The Last Great Commons From the Village Green to the Divided Highway In pre-industrial England, every village—and even many urban neighborhoods—had a central shared space: the commons. Think of it as a kind of miniature Central Park, proportioned for small communities. These were lands not owned by anyone, yet essential to all—used for grazing animals, gathering fuel, or simply being together. They were the social and cultural heart of everyday life. That changed with enclosure. Starting in the 18th century, these communal lands were subdivided, fenced, and converted into private plots. The shift was disruptive and often devastating—people were displaced, and long-standing traditions collapsed. But enclosure also played a foundational role in modern Europe. It encouraged agricultural efficiency, increased land productivity, and helped lay the groundwork for Britain’s rise as an industrial and food-secure power. Still, something was lost. And it wasn’t just the land. The Original...
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Driverless Cars and Locally Sourced Foods
Why don't locally sourced foods compete successfully with products shipped halfway around the world? Protectionism? Conspiracy? Well, sometimes. But more likely it is because today's transportation/distribution system is largely indifferent to the distance food items travel to their final destination. This is true not only for foods that can't (or shouldn't) be produced in the markets where they are consumed. A lot of Chilean wine is consumed in San Francisco, and Napa is not far away. The real reason is containerization - the "magic box" in a system of large scale containerized transport and logistics. Essentially any item in this system is effectively closer to consumers than locally produced products. For example; a Costa Rican banana enters a supply chain that is as efficient as it is expensive to alter. Each link of that chain from producer to consumer is enmeshed in a tight logistical and financial choreography that straddles borders and contin...