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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).
Shuman promotes the concepts in Going Local and The Small-Mart Revolution through a variety of projects including: creating a small-business venture capital fund in New Mexico, launching a community-owned company in Salisbury, MD, called Bay-Friendly Chicken, organizing university-government-business collaborations in St. Lawrence County, NY, analyzing the impact of devolution in the former Soviet Union for the United Nations Development Program, preparing a buy-local guide for Annapolis, MD, developing a website to support marketing by family farmers, and building BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies). (See
www.smallmart.org)
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.
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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:
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Robert Davidson, Special Assistant to the Secretary Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture
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Court Gould, Executive Director, Sustainable Pittsburgh
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Mary Hunt-Lieving, Senior Program Officer, Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation
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Kim Miller, Former Board Chair, Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
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Brenda Peyser, Associate Dean, Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon
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Denny Puko, Southwestern Pennsylvania Regional Planning Director, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development
Why are we
supporting this event? :: [Download
Lecture Series Poster
Here]
Let us know if you want
to be involved and/or sponsor future local economy
activities.
Help us build a Local Economy in Pittsburgh!
Pittsburgh: We were at the
6th Annual BALLE Conference JUNE 5-7, 2008 in Boston, MA.
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