Post edited 11:57 am – July 10, 2011 by Thomas Sumney

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For most, everyone thought the global ecomomy and the green

revolution was only hurting a limited segment of our national economy

like factory workers and local family farmers.  Since we would enjoy

tons more stuff through "walmarts" and pounds and pounds more cheap food

– who cared – right?  There loss; our gain.  I think it's clear to all

of us now that we're all interconnected, all interdependent and ALL in

DANGER for loss and servitude. For many of us, it's too late in the current paradigm, but we do have the collective power to reverse our present for a better future.  I think

the following 17 points for creating sustainable communities by Wendell Berry

really supports the mission and vision of CGB. Consider these points

for yourself.  If we don't find a way to fight the global agenda and the

green revolution by working together to rebuild our local communities

and economies, we are going to loose the birthrights that our founding

Fathers fought and died to give us.  We are the future they were living

for; what future are we living for? 

 

"A community economy is not an

economy in which well-placed persons can make a ‘killing’. It is an

economy whose aim is generosity and a well-distributed and safeguarded

abundance.

Wendell Berry is a strong defender

of family, rural communities, and traditional family farms. These

underlying principles could be described as ‘the preservation of

ecological diversity and integrity, and the renewal, on sound cultural

and ecological principles, of local economies and local communities:

1. Always ask of any proposed change or innovation: What will this do to our community? How will this affect our common wealth.

2. Always include local nature – the land, the water, the air, the native creatures – within the membership of the community.

3. Always ask how local needs might be supplied from local sources, including the mutual help of neighbors.

4. Always supply local needs first (and only then think of exporting products – first to nearby cities, then to others).

5. Understand the ultimate unsoundness

of the industrial doctrine of ‘labor saving’ if that implies poor work,

unemployment, or any kind of pollution or contamination.

6. Develop properly scaled value-adding

industries for local products to ensure that the community does not

become merely a colony of national or global economy.

7. Develop small-scale industries and businesses to support the local farm and/or forest economy.

8. Strive to supply as much of the community’s own energy as possible.

9. Strive to increase earnings (in whatever form) within the community for as long as possible before they are paid out.

10. Make sure that money paid into the

local economy circulates within the community and decrease expenditures

outside the community.

11. Make the community able to invest in

itself by maintaining its properties, keeping itself clean (without

dirtying some other place), caring for its old people, and teaching its

children.

12. See that the old and young take care

of one another. The young must learn from the old, not necessarily, and

not always in school. There must be no institutionalized childcare and

no homes for the aged. The community knows and remembers itself by the

association of old and young.

13. Account for costs now conventionally

hidden or externalized. Whenever possible, these must be debited

against monetary income.

14. Look into the possible uses of local currency, community-funded loan programs, systems of barter, and the like.

15. Always be aware of the economic

value of neighborly acts. In our time, the costs of living are greatly

increased by the loss of neighborhood, which leaves people to face their

calamities alone.

16. A rural community should always be acquainted and interconnected with community-minded people in nearby towns and cities.

17. A sustainable rural economy will

depend on urban consumers loyal to local products. Therefore, we are

talking about an economy that will always be more cooperative than

competitive." _____ Wendell Berry