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Permaculture marketplace for ethical shopping

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Shopping seems like a task for most people who want to embrace the permaculture approach to life. When you want to intertwine your life to principles like ‘produce no waste’ or ‘find slow and simple solutions’ or ‘use and value renewables’, you cannot possibly exist in the consumerist world of today without questioning every purchase you make.

Just to put things into perspective, consumerism directly defines human beings as predators of natural elements – consuming the finite resources for their convenience. The negative connotation that this word has, always puts questions into the minds of people who want to be better.

We have come to believe, deeply, that it is our right to consume. If we have the money, we can buy whatever we want, whether or not we need it, use it or even enjoy it. It’s time we stop and think about exactly where our money is going.

Product packaging is clogging the landfills. Product manufacturing is polluting the groundwater, deforesting the Amazon, fouling the rivers, lowering the water table, depleting the ozone layer and changing the weather. Millions of people are exploited as cheap labour, made to work under inhumane conditions to actually get us ‘cheap’ products. Now if we were to buy a product manufactured as a result of this entire mess, we are basically paying corporations to support this culture.

Evaluating where you are spending your money could put the planet back on track.

In order to make this journey easier, lots of small businesses are trying to be ethical in the way they produce. Here are some parameters based on which you can judge if a brand is actually ethical and worth buying from:

  1. They sell utility products that you need for a better life, not luxury products that are resource intensive or social symbols.
  2. They pay their workers fair wages. If you compare bank accounts of junior employees and the CEO, the difference should be hundreds, not billions.
  3. They run on renewable energy or at least try to minimize the use of finite resources.
  4. They are putting in efforts to mitigate plastic packaging.
  5. The raw materials are sourced organically or with least negative impact to the planet.
  6. Beware of green washing practices that might mislead you.

Now this might seem like a lot of work. Researching before buying every single item you need is quite a task. That is where we come in. We have done all this research for you and curated a regenerative marketplace. The ‘Permaculture Shop’ lists some amazing products that are ethical and eco-friendly. Our aim is to popularize small businesses that are genuinely taking efforts to make shopping less exploitative.

permaculture education shop

Now, before curating products from the millions of items we use every day, we decided to prioritize based on what premise are constantly on the lookout for. We have books that will change the way you think, tools that will make your life easier, zero waste paraphernalia that will ensure you have an empty dustbin, grow kits and greenhouse setups to get you started, gifts to encourage your loved ones to start the Permaculture journey and so much more! Check it out and let us know what more we should add.

We are constantly on the lookout for more fair trade brands to give a wider product range to our visitors.  If you are an ethical brand with products that would be of interest to the Permaculture community and like-minded people, please email us with details of your brand and what you offer 🙂

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Activism

How Ethical Community Leaders Are Driving Systemic Change Around the World

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Mobilized News Editorial Feature

At a time when cynicism toward politics is high and global systems appear rigged against the most vulnerable, a new kind of leadership is taking root—not in the corridors of power, but in the streets, villages, neighborhoods, and digital commons.

These leaders don’t wear suits or sit on high stages. They are midwives, farmers, youth mentors, solar tech trainers, community organizers, and elders. They listen more than they speak. They build with others, not for others. And they are rewriting the very definition of what it means to lead in the 21st century.

This is the story of ethical community leadership—a global groundswell of people committed to systemic change, rooted in justice, accountability, care, and regeneration. And it’s working.

Mobilized News Editorial Feature

 A Shift from Top-Down to Bottom-Up

In India’s Maharashtra state, a women-led collective called Swayam Shikshan Prayog has empowered over 100,000 rural women to lead in climate-resilient farming, health, and education. Their model? Train women farmers as decision-makers—not beneficiaries—while restoring ecological health.

In Colombia, the Guardians of the Atrato River, a court-recognized legal entity composed of Indigenous and Afro-descendant community leaders, have been granted rights to represent the river in court—a historic case of environmental personhood anchored in ancestral leadership and ecological stewardship.

In Jackson, Mississippi, Cooperation Jackson is building a community-controlled network of cooperatives, housing, and alternative education, rooted in Black liberation and economic democracy. Their People’s Assembly is a living example of participatory governance done right.

In Nairobi’s Mukuru informal settlement, Muungano wa Wanavijiji—a grassroots federation of the urban poor—is redefining slum upgrading by organizing communities to map their own infrastructure, negotiate land rights, and plan their own future.

 What Makes Ethical Community Leadership Different?

Ethical leadership isn’t just about transparency or good intentions. It’s a practice rooted in core values and systems literacy. These leaders:

  • Lead by listening: They don’t impose solutions—they co-create them.
  • Center the most affected: They trust the wisdom of the marginalized.
  • Build institutions of care: From food sovereignty networks to mutual aid funds, they organize safety nets from the ground up.
  • Disrupt extractive systems: Whether confronting colonized land systems, corrupt governance, or ecological destruction, they take aim at root causes—not just symptoms.
  • Regenerate, not replicate: They don’t scale at the cost of soul. They grow like a forest—locally resilient, globally connected.

This is not nonprofit reformism or political branding. It’s a radical act of public trust-building.

 Real Systems Change in Action

Health: Community First

In Rwanda, community health workers—trained by and from their own villages—have helped reduce child mortality by more than 60% in just over a decade. These leaders don’t wait for the state to catch up; they move with their people.

Food Systems: Sovereignty Over Charity

In Hawai’i, the Hoʻoulu ʻĀina initiative is reconnecting communities to ancestral agroforestry, healing land while feeding families. In Brazil’s favelas, food delivery networks are run by residents, for residents—creating not just meals, but food dignity.

Justice: Accountability from the Ground Up

In Minneapolis, post-George Floyd, Black-led initiatives like Reclaim the Block and MPD150 have pushed for alternatives to policing rooted in care and prevention. Their strategy? Community investment, youth outreach, and trauma healing as public safety.

Climate: Regeneration Through Trust

In Vanuatu, traditional leaders and youth climate organizers sit together in councils to manage marine protected areas, combining indigenous law with modern resilience science.

 Lessons for the World

  1. The Global South Leads: Many of the most effective, transformative models are being pioneered outside the Western gaze—by communities long overlooked.
  2. Solutions Don’t Need to Be Scaled to Be Powerful: Replication is not always the goal. What matters is depth, not just breadth.
  3. Leadership Is a Practice, Not a Position: Ethical leaders are often invisible to media and policy circles—but central to movements that actually work.
  4. Narrative Is a Tool of Liberation: These leaders know that changing the story changes the system. They reclaim history, identity, and imagination.

Who Are Some of Today’s Ethical Leaders?

  • Alicia Wallace – Activist from the Bahamas blending gender justice and climate action.
  • Bayo Akomolafe – Nigerian philosopher reframing leadership as “becoming fugitive” from oppressive norms.
  • Naomi Klein – Author and organizer exposing the intersections of capitalism, climate, and colonialism.
  • Rowan White – Mohawk seedkeeper restoring Indigenous seed sovereignty across Turtle Island.
  • Raj Patel – Economist and activist co-building food justice networks that dismantle corporate agriculture.

These voices—and countless more unnamed—form the invisible architecture of a better future.

What Comes Next?

If ethical leadership teaches us anything, it’s this:

Change doesn’t come from permission. It comes from community.

To support ethical community leadership where you are:

  • Invest in grassroots organizations, not just polished NGOs.
  • Create spaces for youth and elders to lead together.
  • Shift from “impact metrics” to long-term trust and resilience.
  • Design funding systems that support depth over speed.
  • Follow the leadership of those most impacted—not just those most credentialed.

A New Ethic for Our Times

In every region, on every continent, ethical community leaders are showing what is possible when power is relational, not transactional. When decisions are made in circles, not pyramids. When justice is lived, not theorized.

They are not waiting for permission.
They are not waiting for the system to fix itself.
They are building new systems—right now.

And the world is watching.   Now it’s our turn to follow their lead.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. If you want to go deeper, build trust first.”
— Ancestral proverb, carried by ethical leaders everywhere

 

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COMMUNITIES

FLIP THE SCRIPT: DECOLONIZE THE FUTURE

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COMMUNITIES

FLIP THE SCRIPT: WE ARE THE WEB

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