Sustainable marketing theory can encourage ecology oriented consumption, but it does not account for the huge gap between public opinion and actions in relation to large scale environmental threats. Complex adaptive systems applied to human behaviour can bypass such psychological conundrums by modelling mass behaviour in response to small changes in stimuli. Human social patterns are driven by values (Kiel, 1994). Community action on climate change is often limited to a few passionate and informed community members. They wear their values on their sleeves. Food security and sovereignty, however, are based on values that are more ubiquitous and have the potential to trigger dramatic transformations, as in Egypt in 2011. In less stressed communities, where food is plentiful and pleasurable, focusing on food production and enjoyment can elicit greater participation than exhortations to save energy. This paper looks at the interactions and overlaps between groups in southern New South Wales working on climate change and those involved in regional and local approaches to food sovereignty. It poses hypotheses for resilience building in the face of likely dramatic social and environmental challenges in the coming decades. It concludes with suggestions for wide applicability of similar organic approaches.