A Space for Sharing Stories of Transformation
Innovations for Building Community Wealth and Health and Re-Localizing the Food System By Penn Loh and Glynn Lloyd The current conventional system of food production and distribution – how food comes to most of us every day — is more fragile than most people think. In fact it is less sustainable and less safe thanContinue reading The Emerging Just and Sustainable Food Economy in Boston
On two hot days in mid-July 2013, two dozen youth went out into the streets of the Dudley neighborhood in Roxbury to survey “backyard” gardens and interview gardeners. The youth, from Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) and The Food Project, were working with the support of the Practical Visionaries Workshop (PVW) to document how muchContinue reading Dudley Resident Gardens: Summer 2013 Survey Results
By Juan Leyton Editor’s Note: In July 2013, Juan worked with the MIT Community Innovators Lab to lead a delegation of U.S. community and labor leaders to visit the Mondragon cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain. This was his second trip. In this article, Juan describes Mondragon’s model and history and his reflections onContinue reading Reflections on the Mondragon Cooperative Model: An Approach to Human Values and Workers Owned Businesses
October 12-18, 2013 is the first New Economy Week, sponsored by the New Economy Coalition. These seven days celebrate efforts to build “an economy that is restorative to people, place, and the planet.” Post-Occupy, there has been a growing buzz about what kind of economy we need to address wealth inequality, environmental unsustainability, and lackContinue reading What is the Color of the New Economy? And Why it Matters
[Thanks to Rachel Gordon for passing on this post about a western Massachusetts company’s process of converting into a worker cooperative. Original post at: http://realpickles.blogspot.com/2013/08/real-pickles-and-path-to-co-operative.html.%5D We are excited to share a few words written by Erbin Crowell, Executive Director of the Neighboring Food Co-op Association (NFCA) and local expert on cooperative business. Erbin was aContinue reading Real Pickles and the Path to a Co-operative Economy (repost)
COOPERATIVE ENERGY, RECYCLING & ORGANICS COOPERATIVA PARA ENERGIA, RECICLAJE & ORGANICOS The CERO worker cooperative is launching its startup financing campaign! Workers supported by Boston Workers Alliance and MassCOSH began planning for this recycling business about a year ago. Check out their video and their website: http://www.cero.coop/. Below is a reprint of a recent articleContinue reading CERO Cooperative Launching
By 2013 Tufts Practical Visionaries Field Project team: Kathleen O’Brien, Marcy Ostberg, Becca Schofield, Hannah Sobel, and Heidi Stucker Food isn’t just what you eat – it’s also an economic system that we all interact with. Because it is so fundamental to our lives, food is a powerful window through which to better understand howContinue reading Cultivate Your Food Economy
By Ian Adelman The food movement has grabbed the attention of many of us interested in realizing a just and sustainable future. Food is a starting point for discussions of equity, environment, culture, race, health, and the economy. In the following post I will share how I have used the food lens to explore transformativeContinue reading Transforming the Food Economy
By Ian Adelman, Emily Earle, and Penn Loh [Note: This article is based on Adelman and Earle’s 2012 Masters Thesis for the Tufts Urban & Environmental Policy and Planning. To download: Earle Thesis – FINAL Adelman Thesis Final] Why transformative? At the global level, it is easy to see the excesses, if not the fatalContinue reading Towards a More Transformative Community Economic Development
The Tufts New Economy Group (led by Practical Visionaries Workshop students) is hosting an all-day summit on April 13. Register now! Cultivating a New Food Economy: Putting People and Planet First April 13th, 2013 8:30am – 4:30pm Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the barrage of negativity surrounding our food systems? Daily we are madeContinue reading April 13 Cultivating a New Food Economy: Putting People and Planet First