Farmer’s Markets Are Creating Jobs

The USDA released its latest Farmers Market Survey last week, showing 7,175 farmers markets across the country, up 17 percent from last year. This news led USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan to declare:

The growth in farmers markets is a sign that the local and regional food system is robust and thriving. More farmers markets mean more opportunities for small and midsize farmers — especially beginning farmers — to diversify their farms, sell their products, and grow their businesses. More farmers markets mean more local economic stimulation to more communities which, in turn, mean more job opportunities. More farmers markets mean more access to fresh, healthy, and local food.

Read entire article: More farmers markets mean more jobs

Helena Norberg-Hodge – The Economics of Happiness

This is the way to sustainability. I am a great admirer of Helena Norberg-Hodge, a true leader. This vision of the economics of happiness is taking root all across the world.

Wealth Inequality in America Solution is Either Localization or Revolution

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The war against working people should be understood to be a real war…. Specifically in the U.S., which happens to have a highly class-conscious business class…. And they have long seen themselves as fighting a bitter class war, except they don’t want anybody else to know about it.

– Noam Chomsky

There are several very good resources on the status of wealth in America in this post. They are listed further below. My own views on how to change this dynamic are several. Here they are and they are all doable and must be done to save ourselves from plutocracy – corporatism, oligarchy, and privatization. The only other way is to have upheaval and possible revolution like the French revolution when the French people rose up and killed the oligarchs and outlawed corporations; and with good reason – they were predators feeding off the masses. I am afraid we have arrived at such a point.

STOP FEEDING THE PYRAMID!

– Skip over buying at companies like Wal-Mart, Target, Verizon, etc. Stop buying from large corporations as many are involved in tax dodging, overseas hiding of assets, investing in overseas labor, labor lawsuits, and lobbying efforts against the betterment of the everyday American in their quality of life. They are anti-tax, anti-union, anti-environment, anti-regulation, anti-public healthcare, and anti-civil-rights. Verizon is on the list as they helped the Bush administration spy on Americans post-911 and they are against net neutrality.

– Refrain from investing in the stock market where large corporations and banks benefit the greatest from small investors and 401k contributions, thus empowering them even more.

– BUY LOCAL FROM LOCAL COMPANIES TO KEEP THE MAJORITY OF WEALTH IN THE LOCAL ECONOMY. The goal is to strengthen LOCALIZATION currently running in parallel to Globalization; LOCALIZATION must become the locus of our labor efforts AND spending habits. It is the key to shifting wealth back to the majority of everyday Americans because we all live locally.

These three things could turn the tide in wealth distribution. When we spend money locally at locally owned small businesses (a small business in America is deemed by the SBA as making $25 million a year or less), that money will stay largely in the local economy. We are shifting where we spend our money and that will make all the difference in the world – literally.

Related:

– 15 Mindblowing Facts About Wealth and Inequality in America — see these charts

Here is one chart from the Nation as shown in the article:

– The Richest 1% Have Captured America’s Wealth — What’s It Going to Take to Get It Back? click here to read

Excerpt: just look at the first full year of the crisis when workers lost an average of 25 percent off their 401k. During the same time period, the wealth of the 400 richest Americans increased by $30 billion, bringing their total combined wealth to $1.57 trillion, which is more than the combined net worth of 50% of the US population. Just to make this point clear, 400 people have more wealth than 155 million people combined.

Meanwhile, 2009 was a record-breaking year for Wall Street bonuses, as firms issued $150 billion to their executives. 100% of these bonuses are a direct result of our tax dollars, so if we used this money to create jobs, instead of giving them to a handful of top executives, we could have paid an annual salary of $30,000 to 5 million people.

– Why Obama’s Economic Plan Will Not Work—And a Better Plan – click here

COPYRIGHT 2011 FAIR USE LAW APPLIES TO ORIGINAL CONTENT AND ALL EXCERPTED MATERIAL ON THIS SITE.

Helena Norberg-Hodge – Economics of Happiness

I am choosing Helena Norberg-Hodge to honor as part of International Womens’s Day today. She is the founder of The International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC).

ISEC is a non-profit organization dedicated to the revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide. Our emphasis is on education for action: moving beyond single issues to look at the more fundamental influences that shape our lives. You can visit her site by clicking here.

Helena believes that those running the global economy are imposing structural violence in our world. “The message of the Grandmothers, the message from indigenous cultures and peoples around the world has been managed, marginalized, brainwashed, and corporatized in a way that makes it very very difficult to get [the Grandmothers] message out,” she said.

Helena is fighting to rebuild the strength of Ladhka’s local culture and economy. She is also battling the effects of this worldwide global economy. For 25 years, she and John live 6 months out of the year in Ladakh. Helena’s book, Ancient Futures: Learning From Ladakh, has been translated into 42 languages and made into a film. Helena also founded the International Society for Ecology and Culture and is on the editorial board of ‘Ecologist” magazine. She also co-founded the International Forum on Globalization and the Global Eco-Village Network. For her efforts, Helena received an Alternate Nobel Prize.

Economics of Happiness
ISEC’s new documentary has been featured here and we have seen great interest in this film. Here is the link to their site to purchase the film.

Read Helena’s biography, click here

http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/

Feeding the Beast: Food Prices Destabilizing Effect

ASHEHAM PRESS OP-ED ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

More reasons to embrace Plan ‘B’. Don’t know what that is? Stock your pantry, become more self-reliant, invest in a rainwater barrel or two, plant a garden, get a bycycle or hybrid vehicle.

Today’s NY Times reports: Food Prices Hit Record High, Spurring Worries About Global Unrest. FAO officials say the world can expect further price rises if oil prices continue climbing.

“Unexpected oil price spikes could further exacerbate an already precarious situation in food markets,” FAO’s director of trade and markets, David Hallam, said in his agency’s report. “This adds even more uncertainty concerning the price outlook just as plantings for crops in some of the major growing regions are about to start.”

Feeding the Beast
As we have seen in the Middle East, people living on $2 a day simply cannot endure the current food price increases. With the Libyan oil crisis escalating oil production has now shutdown and global oil prices are shooting up. This will further destabilize economies all over the world, including our own.

It is a circular situation: Poverty in many nations is perpetuated by corrupt oppressive governments; ADD the global financial collapse AND consequential destabilized economies AND bad weather AND food prices have increased WHICH has led to social upheaval WHICH has led to a spike in oil prices WHICH will lead to higher prices WHICH will lead to more unrest….. ad infinitum. And that’s just in the Middle East. Once Europe starts to falter, all bets are off. World crisis will ensue. History shows Europe has engaged in wars every century for over two thousand years. They are on the brink and what happened in the last two wars affected the United States in a big way – world war.

In today’s Guardian UK, Jonathan Watts reports in Middle East unrest adds to pressure on world food prices:

Two links are apparent. First, modern agriculture is massively dependent on fossil fuels, which are used for farm machinery, fertiliser production and crop transportation. Secondly, the rise of biofuels means that many food crops are in direct competition for land with ethanol plantations.

The relationship is not necessarily one-way, particularly when other climate factors are at play. The recent surge in wheat, corn and soy prices – which prompted UN warnings of approaching danger levels – was also due to last year’s dry spell in Russia and floods in Australia. The most recent increase was attributed to a drought in China that threatens the winter wheat crop.

But whether it is climate change or social protest that shakes the commodity markets, the jolts appear to affect the values of both kilowatts and calories – albeit sometimes with a slight lag. Different forms of energy consumption are converging – as well as growing – thanks to a rising global population and the increasing affluence of emerging economies like China and India.

That should prove food for thought as we watch the compelling spectacle of change in the Middle East. Egypt nudged prices upwards (due more to the importance of the Suez canal to tanker traffic than its own oil output). Libya, the world’s 12th biggest oil exporter at 1.1m barrels per day, adds momentum.

Entire Guardian UK article, click here

For more information go to World Food Situations on the FAO site, click here

Daily Thought

Experts at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimate global agricultural productivity must double by 2050 to keep pace with increased demand. Unless we take immediate action, we are destined to race from food crisis to food crisis for generations to come, with grim consequences for the world’s poor and our own national security.

– Center for American Progress

The Hope of Community Supported Agriculture

At the country level, most of us are completely invested in this global food system, which is built on some very, very rickety pillars. I think, however, there’s a lot of interesting stuff that goes on more on the municipal level – with farmer’s markets, community-supported agriculture, with food policy councils, which are springing up all over cities and towns in Canada and in the U.S.

And these are really talking about trying to shorten supply chains, create a level of food sovereignty at a local level, invest in things like soup kitchens and community kitchens, which act as an insurance policy against food shocks for economically poor people. So I think the most innovative stuff is actually happening at a small scale across North America.

And there’s very little attention to this issue being placed at a national or international scale.

Listen to the interview: How We Eat, Produce Food Could Bring Down Society

In a time when “super-sized” and “combo specials” are the way to order, it seems America will never face a food shortage. But a new book, Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations, takes a hard look at how American habits — in farming, eating and treating the environment — could lead to a food famine. Host Guy Raz talks with co- author Evan Fraser about how food empires fail and if America is next.

Privatization: Who Owns the Rain? The Fight to Control Water

ASHEHAM PRESS OP-ED ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

If you are a regular reader here at Path to Well Being you will know I am a proponent of localization, self-reliance, green-alternative energy, and rainwater recapture. I am clearing two bushes on the north side of my house to locate two rain barrels. I will use the rainwater to supplement my usage in the summertime for my gardens. Like solar from the Sun, rainwater from the sky is free — at least for now. But, it is not in other parts of the world. I also have been writing lately about privatization, the transfer of ownership to business or corporations. Under the category, Word History, you will find a more complete description of privatization.

Here is an example of what can happen when corporations overreach and privatize mother nature herself. How serious is the problem of privatization? Monsanto has already patented many natural seeds for growing. Common Dreams reported in January 2004:

BROOKLIN, Canada – Agribusiness giant Monsanto has sued more than 100 U.S. farmers, and its “seed police” have investigated thousands of others, for what the company terms illegal use of its patented genetically engineered seeds, and activists charge is “corporate extortion”. Monsanto has a budget of 10 million dollars and a staff of 75 devoted solely to investigating and prosecuting farmers, the report said. Entire article, click here.

How does privatization take root?
What is happening in Wisconsin is a prime example of how exorbitant wealth can influence politics, policy, environmental regulations and laws which affect the way we live, how we live, AND what access we have to life sustaining elements – energy, food, mineral resources, and even water, BUT more importantly, its about WHO controls the way we live: our collective publicly run government or private interests and monopolies. Buried within Wisconsin’s SB11 is a provision which ” would allow the State to exempt some state wetlands from environmental oversight. It would be too much to say that the fact that a prominent Republican owns part of the wetlands that will be exempted.” Read all the provisions in SB11, click here.

Also in SB11 is this:
(1) Notwithstanding ss. 13.48 (14) (am) and 16.705 (1), the department may sell any state−owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state. Notwithstanding ss. 196.49 and 196.80, no approval or certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant, and any such purchase is considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification of a project under s. 196.49 (3) (b).

This provision opens the door to companies like Koch Industries who supported Governor Walker in his election bid to purchase Wisconsin PUBLIC ASSETS on the cheap.

So, this is how it works. Influence peddling $$$ from wealthy interests insinuate their desires upon elected officials — public servants — to include provisions in bills that when passed by those elected officials (who are supported by special interests) nudge along their agendas – and that in this case, favors privatization. THIS is why lobbying should be outlawed.

What’s Next? Water, the Most Valuable Resource and Commodity on Earth

Three intertwined stories should alert us to the dangers of privatization of water.

From FRONTLINE: Bolivia – Leasing the Rain

Privatization sparks a deadly protest in the town of Cochabamba when the Bolivian government sells off its water system to a private, multi-national consortium Aguas del Tunari. New Yorker writer William Finnegan travels to Cochabamba to learn why people took to the streets and what happens next.

The spark was privatization. A private consortium, dominated by the Bechtel Corporation of San Francisco, had taken over Cochabamba’s water system and raised water rates. Protestors blamed Bechtel for trying to “lease the rain.”

Read entire article, click here

Leasing the Rain by William Finnegan

The world is running out of fresh water, and the fight to control it has begun.

In this “Letter from Bolivia” New Yorker correspondent William Finnegan describes the intersection of global freshwater shortages and efforts to privatize utilities in third world countries. After hearing news of the Cochabamba water revolts, Finnegan traveled to Bolivia “to find out how the global water business looks from ground.”

Who Is Bechtel?
I first heard of Bechtel in the 70s and then more in the 80s when Reagan was President.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, 2004, Excerpts:

George Schultz was secretary of the treasury and chairman of the Council on Economic Policy under Nixon, served as Bechtel president, and then became secretary of state under Reagan. Caspar Weinberger was a Bechtel vice president and general council, and later the secretary of defense under Reagan. Richard Cheney served as secretary of defense under George H. W. Bush, as Halliburton president, and as U.S. vice president to George W. Bush. George H. W. Bush, began as founder of Zapata Petroleum Corp., served as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under presidents Nixon, Ford, and was Ford’s CIA director.

Reagan was most definitely a global empire builder, a servant of the corporatocracy. He catered to men who shuttled back and forth from corporate CEO offices to bank boards and into the halls of government. He served the men who appeared to serve him but who in fact ran the government – men like Vice President George H.W. Bush, Secretary of State George Schultz, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, Richard Cheney, Richard Helms, and Robert McNamara, He advocated what those men wanted: an America that controlled the world and all its resources, a world that answered to the commands of America, a U.S. military that would enforce the rules as they were written by America, and an international trade and banking system that supported America as CEO of the global empire.

The Bechtel Group, inc. is a prime example of the cozy relationship between private companies and the U.S. government. Bechtel was the United States’ most influential engineering and construction company. Its president and senior officers included George Shultz and Caspar Weinberger, who despised Torrijos because he brazenly courted a Japanese plan to replace Panama’s existing canal with a new, more efficient one. Such a move not only would transfer the ownership form the United States to Panama but would also exclude Bechtel from participation in the most exciting and potentially lucrative engineering project of the century.

Bechtel – loaded with Nixon, Ford, and Bush cronies, pulls the strings of the Republican Party.

Source: The Form of Money

Film: The Corporation

This topic is explored in the 2003 documentary film The Corporation, in the 2010 Spanish film Even the rain by Icíar Bollaín and on Bechtel’s website. In January 2006, Bechtel and the other international partners settled the lawsuit against the Bolivian government for a reported two bolivianos, after intense protests that followed a ruling on jurisdiction favorable to Bechtel by the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes.

Take a breath and watch this trailer and you will get a hint at the dangers of corporatism, privatization, and monopolies. Visit the filmmakers website, click here

This is a segment that covers the news coverup of this documentary AND further reporting on the Bolivian Privatization of Water by Bechtel.

Localization: Common Security Clubs

People are hungry for this information, hungry to share their experiences and frustrations and hungry to gain some control in a world that often seems out of control. We are already beginning to feel that we are part of a large and growing awareness worldwide that our current economy and ecology are inseparable and unsustainable. We can’t wait for change; we must be the change. Together.

Trudy McNulty, a facilitator in Portland, Maine.

I am on board with localization. I have been reading about Common Security Clubs and see this as one way to rebuild communities.

What Are Common Security Clubs?

A place to come together to increase our personal security in a rapidly changing world by:

* Courageously facing our economic and ecological challenges, learning together about root causes.
* Building relationships that strengthen our security and undertaking concrete steps for mutual aid and shared action.
* Rediscovering the abundance of what we have and recognizing the possibility of a better future.
* Seeing ourselves as part of a larger effort to create a fair and healthy economy that works for everyone.

In the process, a common security club allows neighbors (co-workers, etc) to get to know one another, find inspiration, have fun, and strengthen community.

Three Components of CSCs

1. LEARNING TOGETHER: Through popular education tools, videos and shared readings, participants increase their understanding of the larger economic forces on our lives. Why is the economy in distress? How did these changes happen? How does this connect to the global economy? What are the ecological factors contributing to the changes? What is our vision for a healthy sustainable economy? How can I reduce my economic vulnerability? How can I get out of debt?

2. MUTUAL AID: Through stories, examples, web-based resources, a workbook and mutual support, participants reflect on what makes them secure. How can I help myself and my neighbor facing foreclosure, unemployment, or economic insecurity? What can we do together to increase our economic security at the local level?

3. SOCIAL ACTION: Many of our challenges won’t be solved through personal or local mutual aid efforts. They require us to work together to press for larger state, national and even global changes. Coming together, how can we become politically engaged to reclaim our country from the casino capitalists? What state and federal policies will increase our personal security? Can ordinary citizens around the world influence the reshaping of the global economy over the next few years? What program will truly address the economic and ecological realities of our time?

Want to know more? Go to Common Security Club now

Why Buy Produce Locally?

Most produce in the US is picked 4 to 7 days before being placed on supermarket shelves, and is shipped for an average of 1500 miles before being sold. And this is when taking into account only US grown products!

Go to, Local Harvest to read more on, Why Buy Local