Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about the power of local EVERYTHING, spanning from political concepts to new technology, reaching even the most banal aspects of our lives.

Leading off, in politics, British writer Phillip Blond, whose ideas have received a lot of buzz globally, has laid out his three big areas of reform to revitalize our current “atomized, segmented society” (as David Brooks put it in his NYT column). They are: 1. remoralize the market; 2. relocalize the economy; and 3. re-capitalize the poor. From passing new zoning laws, to giving small business a shot against corporate giants, to setting up local capital funds for community associations to invest in local enterprises, Blond essentially argues for decentralization of political (and subsequently, financial) power. Instead of some bureaucrat calling the shots from far away, he argues for more budget authority for the smallest units of government, so that they can have a chance to compete. Communism? Not exactly; I’d sooner call it new age capitalism. After all, the political right has always been the one advocating for local control and decision-making in the form of state rights.

Another hot trend lately, especially in the tech community is geotargeting. Co-founder of SimpleGeo, Joe Stump, believes location is in a similar position as social was 10 years ago – that is, it gives us the ability to glean new meaning from the data that we consume every day. Social has already been baked into everything from photo sharing to financial tools, and local is about to take off in a similar way… the implications for marketing, especially of the consumer variety, are huge; after all, targeting consumers where and when they are most likely to make a purchase is every CEO’s dream…

Finally, this wouldn’t really be a proper blog post about the emerging trend of location, if it didn’t mention buying food locally. Another hippie plot to take over the world? I don’t think so, this one makes a whole lot of sense: not only is food grown nearby more likely to be fresher and healthier for you, it is proven to have more of a positive economic impact on the local community and to promote sound environmental practices. Did you know a typical carrot in the United States has to travel 1,838 miles to reach your dinner table? That’s a lot of fuel to waste on one carrot. Studies show that sustainable agricultural practices can actually increase food production by up to 79%, while at the same time actively reducing the effects of farming on climate change. Sounds good to me, and since I’m a budding foodie (look out for a Recession Dining post sometime soon), I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this, as well as the other trends towards localization mentioned… My question to you is have you noticed this megatrend, and if so, what do you think about it?