladly I introduce Helena Norberg-Hodge
Helena Norberg-Hodge started the global localization movement 50 years ago in Ladakh, the trans-Himalayan plateau in the most northern part of India, bordering Tibet. Her renowned book Ancient Futures has become a classic work for many all around the world working on localization. I had the honor to talk with Helena during the summit about the importance of local food systems and the collaboration between ALPA and Local Futures.
“I am so happy to be collaborating with you who are doing this wonderful work in Romania, I think the work you are doing with ALPA is of fundamental importance.”
– Helena Norberg-Hodge, September 2025.
My three agroecology warrior friends from India
From left to right: Bablu Ganguly, Debal Deb, Lars Veraart and Manas Arvind
For me, one of the highlights was a panel which I had the honor to moderate with Bablu Ganguly, Debal Deb and Manas Arvind, my three agroecology warrior friends from India. I find the work that each of them is doing is really amazing. I just give a very short intro to them here, which doesn’t come anywhere close to honor their wide scope of work and impact. I can highly recommend to follow the links in the text and to get to know them better!
Bablu Ganguly (vice-president of IFOAM Organics International) and his wife Mary have founded Timbaktu Collective more than 30 years ago, a project which started on their 10 hectare farm of bare land which they completely regenerated. Now the collective connects over 40.000 rural families, while educating youth, creating jobs for marginalized people, empowering women, conserving biodiversity and promoting organic farming.
Dr. Debal Deb is a farmer, scientist and activist all in one. On his farm Basudha (meaning ‘Mother Earth’ in Sanskrit) he managed to grow and save more than 1440 (!) varieties of rice and make their seeds available for free distribution in his seed bank Vrihi (see this wonderful short documentary). Besides saving the varieties from going extinct, Dr. Deb also started his own laboratory in which he is now analyzing the rice varieties, so he can record, publishing and copyright the properties, all to prevent corporate biopiracy. By doing so the rice varieties can stay in the hands of the millions of indigenous farmers who’s lives depend on them.
Manas Arvind is initiator of the Gurgaon Organic Farmers Market, in the South of New Delhi, India’s capital. Since 2014, this market runs every Sunday without fail, connecting small producers with conscious consumers and is a showcase on how to create resilient local food systems. Manas is also co-founder of Farmversities Alliance, a prime example of how we can re-imagine agricultural education and bring young farmers back to the land.
Following below is part of a recent blog post by Helena Norberg-Hodge and Henry Coleman (How to Feed the World and Save the Planet – A View from the Ground, 22 October 2025). It puts in very simple and clear words the meaning of localization and how Local Futures and ALPA are a perfect match.
The Logic of Local – In the Head and in the Heart
Local markets don’t demand countless tons of perfectly straight carrots or thousands of identical cuts of meat per day. They prefer variety, and they reward diversity. Thus, localised farms are not monocultures sprayed with chemicals – they’re mosaics of life. They also produce much more food per acre – often five times as much – than industrial farms.[x] With local markets as their economic cornerstone, diversified farms can bring back biodiversity, rebuild topsoil, and restore watersheds in diverse landscapes.
Perhaps most importantly, the logic of local is in the heart. People are intuitively yearning to reconnect with the sources of their food. When supported as dignified, secure livelihoods, local food economies offer profoundly attractive work.
To grow food, to tend soil and seed, to feed your community – these are among the most meaningful acts a person can do. A local food economy offers a homecoming to community and nature – the chance to be in conversation once again with the people, the land and the waterways on which we ultimately depend.
The propaganda surrounding the digital takeover of agriculture insists that young people don’t want to farm – they’d rather push buttons on screens. But that story is already outdated. Across the world, a new generation is returning to the land.
This is the shift that can feed the world by producing much more food per acre with less energy, minerals and chemicals. This is the shift that can return health and life to ecosystems, rebuild soils and restore watersheds, contributing to long-term food security and the flourishing of the planet. This is the shift that provides more meaningful livelihoods while reweaving the fabric of community interdependence that makes life rich and joyous.
But for this movement to work its wonders, we all need to get involved. We can’t leave it to farmers, whose workload is already heavy. We can’t leave it to blinkered economists and politicians. We need people to be involved, consumers to take a stand. We need a global, cross-sectoral movement for localisation.
We will share small videos about the summit and about young farmers in Ladakh over the next months, so please stay tuned in. We will also integrate our local work on bioregional regeneration into the global localization movement, to ensure that what we do here is also seen and witnessed far beyond our own mountains and fields and that we keep learning from other beautiful projects.
