The last several weeks has shown us a couple of things. First, the financial markets are truly global, as our weak management of our own banking systems have impacted economies throughout the world. Second, if we are going to invest our money and take control of our lives over the long term, we need to focus on creating a sustainable local community.
This means investing and supporting local food, energy, and transportation systems. We need a viable bus system, bike lanes, a local coop food store, and more companies like TS Designs who have invested in sustainable solar energy.
I grew up in Alamance county and used to listen to stories my grandfather would tell about running a grocery store in downtown Graham during the early and mid 1900’s. He would tell me about buy cows from this farm, milk from this local dairy, country hams from this farmer, etc. He had relationships with many local producers and together they got through the Great Depression. My Dad said what he remembered about the Great Depression was the number of people that came through the area looking for any kind of work and food. Locally, because we were still agriculturally grounded, most local families came through without starving because our community was grounded to food production.
Many of you know that I have a small farm outside of Gibsonville, in Alamance County. I tried to sell onions and garlic to our local Harris Teeter this season and was rejected because I did not have $2 million dollars of insurance on my products. If I was lucky, my whole garlic and onion crop would only be worth a few thousand dollars, so this was crazy.
If peak oil raises the prices of transportation, locally produced food will be the most available and fairly priced as the ‘real’ costs of food production are reintroduced into the market. Having the food COOP is a key to encouraging new small farmers, is the key to having local food available every day, and is a keystone to building a new vibrant local economy.
Join us today. Invest in community development notes. We will announce location soon and we can begin to rebuild our local food economy, support our local transportation initiatives, and build our community. Let’s keep our important investments local.
Sam Moore
