Gil Friend and David Morris of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance

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Gil (23)—a soft-spoken, tranquil person of obvious intellectual depth—is, like David, a native of New York City. He entered the City College of New York expecting to major in physics . . . but came out with a degree in English. Friend then moved to Washington, where he spent a year driving cabs and cooking in a natural foods restaurant.

The latter job aroused Gil's interest in nutrition and food production and led him to spend a summer working with Buckminster Fuller's World Game Workshop in Carbondale, Illinois. As a result of that experience, Friend eventually joined David Morris, Bill Batko, and Neil Seidman in the formation of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

The organization's headquarters are located in one of the Adams-Morgan turn-of-the-century townhouses which—with slightly newer red brick apartment buildings—are tightly packed into the community. The neighborhood is racially, ethnically, and economically mixed and—but for the pride and spirit of its people—would be as seedy and oppressive as hundreds of similar areas in scores of big cities across the United States.

Anson Mount interviewed David Morris and Gil Friend in the ILSR's living room on a pleasant afternoon during early autumn . . . while sunlight streamed in through bay windows and the room was washed with laughter from local children as they joked with police guards stationed at the Russian news agency across the street.

PLOWBOY: David . . . Gil . . . what led you two—along with Bill Batko and Neil Seldman—to form the Institute for Local Self-Reliance?

MORRIS: For me, the most important thing was my experience in Chile. I learned an enormous amount in that country and came back to the U.S. all fired up with enthusiasm about the kinds of creativity that can occur on local levels. Then I really became inspired when I saw the success of some of the innovative neighborhood cooperative projects here in Adams-Morgan.

For example, about three years ago some of our neighbors began organizing retail food stores—not as consumer cooperatives, which exist in many other cities around the country—but as worker collectives. The difference is that the people who work in our stores, own them.

Then several of these collectives joined together to set up warehousing operations, a trucking distribution network, and processing plants . . . and some of us began to get the feeling that this could be extended even further. That is—if we could somehow control the flow of money within the neighborhood, if we could somehow move into light manufacturing, and if we could somehow produce a significant amount of our food and energy right here in the community—then we could greatly improve the quality of local life and greatly reduce our dependence on the outside world.

FRIEND: In my case, it was the summer I spent at Bucky Fuller's World Game Workshop that led me here. The World Game gave me a comprehensive look at the nature of the food and energy, transportation, communications, education, and other problems we now face on a planetary scale.

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