OWS needs a new home.

I've been thinking about OWS a lot lately.  I'm excited that people are finally standing up and saying "the system is broken!" and demanding something change.  The changes seem to be coming pretty fast and hard right now.  All over the country the 1% and those who work for them or aspire to be them have said, "ENOUGH!" and shut down the protests.  It seems that the message must be working somewhat.  But, it also points out a weakness with OWS.  Philosophy and righteous indignation can only get you so far.  What has happened is OWS has become an annoyance.  It has caused Big Money to flex its muscle a bit, but it hasn't caused change. Annoyance may change the public stance of some people or institutions, but not the base behaviors.  The truth is, THEY have no reason to change.  We can shout all we want about how unfair the system is, but at the end of the day we support it when we turn on the light, or the TV or the generator we bought to power our protest camp. When we eat food from the grocery store we support the Big Money system.  They get their money and their power from the fact that we have ceded our responsibility for meeting our basic needs to the system.  The system doesn't have to change because without it, as things are right now, most of us would die of hunger, or cold, or sickness.  If OWS wants to change the system, they need a new home.  That home has to be in the weak points of the system, and it has to be directed at creating a new way for people to meet their basic needs outside the Big Money system.  What needs to happen is we, the 99% need to band together and start getting our food, and out power, and our clothes, and everything from sources outside the current structure.  Then the system will change, or it will die of starvation.

So, all you OWS activists and want-n-be activists, keep drumming, keep protesting, but start acting by meeting your needs from outside the system, or doing without.  Tell us what you are doing and how we can support that.  Like I've said in other posts, Occupy the Food System, or some other part of machine that supports Big Money.  Then we will win.

Occupying the Food System

I've posted about the food economy a few times and told a little about our local food co-op.  As I gear up to push Occupy into the food system, I thought it would be wise to update our progress with the co-op.  The co-op idea came out of a need to have better access to local food for consumers, and better access to local markets for producers.  Our little town has 4 grocery stores, Buehlers (a regional chain), Aldis, an IGA, and a Super Walmart.  None of these stores sell locally produced food.  Buehlers makes some effort to buy a bit of fresh produce from a regional produce auction, but that's it.  We also have 3 good farmers markets that run from May through October.  They have been growing every year.  The problem for us is two-fold. First, access to local food.  The market times don't work for many people in our community, and they are closed for 6 months.  That's a long time to do without.  Second, producers can't afford to grow because they can't access the market for half the year.  No local producer had enough product to capture a contract with one of the local groceries.  None had enough product to open a year round retail space.  Without more income and market access, the producers couldn't grow.  Without more production, they couldn't break into the local grocery market.  Catch 22.  So a group of us banded together and started a producer/consumer co-op.  We each chipped in some money ($100 for producers and $50 for consumers) to fund the start-up.  The co-op takes a % of the sales to keep the lights on and pay the rent (we hope).  Members work a few hours a month to provide the sales labor and meet other needs.  So far it is working. 

Some things we learned. 

1.  Start before August.  Winter production takes some advanced planning, and August is pretty late to start that.

2.  Don't wait.  You don't need a grant, or lots of money (Some money is helpful!!!).  This is an idea you can talk about forever, plan for, and never get off the ground because there are too many unanswerables.  Just Do It.

3.  Tell the story.  Get community members to buy into the idea.  They need to be part of it.  This isn't a traditional business.  People need to change how they think, what they do, and where they spend their money.  If they become members, buy into the idea, they will change.  That is worth more than any number of grants.

4.  You need a leader, or leaders, but you have to let all the members participate.  This only works as a co-op.  That means everyone has ownership and what they have to offer, including their ideas, is valuable.

So, GO FOR IT!!!  The food system is the easies to take back.  See what you can do in your community. 

I'll be happy to answer questions and share what we are doing and resources I know of. 

Occupy

I've been busy with the local food co-op and haven't taken time to put thoughts to paper, or virtual paper... but the Occupy movement has captivated me.  I love the public rising up to point out just how broken the system is.  I wish there was someplace close I could "occupy".  But where I live, small town, dying, leaves me in the spectator seat. 
One of my frustrations with Occupy is the WHO.  When you protest against the system by occupying the bastions of the system, you make a statement.  That is great.  But, what you are asking is for the system to change it's self.  Big money may notice you taking up space in their green space, or causing public concern, but they are not going to change.  There is NO motive for them to change.  Occupy might make the news (less and less it seems...) but they can't motivate big money to change.  The reason is that we (the rest of the 99% who don't get out to protest) are all dependant on the system.  It pays our wages (pathetic as they may be), provides our energy, our technology, our water, our food, everything... so we may protest actively, or in our hearts, but at the end of the day we support the system.  They win.

But, what if there was a way to change the system?  What if we could occupy something that we could actually change?

Here's a part that you can occupy.  The food system.  It isn't fast, but it can be done in less than a year.  If you push for locally produced food, buy local first, support local farmers, etc. we can change the system in one area.  The rest will follow.  In my tiny county FOOD is huge.  31000 people spend more than $64,000,000 a year on food.  Most of it could be produced by local, small scale producers.  But right now we buy all of it from a few big producers.  Food is a system we can OCCUPY!  Seek out local producers and buy from them.  Find ways to help local producers get more market access.  STOP supporting the system. 

OCCUPY THE FOOD SYSTEM.  You might not be able to camp out on Wall Street, but you can choose to not support big money.

Local Food Economics - part 2

A few weeks ago I posted about Local Food Economics and the economic power of a local food system.
So, here is what we are DOING in our community to change the system.

The first thing we did is gather a group of interested people and start a Slow Food chapter.  Why?  Instant non-profit status, national support, and a platform for addressing the myriad food issues in our community. 

The second thing we did is tackle the accessibility issue.  In our community, local food is only available direct from the farm (if you can find it) or at the farmers market (we have three open from May - October).  Local food is not available for 6 months.  Hard to promote eating local, and a local food system if you have to starve half the year.  Our answer, a co-op.  When we looked at our community we found that we had a good pool of farmers market customers who would love access to local food for the whole year.  We also had a core group of local producers who had products that were not seasonal, or had greenhouses that were mostly unused in the winter.  We brought this group together and formed a producer/consumer co-op.  Each co-op member made a small investment in the form of membership.  This, combined with a great deal on a space from the local park district (who had a building that had been sitting empty for the past two years) let us start a year-round, indoor market.  The co-op members will provide the labor, keeping costs down.  It will be a single point check-out so we won't have to have all 20 producers there all the time.  That lets us have the market open more hours and lets the producers have time to do what they do best, produce.  We expect that for the first 6 months (when the local markets are traditionally closed) we will average about $2500 per week in sales.  Tiny, in the grand scope of food sales even in our small community, but that will be a boost to the local producers, allowing them to do more, and it will keep an additional $45000.00 in the community.  Game changer?  Maybe not instantly, but over time, as things grow???  I say yes. 

And the REALLY COOL THING is that we didn't raise any ones taxes, or pass a spending bill, or ask for a grant, or fund this in any way that makes us dependant on or beholden to any outside group or institution.  This is local people addressing a local problem with local resources.  That's a revolution in the making.