Green Man Thriving

Goldman Sach's Outrageous Fortune

In case you need more proof that our financial and economic system is fundamentally corrupt and needs to be replaced, investment banker Goldman Sachs will pay out the biggest bonuses ever in its 140-year history.  How can that be when the US and world economy is in the toilet? How can that be when the actions of Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street leviathans were a principle cause?

Well Goldman Sachs has had a great year so far. And how can that be? Well of course Goldman received from taxpayers, directly and not so indirectly, over $50-billion.  They've also taken many billions in easy loans from the Federal Reserve in recent months. The Federal Reserve will not release that information - so we don't know how much.  This is all well documented by Nomi Prins, an economists who used to work for Goldman Sachs, at Democracy Now! and on Alternet (I wonder if they will rehire Nomi?)  Wall Street apologists will point out that Goldman Sachs, among other firms, paid back their $10-Billion in TARP money. As Nomi explains, that was a slight of hand designed to distract us from much bigger pillage.

As I have said before, an important first step to reverse the organized theft of Wall Street (and other large financial centers) is to re-localize.  Instead of putting your money with big multinational banks like Citigroup or Bank of America, take a look at your local credit unions.  Some have picked up the anti-consumer habits of the pillagers. But most are still focused on treating you in a transparent way and keep more money (more lending) in your local economy.

The Move to "Local First" - We Need Alliances

We can strengthen and transform our communities and economies on a local level.  I believe the best way to accomplish this is to build alliances amongst community groups, activists, and small business leaders. (The politicians will follow the bandwagon.)

We already see some hopeful signs.  Several Florida business organizations, including the Florida Chamber, have been promoting the notion of "buying local."  This statewide effort -- dubbed "Backyard Economics" -- encourages Florida to spend money in their own local communities. In fact they have developed a discount card for a deal at many Florida businesses, big or small, corporate or not. Consumers can download a discount card for participating businesses.... And an example of a local organization that does a great job promoting their local businesses with the "Backyard" campaign is the Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce.  This organization really promotes their downtown and the nice mix of local businesses there. The energy to do that comes from volunteer business leaders like Kat Hoffman, managing partner of Caribbean Kat's Trading, a fun boutique on Main Street in Safety Harbor, FL.

We should applaud these efforts, but it does not take the local theme as far as it needs to go. There are numerous examples of community organizations in the Tampa Bay area.  I recently came across one example of a community-based social network launched this year in Tarpon Springs.  Code Green Community invites Tarpon Springs residents to work together to create a more green and sustainable community. It was started by a St. Pete College student Eric Stewart, and the site has attracted a core group of member that are doing some cool green and sustainable things.  Eric and his friends also offer others help in setting up their own "Code Green" type network in their own towns.  This is the kind of alliance-building and social entrepreneurship that we need to nourish and grow many times over.

What's the alternative to growth that damages communities?

Yes the Florida legislature and the governor pulled the trigger on SB 360 and killed off growth management in the state of Florida. So in collusion with the privateers who left us the wreckage of the real estate bust, they want us to do it all over again.  First, I urge everyone to scrutinize the development decisions of their local governments and raise Holy Hell when they start selling out our communities to irresponsible developers (I call them "privateers.")

Next, even more importantly in the long run, we need a new model for development, one that focuses not just on private profit but on the public good and the good of the planet. The idea that large centralized (and centralizing) institutions like the state, the federal government, "Wall Street" finance, multinational corporations, corporate media, etc. will serve our communities and local economies well is now a discredited ideology, in my opinion. Like other discredited ideologies of aggrandized power (such as Monarchy, Communism, Fascism, etc.), these institutions may serve a purpose for a time, but they begin to break down because they become largely self-serving at a terrible expense to the majority of society. The mythologies and mental edifices that support their aggrandizement also begin to show strain. 

I'm not suggesting that we overthrow these institutions - that would not be possible or wholly desirable now - but I do suggest that we put our democratic voices, personal energies, and economic power into another way of organizing society and the economy.

I urge everyone to join the movement to build local living economies.  To be truly green and to get at the root of the true obstables to human development and healing the planet, this is the direction we should take. To find out more about this movement, check out the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies or the American Independent Business Alliance.

Let's build our own sustainability movement, Tampa, everywhere!

At the recent Seattle Green Festival I spoke with Kathy Pelish, former communications director for Sustainable Ballard. She describes how area folks have become active in the local eating movement where people strive to eat food produced with 100 miles of their home.

She gives the Tampa localization movement some tasty tidbits of advice.

Sustainability: start in your home town

To strengthen our local economies and break away from choking dominance by corporate chains, we all need to find ways to promote local organisations and locally-owned companies (Sorry neo-liberal ecomomist and Friedmanites - your simplistic Pareto arguments are not cutting it.)  The fact is, only $43 of your $100 spent in a non-locally owned business stays in the local economy, whereas $73 of your $100 spent with locally owned business stays.  A good depiction of that is on the site of a local first organization in Western Michigan.

Tampa has its own "local first" movement, the Tampa Independent Business Alliance, founded in 2004. I think they've got the right idea, and the founders of this organization have worked hard to grow the movement but their battle has been uphill.  I honor their efforts.

I think we can turn to movements in other regions for inspiration. The "re-localization" movement in Seattle has over 70 communities participating in a regional effort called Sustainable Communities All Over Pudget Sound (www.SCALLOPSwa.org.) This group has lead a Local Eating initiative that has involved the towns around Seattle, over 100 small farms, and tens of thousands of participants who have committed to re-focusing their diet on food raised within 100 miles.  For many it's not 100% of the menu - Seattle's a coffee drinking town and there are no NorthWest coffee plantations - but they have committed to other levels - 75%, 50%.

I believe thes folks can inspire folks in central Florida and around the nation. In upcoming posts, I will be bringing you my talks with leaders in the SCALLOPS movement.

The sweet taste of buying local

Buying local first is a popular aspect of being green.  We Greens make the argument that by going local we get fresher food, keep money in the neighborhood, reduce energy consumption, and encourage socializing and closer-knit communities.

Traditional economics tells us that producing and buying locally in itself is irrelevant and should not be a factor except through price. Be that as it may, today I found a great reason to buy local.

Today I visited the new Downtown Clearwater Farmers' Market, which runs every Wednesday through April. It was cold and windy today, so there were not many shoppers in attendance, but I found one vendor worth the trip. 

The Honey Cart, owned by Don & Jo White, sells local raw seasonal honey from the West Central Florida Beekeepers Co-op. There's four types of honey produced - one for each season. Because the diet of the honey bees differ by season, each season produces a different taste. The Whites describe their honey as "a Sweet Taste of Florida."

I sampled Citrus in the Spring, Palmetto in the Summer, Black Mangrove in the Fall, and Strawberry in the Winter. A Sweet Taste of Florida indeed!