A Vision of Sustainable Community

Communities of the past gathered and organized themselves around the primary essentials: food, water, and the materials for shelter. When these essentials were adequately provided for, the division of labor allowed for a proliferation of vocations dedicated to enriching our cultural lives and satisfying our wants. In time, the vast majority of our lives became fundamentally disconnected from the basic necessities that make our lives possible. This has been touted as a consequence of the advance of civilization. To a certain extent, this may be true. To not need to be concerned with the day to day task of food production or the production of life’s other essentials can be considered as liberating to society. To not be able, however, to control or safeguard these essentials seems irresponsible at best, a recipe for disaster at worst.

At a time in the not so distant past, most of life’s essentials were provided for by our immediate community. Gradually, we came to look to outside sources for these essentials. The economies of scale made it possible to purchase these essentials for far less than what could be obtained from the community. Whole professions became unprofitable and faded into non-existence. The close and subtle bonds that held the community together were no longer necessary. One needed no longer to rely upon one’s neighbor for support; that support could be bought at the marketplace for the lowest possible price. It seems, however, that we may have been swindled by this lure of price. Our livelihoods are no longer dependent upon those near and dear to us, but rather upon globalized markets that we have little contact with or control over. Through the simple practice of satisfying our wants and needs from sources outside our community or region, we ourselves continue to create and support this system. If we so choose, we can change our habits and once again lend our support to those near and dear to us.

We live in a town that serves as a gateway to a natural place of pilgrimage. Here people from all over the world come to reconnect their souls with the harmonious rhythms of nature. We therefore have in our hands a unique opportunity to become a model town that lives in harmony with nature. This opportunity is ours for the taking, and will bring with it an irresistible appeal to ever more visitors. We can advertise till we are blue in the face and out of money, and to no avail. To paraphrase:

If we don’t build it, they won’t come!

So what is it that needs to be built? We need to build a sustainable economy; one that is rooted in care for our townsfolk, but with arms open wide for visitors. We need to build a community that we ever increasingly love to live in. This means really living in our community, and its center: our downtown. Our downtown is the heart of our community; it is our commons. If we make a point of going there and supporting our locally owned independent businesses, our downtown will gradually begin to be able to fully support our needs. When we make our downtown a place that we are well satisfied with, a place wherein we love to spend our time, our visitors will be equally pleased with it, and automatically drawn to it. And as our downtown becomes a place where we and our visitors often dwell, our infrastructure will expand to make it a place wherein to dwell comfortably. We are in a sense a global village, a town with roots all across the country and even the world. We have numerous part-time resident families that have been coming here for several generations. We have here also, the opportunity to be a beacon to the world, an inspiration to many.

So our first step toward creating a sustainable economy is to commit to our community, and to our neighbors, by supporting our local economy. This will begin to cultivate a resiliency in the economy, a strength which is inherent in natural systems and natural communities. This strength can be employed to aid other communities in time of need. A recent example is a Mennonite community that had the internal strength to send a crew of relief workers to New Orleans for six months after hurricane Katrina!

In addition to supporting our neighbor, having a sustainable economy and living in harmony with nature requires us to become ever increasingly more environmentally sensitive. Environmental sensitivity is born of the ethic of always leaving our world in a better condition than we found it in. We have to honestly ask ourselves in every act we do, “Am I improving or degrading our common environment.” Should we choose to do so, we could easily follow the path toward energy self-sufficiency, food security, and a rich cultural life. We could be a town that lives in harmony with nature. Again, this role is uniquely ours for the taking. We need not wait for anyone else to make this happen for us. We simply have to begin to live this Vision. Having done so, everything else will fall into its rightful place. Let us begin.

More than a Grocery - Part 1

We all aspire to find a life that is more in harmony with our values and with the spirit of nature. We get inspired by the words and actions of others. But how do we begin to bring this inspiration into our everyday patterns of living?

It is for this purpose that Local Roots Co-op is coming into being. But how can a mere grocery store help bring about this change in our way of life? Local Roots Co-op is structured like an ecosystem: with multiple functions being performed by each of its elements, and multiple elements performing each function. This structure begins with a necessity we all must have, food. This is a necessity that interpenetrates and transcends all economic models. As such, it is a most appropriate means for bridging the gap between the current unsustainable economic system and the sustainable economic systems of the future.

Facilitating this transition toward a sustainable way of life is the Co-op’s reason for being. Providing a health-promoting and sustainable food supply is the Co-op’s condition for being. The Co-op’s mission is to serve our World by serving our Neighbor. In practical terms, a great portion of its mission is realized in giving preference to local goods and services rather than those of a more remote origin. This preference, of course, is to be given with respect to a sustainable ethical context.

To a certain extent this ethic has been realized in the rise of Community Supported Agriculture and Farmers’ Markets. Yet in both of these entities, there seems to be something lacking. In Community Supported Agriculture, we are indeed giving much needed support to a local farm, but are we supporting our community as well? Is the farm meeting all of our needs? The Farmers’ Markets may be better at meeting more of our needs. But do they do so at all times? And can we be sure that we are supporting sustainable farming practices? And are we sure that the goods at the Farmers’ Markets are local? These models were a great leap forward from the past. Neither, however, is fully conducive to the task of building a sustainable way of life for our society.

Small organic farms need fairly direct access to the communities that support them. Communities need a supply of a variety of sustainably produced farm goods. It is to satisfy both of these needs that a farm-to-market model is proposed. This model is designed to satisfy needs, build connections, and build community in the process. Building community is an integral component toward achieving a sustainable way of life.

We have been expected to believe in a myth of rugged individualism: that the good of the whole is contained in the good of the individual. We have been told that ‘looking out for number one’ and asking ‘what is in it for me’ are high acts of altruism, conducive to the greatest benefit of all. Quite to the contrary, great souls down through the centuries have always asked us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Those who have made it a point to practice this have found that the good of the individual is inextricably linked with the good of the neighbor, the good of the community, the good of the whole.

So how does the Co-op intend to build community? Like any ecosystem, the means are manifold. The Co-op is member and community owned; it is engaged with the community and responsive to it. The Co-op has a large member and community volunteer staff. This brings the people of the community into a greater proximity with each other. We cannot serve our neighbor without knowing our neighbor. And we will not know our neighbor if we do not meet our neighbor.

When we commit to using our community resources: businesses that are the life-bread of our neighbors, we contribute to the well-being of our community. What has been called the multiplier effect comes into play. Significantly more money stays in the community when it is spent at a locally owned independent business. Locally owned independent businesses are invested in their community, and spend a larger portion of their revenue on supporting local non-profits. Despite all of these facts, it is difficult for people to break the habit of merely looking for the seemingly best deal, and to commit to supporting the community that supports them. The Co-op will serve as a kind of support group wherein the ethic of supporting our neighbors first is cultivated.

On the Importance of Being Local

What kind of world do we want to live in? Our choices today are what will determine what that world will be. We can look to our neighbor, or to some outside entity to satisfy our needs. Whatever choice we make will empower the recipient. All too often we have empowered entities that have no interest in our true well being. At the same time we have reduced the capacity of our neighbors, who are most likely interested in our well being, to help meet our needs. Supporting local businesses, local farmers, and local organizations helps us to regain the power to choose the way we would like the world to be.

Who is more likely to listen to us? A non-local entity or your neighbor. What about the money that we save when we shop at chain stores or on the internet? That saved money has its costs:

• First, it sends our hard earned money out of the town that we live in. It is not available to continue circulating through, and thereby enriching, our town. This is the well known multiplier effect in which a dollar spent at a local business creates at least three times its value in the local economy.
  
• Second, that savings is the means by which our local businesses are eliminated, and the taxes by which they support our local government services, as well as the many local charities that they support. Saving money puts our local shops out of business.
  
• Third, that savings is also the means by which we lose the sense of place in our town as well as our sense of community. We cannot talk of community when we lack a venue with which to interact with the people of the community. Our patterns of development are not conducive to neighborliness. Neighborliness requires a commons. Our commons is our downtown. All too often in this community, we think of our downtown as a tourist destination. We need to claim it as our own! This is where we encounter our neighbor. And if our commons is a place not exactly suited to our needs, let us endeavor to make it so! Only as such, will it be an appealing place for locals and visitors alike.

The Meaning of Local

It is the mission of Local Roots Co-op to encourage us all to serve our world by serving our neighbor. A means by which we attempt to do so is by giving preference to local goods and services rather than those of a more remote origin. The question inevitably arises: what is local? Does this mean being sentenced to a purely seasonal diet? Does it mean giving up bananas, oranges and coffee?

The principle of giving preference to local goods and services must always be understood with respect to our duty to our neighbor. As such, being local is both a matter of relationship and of distance. Whether we like it or not, we are our brothers’ keepers. When we purchase a good or service from someone who is in our community, we give the gift of livelihood. If we do no more than look to our neighbor for the satisfaction of our needs and desires, and we will have done a world of good to the people of our community. If we neglect this duty, we inflict harm on our neighbor, our community and the world of which it is a part.

What happens if the good or service is not available in our own community, but is supplied by someone in the neighboring community? The person in the neighboring community, being the person nearest to us who is able to fulfill our need, is in that respect and by that relationship local, our neighbor, one to whom we have a duty to support. If all or even some of us practiced this principle, it could envelop the Earth. We will have served the world by serving our neighbor. If, on the other hand, we strive to serve some part of the remote world scene while we neglect our neighbor, we may in our zeal do harm in both places. Wherever we may be, we will find ourselves uniquely placed in proximity to people with whom we have an opportunity to gain an intimate knowledge of; a knowledge of their hopes, of their aspirations, and of their needs. These are the people who we are uniquely called upon to serve.

Now take the instance of a farmer that serves our needs 9 months out of the year. In the other three months, there is no disservice to that farmer in our seeking out produce from a farm farther away, because the goods we are looking for are not available from that farmer. This same principle applies to items that we commonly have need of that are not produced locally, like bananas, oranges or coffee. There may be a relatively local distributor of these items that we could support, and following this principle it would be our duty to do so.

It must be kept in mind that this principle implies no disservice or dislike of those people or companies who are non-local. On the contrary, we are simply practicing the most effective means that we have available to render service to them through our whole hearted service to our neighbor. And so if we find a visitor in our midst, as we so often do in our town, he or she is recognized as our guest. The guest is God, it is said. As such, let us treat our visitors with the utmost courtesy.

Price: The Hidden Cost of Saving Money

Some people may have noticed that our prices are 15-20% more than Vitamin Cottage. For diapers, their Price is about our Cost! I discussed this with the Ft. Collins Co-op. They deal with the same problem. Although, when we can buy in larger quantities, we will realize a 10% discount. So our List prices will indeed be higher than Vitamin Cottage, Whole Foods, or any other Community-wrecking mega-corporation. However, for a non-working member, the price would be comparable (our 10% volume discount + 10% member discount). For a working member, there would be an appreciable savings. (An additional 15%)!

The point, however, must be made that we can no longer be motivated solely or even at all by price. We need to reorient ourselves to do what is best for US, rather than what seems best for ME. We will realize in this practice that what is best for me is contained in what is best for us. There is a hidden and insidious cost to saving money. If I spend more, ironically I will find that I Have more. Because when my money supports my neighbor, my neighbor is then empowered to both meet his/her own needs, AND support me. This principle NEEDS to be carried to the extreme. It is a question of what Life we want to support, our neighbor or an essentially lifeless corporation. When I support my neighbor, I build my community, the only thing proof against natural disasters, terrorism, global market fluctuations, etc. So like I said, this must be practiced even to the point of where I buy my gas; buy it here! It costs 15-20% more than it does in Lyons, but you feed a family here, and build your community. Same with computer cartridges, books and anything else. If there is a separate moral issue with the business in question, that is different. This is where we practice economic democracy: we don't support the neighbor with whom we have ethical qualms. We wish him well, gently ask him to reform, and if he refuses we withdraw our support and cooperation.

This is a difficult pattern and paradigm to break; but once we do, we will realize the power that we have foolishly lavished on those unworthy of it.

The End and the Beginning

Our time at the Farmers' Market has come to an end. The task at hand now is to finish the first phase of the project and get the doors open.
We will be having another Clean-Up morning tomorrow morning at the usual time: 9:30-12:30. Only a few tasks remain:

• Sand the stockroom wall and second coat of mud
• Power wash 3 more items
• Finish painting Flower Cart
• Continue scrubbing down Produce Cooler
• Strap the shelving together
• Sweep/Mop galore

It is looking like we will not have our freezer operational by the 27th. We should have the Walk-in and the Produce cooler, however.
Our Day to Build the New Economy is going to be a celebration; but it will also be the beginning of a Membership drive: we would like to double our Membership in the following month. It should prove easy, as the grocery portion of the Co-op will be open, and some of the benefit of the Co-op Membership will be immediately evident. There will also be glimpses of what is to come.

Thank you all for your support. We look forward to serving you. We will be giving birth to the beginnings of a whole new economy, a whole new world.

First phase of Local Roots Co-op nearing completion

In a few weeks, the first phase of Local Roots Co-op will be complete, and we will be ready to open the Grocery portion of the Co-op. We will be opening the Co-op in weak economic times and severely undercapitalized. Our success, however, depends upon another kind of capital: the goodwill of our community. We began this project because we believe in you, our neighbors, our community.

We are calling on you to lend us your support from our very first day. We are asking nothing more than live by this principle: If there is anything that you need, look to the Co-op first to satisfy that need. If you cannot find what you need at the Co-op, and it is not in our scope or power to get it for you, then try another Locally Owned Independent business. In practicing this principle, we will strengthen and empower our community.

The Co-op is designed to succeed if its members and well-wishers commit to using it. Please let us know what you would like to see stocked on our shelves. Use the Wish List page of our website or simply email me with your request (if the Wish List procedure proves difficult).

In the next few weeks we hope to finish the following:

• Minor upgrades to the Restrooms
• A few drywall patches
• New front doors
• Moving the front door to the back
• Electrical upgrades
• Installation of Walk-in, Produce Cooler, and Freezer
• Installation of POS System
  

When these tasks are nearing completion, we would like to have a cleaning party. When the shelves, wall, and floor are clean, we will be ready to receive our opening order. The power will then be in your hands to bring this Co-op to life. It is an instrument designed to serve us all. Let us commit to giving it the power to do so.