Michael Pollan offers a hopeful thought (brought up in a post about the flap over a boycott of Whole Foods:

In “Life Inc.,” Rushkoff details how corporations took on their own lives and continued to grow and grow, usually with the help of government. As they grew, we became more disconnected from our neighbors and the products we were using. Eventually we weren’t getting our flour from someone in our own town but from some distant corporation. The brand was created to put a face on things. An example from the book is the Quaker Oatmeal guy. Eventually, we became isolated from our neighbors and dependent on corporations for everything we need.

In 2006, PASA began a project called the Regional Food Infrastructure Network (RFIN) to identify core infrastructure problems and their potential solutions. Throughout the process, PASA helped build many partnerships to improve profitability for local farmers while providing greater access to local foods for consumers. This project has gained increasing momentum over the past 3 years, and has positioned PASA to continue its role in leading the local food revolution. We have now grown beyond the role of simply investigating the network to a role of fostering FoodShed Solutions.

What is a Transition Town (or village / city / forest / island)?

Here's how it all appears to be evolving...

It all starts off when a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: how can our community respond to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change?

They begin by forming an initiating group and then adopt the Transition Model (explained here at length, and in bits here and here) with the intention of engaging a significant proportion of the people in their community to kick off a Transition Initiative.

Sounds a little familiar, don't you think, Sam? =)

Each home workshop taken by itself does not present much manufacturing capacity beyond small batch hobbyist work. Link thousands of them together, however, and they represent an aggregate manufacturing capacity potential that, if harnessed, could stand up a high-volume, high-value-add, high-profit, rock-bottom-cost company.