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
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)
Check out this op-ed piece by Boone Shear and Stephen Healy, first published in Truthout on October 23, 2012. Both are involved in the Worcester Solidarity and Green Economy Alliance and organizers of the October 13, 2012 conference. ****************************** Regulation and reform might eventually manifest a kinder, gentler capitalism, but we’ve seen how hard itContinue reading The Progressive Struggle to Save Capitalism (repost)
Having harvested rural and suburban retail markets, Walmart is now ploughing new ground in cities with their smaller urban groceries. From Los Angeles to Chicago and now in Boston, communities are debating over Walmart. On the one hand, residents of economically struggling neighborhoods (often also food deserts) want jobs and access to affordable groceries. OnContinue reading Alternatives to Walmart?
This piece summarizes how I started using the term “justainability”. I have spent my entire professional career since the early 1990s working at the links between “sustainability” and “justice”. Sustainability defined in only environmental, non-human terms seemed too narrow. Social justice absent an ecological view was likewise unsatisfying. For me, “environmental justice” was where theseContinue reading Justice + Sustainability = “Justainability”