The leaders of the food coop team at Financial Permaculture are pretty incredible. Check out Eric Wagoner from Athens, Georgia and Robert Waldrop from Oklahoma. Bob organized and leads the Oklahoma Food Coop. He has a quick presentation on how to organize a local food coop. The Oklahoma Food Coop makes their software available for free to groups interested in starting their own coop. More links:
Bob Waldrop mentioned the other day that the G-7 leaders were planning on meeting in Europe to create a new financial architecture. Since more centralization is not going to work, we are going to meet at Hohenwald, Tennessee to do the same, and it was much more important to have the food guys reinventing the financial system then the bankers.
I could not agree more.
Wealth comes from the harvest. Money is simply a tool of storage and exchange. It is right and proper that the financial system should be created by and operated for the benefit of those who create wealth, rather than those who store and trade it.
I was catching up on some of the newsletters I get today. One said that we would have a recession with unemployment peaking at 7.5%, nothing like the great depression. Another said the US would default on its debts next summer and its creditors would assume control of governance. A third interviewed a covert source familiar with the systematic looting of other countries who said that the US government would default on its debt, the dollar would drop 30-60% in value and layoffs would run 600,000 to 1MM a month.
Which scenario happens is a political and military choice. It does not relate to fundamental economics. If we unsuppressed technology, lifted a whole lot of laws requiring centralization of financial flows, turned off our TVs and ended the corruption tax, an explosion of wealth is more than possible.
I have spent a lot of time and money this year planting a garden and orchards with my neighbors doing most of the work. Given what is happening to the corporate food supply, building local food supplies is a great investment in all scenarios. Albert Bates pointed out on Coast to Coast the other night that at the end of WWII, Victory Gardens were producing 40% of our national produce. Currently, stockpiling non-perishables has a better after-tax yield than money in a bank or money market. Who knows what the yields are on building top soil. However, it is fair to say that if you are not composting, you may want to consider it.
One group worth knowing about is the folks at The Weston A. Price Foundation. They have a magazine, Wise Traditions. There is a great article called “Setting up a Local Food Club” in the latest publication. Unfortunately, it is not up on the web. For those interested in staying current on food developments, I recommend a membership and subscription.