DISCOVER THE NEXT EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT:
LOCAL LIVING ECONOMIES

From January through April 2008, we collaborated to sponsor and host four public lectures on Local Economy and Urban Farming. The series was intended to inform the public, help bring together a community that is interested in what is termed the Local Living Economy, and begin the conversation among socially-responsible entrepreneurs, academics, public policy groups and related governmental and NGO agencies around meaningful topics on the particular opportunities in our region.

We explored pressing issues for more conscious business models and the positive trends in the thriving global local economy movement through these presentations: 

Tuesday, January 29
Dr. James Quilligan, American Coordinator for the Global Marshall Plan and the Convention on the Global Commons.

Quilligan has been an analyst and administrator in the field of international development since 1975. He has served as policy advisor and writer for many international politicians and leaders, including Willy Brandt, Jimmy Carter, and Tony Blair. Quilligan is currently the managing director of the Centre for Global Negotiations and US Coordinator of the Global Marshall Plan Initiative. These organizations, along with many partners, have launched a multi-stakeholder consultation process that is focused on global development issues, including food security, sustainable agriculture, and fair trade. They maintain that bilateral policies based on domestic security interests -- such as agricultural subsidies and trade protectionism -- are on a collision course with the interests of the global community for multilateral cooperation, justice, sustainability and peace. A draft report is now being created through an interactive website, incorporating the wisdom of thousands of global organizations, individuals and experts. The partners in this consultation network will also be selecting delegates to an international conference in 2010, Convention on the Global Commons, which will reach a consensus on a final plan. (See www.global-commons.org) [Flyer]

Tuesday, February 26
Michael Shuman, Economist, lawyer and author of Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age (1998)  and  The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition (2006).

Thursday, March 27
Kenneth Warren, Director of the Lakewood Public Library System in the Cleveland area; community activist/member of LEAF- the Lakewood Earth and Food Community, on the application of Spiral Dynamics for Community Development.

Warren has authored a practical report in Lakewood Ohio on grassroots alignment efforts of artists, citizen journalists, farmers, local food system activists and public librarians to enact the community and place-making vision of LEAF - the Lakewood Earth and Food Community. He is a student and teacher of the psychographic tool Spiral Dynamics as it relates to local economies and food systems. Warren uses Spiral Dynamics to enable assessment and insight concerning the community's capacity and interest in developing local agricultural, cultural and economic circuits of exchange. (See www.spiraldynamics.org)

Tuesday, April 29
Judy Wicks, Co-founder of BALLE, founder of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia;
founder of The White Dog Café, on Local, Living Economies: Green, Fair and Fun.

Wicks is best known for establishing The White Dog Cafe on the first floor of her Philadelphia home in 1983. As the restaurant grew, so did her notion that the strength of her business relied upon the quality and sustainability of its locally grown ingredients. Envisioning how strengthening relationships among independent, community-rooted enterprises could inspire broad and profound cultural change, Wicks joined the Social Venture Network and co-founded the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) in 2001, She is currently writing a book about the White Dog Café and local living economies called Good Morning, Beautiful Business. (See www.livingeconomies.org/) [More Details]

 

Wednesday, April 30
 Workshop on Food and Farming-Based Economies  - The Next Generation of Business in Pittsburgh.

Keynote Speakers:

Judy Wicks, White Dog Cafe, and Ben Gisin, Publisher of Touch the Soil Magazine.

About Judy Wicks Founder and CEO of the White Dog Café in Philadelphia, she is also co-founder and chair of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) and of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia (SBN). Wicks started the White Dog Cafe in 1983 and grew it into a “Philly institution," including the  Black Cat, and is best known for buying organic produce, and pastured meat and poultry from local family farmers. The Cafe also acts as a center for dialogue on progressive issues. The company contributes 20% of profits to growing a local living economy, and supports alternative energy by investing in wind-generated power. The recipient of many local and national awards and contributor to several publications,

About Ben Gisin Ben comes from a 20-year banking career culminating as the senior agricultural approval officer for one of the nation’s top ten agricultural banks. Upon leaving the banking industry, he consulted farmers and ranchers struggling to survive financially where he negotiated some of the largest and most complex debt settlements between farmers and their creditors. Author of Farmers and Ranchers Guide to Credit and hundreds of published articles he is now publisher of Touch the Soil magazine and lectures around the nation. You can read a transcript of one of his recent lectures on food security and exchange systems HERE.

This workshop convened the Pittsburgh region's academic, business and non-profit community in a discussion on locally-based food systems and their potential to catalyze neighborhood revitalization in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Topics of discussion include: a review of national sustainable business models addressing food, environment and social equity and evaluation of current efforts to support local agriculture and the larger policy issues as they relate to land use, environmental sustainability, public health, lifestyles and local entrepreneurship opportunities. Michael Krajovic, President and CEO of Fay-Penn Economic Development Council, was the Master of Ceremonies. [More Details]

Invited guest panelists included:

• Robert Davidson, Special Assistant to the Secretary Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture
• Court Gould, Executive Director, Sustainable Pittsburgh
• Mary Hunt-Lieving, Senior Program Officer, Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation
• Kim Miller, Former Board Chair, Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
• Brenda Peyser, Associate Dean, Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon
• Denny Puko, Southwestern Pennsylvania Regional Planning Director, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development