Author and activist Judy Wicks is co-founder of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, BALLE, and an international leader and speaker in the local living economy movement. She is former owner of the White Dog Café, acclaimed for its socially progressive and environmentally responsible business practices.

By Judy Wicks

“Materialism and militarism are closely related. Along with racism they form the giant triple evils that Dr. King called upon us to defeat. Each of the three leads us toward cruelty and war, and each depends on a complacent citizenry. By becoming informed about the impact of our decisions and learning to use our economic power mindfully we have the ability to co-create an economy that works for all and bring into being the world we want to live in—one that is healthy, just and peaceful.”

THE BUSINESS ALLIANCE FOR LOCAL LIVING ECONOMIES

“In our 17 years working with local economy leaders across the U.S. and Canada, we have collectively identified patterns in the kinds of relationships crucial to their success. Building healthy, equitable local economies isn’t the work of a single leader or organization: it requires local ecosystems of individuals and institutions to come together, understand their relationships to each other, and choose to collaborate. By co-creating strategies these different stakeholders can align and accelerate the positive impact they seek in their local communities.”

THE GREAT LAKES

“Imagine the experience of using a form of money (a currency) imbued with our collective effort and ethic of grateful reciprocity? We don’t have to choose between protecting water as a shared and sacred commons and growing the current economy.

Let’s imagine that the value of money is tied to the quality and availability of water to serve life in the Great Lakes basin. Since we are water, the water’s benefit is our benefit. We know economics is a sub-system of ecology and our money system should reflect this, not subvert it.” – Kosmos Seed Grant Recipient, Great Lakes Commons

NORWAY AND THE US PACIFIC NORTHWEST

“The salmon industry recruits a richly layered semantics of separation, scripting the encounter between humans and salmon through the disinterested, alienating language of the rational intellect. Salmon are “resource,” “product,” “brand,” “biomass.” Such language appeals to the Cartesian ideal of a disembodied res cogitans, a thinking mind that is wholly separate not only from the world, but from its own body.” – Martin Lee Mueller

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

“While we know that most synthetic dyes cause harm to our waterways and endocrine system, we see a growing community of natural dyeing teachers, practitioners, and innovators who are growing, foraging, and making color that honors place…With the Fashion Revolution campaign encouraging all to ask ‘Who Made My Clothes?’ we see more avenues for transparency, accountability, and education coming online.” – Jess Daniels

GREAT BARRINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS

“In a remarkable shift from just a decade ago, natural gas now poses the biggest climate threat in the region.  The last of Massachusetts’ coal plants will be shuttered by 2017. Generation from oil-fired power plants declined 87 percent in the 10 years leading up to 2014 (latest year of complete data), and oil generation will continue declining as longer-term solutions to meeting peak winter demand come online (more on that below).  With coal and oil now effectively out of the regional electricity mix, increased generation from natural gas will start displacing non-emitting sources of energy, undermining efforts to reduce climate pollution.”
– Peter Shattuck and Jamie Howland