Proposal for Local Food Currency
fieldsofheather
Please send me feedback if you have any. It is my first rough draft. Tear it up.
Thanks much,
Mira
Proposal for Local Food Currency
Purpose: To
support sustainable local food production, distribution, and awareness.
To make
healthy food more accessible, especially to low income populations. To
begin the implementation of a Bay Area wide currency system.
Governance: Representatives from different nonprofit and for profit entities that are part of the currency system, as well as representatives from the communities using the currency. Positions would have term limits.
Mechanism: Paper scrip, mutual credit online accounts, eventually card. Will likely expand to other kinds of local businesses after initial implementation is successful.
Backing: Labor on local food projects, related businesses and nonprofits. Redemption for local food. There would be either be no conversion back to dollars or a penalty for conversion (prefer the former). The money sitting in the bank would be available for loans or grants to urban agriculture projects (urban CSAs, community gardens, rooftop gardens, urban farms, school gardens, coop grocery store start ups, farmers market start ups) in combination with food currency loans/grants, thereby converting value from $USD to real value in community – sustainable food security.
Issuance: Purchase
at a "buy local" discount or as change at certain businesses or
nonprofits that
are local and involved with food and ag - gardening classes and
stores, restaurants,
farmers markets, for CSA shares,
underground farmers market, grocery stores
and small producers. Offer memberships where you get even more of a
discount on
the scrip as a perk for the membership fee. Earn the scrip through
working at
approved local food related projects
like Hayes
Valley Farm or a food bank. This creates opportunities for more
abundance of
food flowing to those that need it most - those that don't have $USD.
Workers
at a local business can earn scrip as a bonus. People could also earn
scrip by
gleaning or by growing food in an open lot or other location, such as
backyard, and turning the
produce in for distribution in exchange for scrip. Grants and loans may
be made
to sustainable food security projects. The Timebank could form a
parallel online accounting system
for this project where timebank members could choose that their
volunteer hours
go to a food currency account (which would be taxable) and then could
draw down
on positive accounts to issue scrip. Or if we have scrip denominated in
dollars, we could form a separate mutual credit accounting system.
Circulation: People/entities would earn or buy or receive as change the currency and then spend at businesses, nonprofits, markets and independent producers related to sustainable, local food. We would encourage member organizations to encourage their suppliers to join the system and integrate the supply chain, thereby creating a currency loop that keeps the money flowing. Loans made in food currency would need to be paid back in food currency thereby creating pressure for borrowers to find ways to both spend and earn back their currency. Businesses that have log jams of currency would be helped to find ways to spend to support their business, to make nonprofit donations of currencies (community grants) for which they would receive public acknowledgment, or to provide bonuses to their employees.
Participants: Unemployed, underemployed, elderly, differently-abled, youth, anyone! Food-related nonprofits, grocery stores and restaurants that source some sustainable local food, farmers markets, underground markets, urban farms, educational institutions that teach about food/agriculture, food banks, municipal food projects.
Jim
Sounds good in theory, but a little complicated. Might the experiment
start with a few anchor players?
For instance, a respected CSA/farm might issue them in exchange for
labor; and a food stand in
exchange for produce that they purchase?
Would you see this as volunteer-bootstrapped, or contingent on receiving
an initial grant?
How about annual maintenance grants?
I HAVE anecdotally noticed that in Asheville, Chapel Hill and
Burlington, VT; organic farmers
are the occupation that is most alternative currency-friendly.
-- Jim Barton
PO Box 6821
West Asheville, NC 28816
(828) 423-0762 cell & google voicemail
******************************
On 5/11/10 1:46 PM, fieldsofheather wrote:
>
> Please send me feedback if you have any. It is my first rough draft.
> Tear it up.
>
> Thanks much,
>
> Mira
>
>
> *_Proposal for Local Food Currency _*
>
> *Purpose:* To support sustainable local food production, distribution,
> income populations. To begin the implementation of a Bay Area wide
> currency system.
>
> representatives from the communities using the currency. Positions
> would have term limits.
>
> initial implementation is successful.
>
> conversion back to dollars or a penalty for conversion (prefer the
> former). The money sitting in the bank would be available for loans or
> grants to urban agriculture projects (urban CSAs, community gardens,
> rooftop gardens, urban farms, school gardens, coop grocery store start
> ups, farmers market start ups) in combination with food currency
> loans/grants, thereby converting value from $USD to real value in
> community – sustainable food security.
>
> - gardening classes and stores, restaurants, farmers markets, for CSA
> shares, underground farmers market, grocery stores and small
> producers. Offer memberships where you get even more of a discount on
> the scrip as a perk for the membership fee. Earn the scrip through
> working at approved local food related projects like Hayes Valley Farm
> or a food bank. This creates opportunities for more abundance of food
> flowing to those that need it most - those that don't have $USD.
> Workers at a local business can earn scrip as a bonus. People could
> also earn scrip by gleaning or by growing food in an open lot or other
> location, such as backyard, and turning the produce in for
> distribution in exchange for scrip. Grants and loans may be made to
> sustainable food security projects. The Timebank could form a parallel
> online accounting system for this project where timebank members could
> choose that their volunteer hours go to a food currency account (which
> would be taxable) and then could draw down on positive accounts to
> issue scrip. Or if we have scrip denominated in dollars, we could form
> a separate mutual credit accounting system.
>
> independent producers related to sustainable, local food. We would
> encourage member organizations to encourage their suppliers to join
> the system and integrate the supply chain, thereby creating a currency
> loop that keeps the money flowing. Loans made in food currency would
> need to be paid back in food currency thereby creating pressure for
> borrowers to find ways to both spend and earn back their currency.
> Businesses that have log jams of currency would be helped to find ways
> to spend to support their business, to make nonprofit donations of
> currencies (community grants) for which they would receive public
> acknowledgment, or to provide bonuses to their employees.
>
