Food policy, sustainability, & monetary policy: Relevant conference - Chicago, Sept. 29 - Oct. 2

6 views

Skip to first unread message

Debbie Hillman

unread,

Sep 28, 2016, 11:00:13 AM9/28/16

to AUA Agriculture for Urban, sustain-...@googlegroups.com

Hi, all --

I'm guessing that the American Monetary Institute's 12th annual conference is not likely to be of great interest to most of you. But just in case someone may be able to attend this week's conference in downtown Chicago, here's why I think it should be of interest to all of us:

1. U.S. MONEY & BANKING SYSTEM RIGGED. I believe that the money and banking system in the U.S. is so manipulated and so rigged that nothing we do in the food-and-farm or sustainability arenas will make much of a difference -- until we address the money and banking system. I have come to this conclusion after living for 65 years, after wondering how prices get set (for 55 of those years), after being consciously green (for 45 of those years), and after working on food-and-farm justice for the last 11 years. No matter how many and how hard people work on sustainability and food-and-farm justice, the numbers are still not adding up.

The good news is that I am not the only one who thinks that. There are people who have been working on monetary reform proposals for quite a while, so as to make the U.S. money and banking system more democratic. The American Monetary Institute is one such group.

2. AMERICAN MONETARY INSTITUTE CONFERENCE (Sept. 29 - Oct. 1)

http://www.monetary.org

This week's conference -- in downtown Chicago -- features two speakers of interest:

a. Dennis Kucinich, former Ohio Congressman (the Bernie Sanders of the 2008 presidential campaign). He is keynoting the AMI conference as a proponent of monetary reform that he formulated in the NEED Act, before he was gerrymandered out of office. The NEED Act would have been (and still could be) a bailout (and more) for the rest of us -- the non-bankers.

b. Elizabeth Kucinich, wife of Dennis Kucinich, and Policy Director for the Center for Food Safety. She is speaking at this conference (as she has in the past) because she is an expert on monetary reform. I have suggested to her that it would be great if she could connect the dots between monetary policy and food-and-farm policy. She replied that it's a great idea, but she has not yet articulated the connection.

3. DETAILS. For some other resources and messaging about why the money and banking system needs to be addressed by anyone interested in food-and-farm democracy, see my latest blogpost:

U.S. Farm Movements and Monetary Policy

(originally posted on COMFOOD on Sept. 8).

One of the resources, Mary Mellor, ties monetary policy directly to sustainability and justice. Note the title of her book: Debt or Democracy: Public Money for Sustainability and Social Justice.

CAVEAT: Please note that the AMI conference agenda does NOT have any session devoted to food-and-farm policy or sustainability. In email conversation with AMI's Exec. Director, Stephen Zarlenga, he has acknowledged that this could be an interesting intersection and that informal conversations might take place at the conference. But it was clear that no one on the conference planning team was seeing the food-and-farm community as an important ally. (!!!!!)

Since we all have our learning curves on these large and complicated issues, it would be great for food-and-farm and sustainability advocates to attend the AMI conference to at least connect with Elizabeth and Dennis Kucinich, and with AMI staff, other speakers, and attendees.

Here's some questions to start the conversation:

Would the NEED Act help U.S. farmers and eaters and others interested in sustainability?

If so, how?

If so, who of the 2016 candidates for U.S. House of Representatives would be a good sponsor of the bill in Congress?

Would it be a good platform for a candidate to run on in 2016?

Unfortunately, I am unable to attend. If anyone is able to attend, I'd be interested in any feedback.

-- Debbie