Small is Possible: Life in a Local Economy (Paperback)

~ Lyle Estill (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"In Small is Possible, Estill chronicles the failures and victories of an ongoing movement for sustainability and local resiliency in Chatham County, located in the piedmont region of North Carolina. Estill is a legitimate source on the subject: he co-founded Piedmont Biofuels, a biodiesel co-op that went from backyard operation into an industrial plant in a few short years. The characters in Estill's world are both entertaining and endearing. Many of them show a flinty defiance, positioning themselves as courageous Daniels against the Goliaths of corporate greed and globalization. Readers interested in academic arguments for local economies can find other books on the subject, but if they want a compelling story about noble atempts to walk the talk, Small is Possible delivers. - Brian Baughan, Sustainablog

"In an age of increasing globalization, it is hopeful to be reminded that there are still communities where transactions are handled in handshakes rather than receipts. Estill takes us on a loving stroll through his North Carolina neighborhood and shows us how small-scale sustainability - feeding, fueling, and financing locally - is both possible and preferable." - Book Notes, Orion Magazine

One of my favorite ideas in this book is the idea of open source. Once you let go of this idea that everything must be copyrighted, everything must be owned and protected in order to make money, you become free. Open source ideas quickly foster a more open community, a more open and honest society. A gropu of people or organizaitons all start working toward a common goal rather than all working against one another. Beautiful, isn't it?
Another beautiful idea is that a community needs a variety of people and businesses to thrive. And that as you begin living locally- and begin working toward a healthy community - people and businesses find their niches. And when you find your own niche within the local economy, your own happiness rises. Your sense of well-being increases when you realize your positive and necessary contribution to society.
As we go further into debt and economic security throughout the world, nurturing our small, local, sustainable businesses and infrastructure will become increasingly important. I recommend this book.
Reviewed by Melinda on The Blogging Bookworm

In an era when incomprehensibly complex issues like Peak Oil and climate change dominate headlines, practical solutions at a local level can seem somehow inadequate.

In response, Lyle Estill’s Small is Possible introduces us to “hometown security,” with this chronicle of a community-powered response to resource depletion in a fickle global economy. True stories, springing from the soils of Chatham County, North Carolina, offer a positive counterbalance to the bleakness of our age.

This is the story of how one small southern US town found actual solutions to actual problems. Unwilling to rely on the government and wary of large corporations, these residents discovered it is possible for a community to feed itself, fuel itself, heal itself, and govern itself.

This book is filled with newspaper columns, blog entries, letters, and essays that have appeared on the margins of small-town economies. Tough subjects are handled with humor and finesse. Compelling stories of successful small businesses, from the grocery co-op to the biodiesel co-op, describe a town and its people on a genuine quest for sustainability.

Everyone interested in sustainability, local economy, small business, and whole foods will be inspired by the success stories in this book.

Lyle Estill is “Vice President of Stuff ” at Piedmont Biofuels, and has won numerous awards for his work in the biodiesel business. He is the author of Biodiesel Power and lives in Moncure, North Carolina.

About the Author

Lyle Estill is President of Piedmont Biofuels Industrial in Moncure, North Carolina. The publisher of the key weblog about the biodiesel movement for several years, he is the CEO of Blast Internet Services and the recipient of numerous awards including Educator of the Year for 2004 from North Carolina Environmental Educator's Association for outreach on biodiesel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: New Society Publishers (May 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 086571603X
• ISBN-13: 978-0865716032
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #204,638 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars After reading "Collapse", read this!, June 12, 2008

By	Michael Tiemann (Chapel Hill, NC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

It is easy to be overwhelmed with the doom and gloom consequences of American's thoroughly unsustainable lifestyle: climate change, pollution of air, water, and soil, declining ecosystems, and the very real risk that in 60 years, nobody will be living what we today consider to be a first-world lifestyle. What to do?

For starters, read Lyle Estill's Small Is Possible, a wonderful collection of writings that chronicles Lyle's own shift from get-setting deal-maker to homesteading community-builder.

Lyle's writing style is excellent: concrete, humorous, and often self-deprecating, Lyle's stories spring to life from the pages, and then linger in details which keeps the community and its members, not Lyle himself, in the foreground.

This book variously strikes me as: non-fiction Huckleberry Finn, a North Carolinian Omnivore's Dilemma, a contemporary Guns, Germs, and Steel, and The Tipping Point as played by actors in Chatham County.

Let me say again: the book is very well written, the material is extremely compelling and relevant to the 21st century, and, in the great tradition of open source software (which Lyle himself acknowledges), it is designed to be a resource for others who believe that small is possible.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Wendell Berry of Chatham", May 26, 2008

By	Reviewer - See all my reviews

Yesterday, I received a copy of Lyle Estill's newest book, Small Is Possible. I came home at 2:30, put on some easy-going clothes, lay down on the couch on the porch, read until 8, took a half hour off, then finished the book. I could not put it down. This is a wonderful reclaiming of the recent history of events in our county, Chatham.

The chapters are contained by writing on one subject in the true essay form, full of details about people we all know and some of whom we love. The writing is almost lyrical in some places. But what is exciting is to read is all that has made our county special. In a way I am scared that this excellent book will make it nationally as it is so well written, a Wendell Berry of Chatham, and that our special place will become a spotlight for people who want to see that change is possible in our dis...eased world. If that happens, however, I will hail to the chief who wrote it.

This is one of those books that comes along once and a great while, the kind of book that you want to send to EVERYONE, the kind of book we can take pleasure in reading to our children, as well as chuckling at various places while we read to ourselves. I absolutely love it and hope that all of you rush to buy it. I hope you buy a lot of copies and pass it around as birthday, wedding, graduation whatever kind of gift. It is that universal in its message.
-- Barbara Lorie

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting, well written..., July 9, 2008

By	Westmore C. Willcox (Chapel Hill, NC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I just finished the book and found it very interesting and well written. As a reporter for a small weekly newspaper that covers Pittsboro, NC, I was fascinated to learn more about the many personalities, businesses and organizations that make up this small town. I certainly see Pittsboro as a more dynamic and exciting place through Lyle Estill's eyes. I initially had low expectations of the book since I thought it would just be a compilation of essays, blog entries and newspaper columns, but it contained about 98 percent original writing. I have been telling many people around town about the book as a great way to learn more about Pittsboro. I think the book will be popular on a national scale since it talks about many ways that communities, and individuals, can be more self sustaining and this is an important issue nationally. On another level, it is interesting as the story of an entrepreneur who had the courage to renounce a very high-paying conventional job to pursue his dream.