Food Policy and Advocacy, Local Food

Even Some Bankers Think Big Banks are Dangerous

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Last week I published a blog titled “Don’t wait for the federal government to fix the economy – relocalize your money now!”  Most readers agreed in general with the theme that we can’t afford banks “too big to fail” (of course most of my readers are progressives).   In conversation with some friends this weekend however, there was a sense that the big banks are inevitable “evil” and the Occupy Wall Street response too unfocused to matter.

While I disagree (as I suggested in the blog) I do understand the feeling that changing the situation given the federal government’s support of centralized power and money will be difficult.  Then I read this article that was published this weekend in the Wall Street Journal and felt a spark of hope!

I’ve reproduced the article in full below, but if you really want to understand this issue go to the source of this viewpoint which was published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas!

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The Wall Street Journal

March 24, 2012, 9:51 p.m. ET

Too Big To Bank There

  • By AL LEWIS

Columnist's name
We have finally reached the point in our financial history where even bankers hate bankers.Last week, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas issued its 2011 annual report with a 34-page essay, “Why We Must End Too Big To Fail—Now.” The report stops short of calling our nation’s largest banks terrorists, but it does dub them “a clear and present danger to the U.S. economy.”

It begins with a letter from regional Fed president Richard Fisher. “More than half of banking industry assets are on the books of just five institutions,” he complains. “They were a primary culprit in magnifying the financial crisis, and their presence continues to play an important role in prolonging our economic malaise.”

This is not the Tea Party. This is not Occupy Wall Street. This is not some disgruntled Goldman Sachs guy firing off a nastygram to the New York Times on his last day. This is a member of the Federal Reserve itself—an institution that bears responsibility for our banking system devolving into an untenable oligarchy that buys off politicians, captures regulators and eats up our money. This is a member of the establishment saying Too-Big-To-Fail, or TBTF, must die.

“The term TBTF disguised the fact that commercial banks holding roughly one-third of the assets in the banking system did essentially fail, surviving only with extraordinary government assistance,” the essay reads.

Their executives paid themselves fortunes to execute failed mergers and acquisitions and accumulate unimaginable piles of toxic debts. We saved them to save the financial system. But now we must break them up so they don’t put us in this ridiculous situation again.

These banks are “a hindrance to the very ideal of American capitalism,” Mr. Fisher writes. And capitalism requires “creative destruction.”

I would add that most of these TBTF banks are criminal enterprises and deserve the death penalty, anyway. The record is clear: They’ve paid millions of dollars to settle fraud allegations, often without admitting or denying guilt. And to crib a line from Gregg Costa, a federal prosecutor who recently won a conviction against Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford: “Fraud is just theft wearing a business suit.”

To keep everyone honest, capitalism demands the kind of competition that big banks love to crush.

“When competition declines, incentives often turn perverse, and self-interest can turn malevolent. That’s what happened in the years before the financial crisis,” the Fed essay says.

“A financial system composed of more banks—numerous enough to ensure competition but none of them big enough to put the overall economy in jeopardy—will give the United States a better chance.”

So how do we get there? The Dallas Fed doesn’t offer many clear solutions, but one way to go may be as simple as a variation on a 1960s anti-Vietnam War mantra: “What if there was a bank and nobody showed up?”

If you hear that your delusional, oversized banker is threatening the nation’s economy, why do you still bank there? Have you no patriotism?

You can’t wait for the next Democrat or the next Republican or the next Ron Paul to take action. There is only one thing you can do: Find a well-managed community bank or a credit union that hasn’t been bailed out or settled allegations of fraud and put your money there.

You don’t have to take it from the left or the right, or even me. Take it from the Dallas Fed: “Achieving an economy relatively free from financial crises requires us to have the fortitude to break up the giant banks.”

—Al Lewis is a columnist for Dow Jones Newswires in Denver. He blogs at tellittoal.com ; his email address is al.lewis@dowjones.com

Food Policy and Advocacy

USDA Publishes Report on Regional “Food Hubs”

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New Study Explores Innovation and Opportunities for Diverse Local Food Distributors
Release No. 0096.12
Sam Jones-Ellard (202) 660-2268
Samuel.jones@…
WASHINGTON, March 16, 2012 –Today, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan released a new report on the distribution practices of eight producer networks and their partners distributing locally or regionally-grown food to retail and foodservice customers. The report, entitled Moving Food Along the Value Chain: Innovations in Regional Food Distribution, shows how these networks tap into the growing commercial demand for local and regional food products while creating additional economic opportunities and expanding healthy food access.
“The Obama Administration is committed to putting Americans back to work and to revitalizing our rural agricultural communities, and one way to do that is through the expanding local foods movement which provides new economic opportunities for farmers and producers across the country,” said Merrigan. “This report provides powerful lessons on how groups of local and regional farmers are collectively distributing their products to grocery stores, restaurants, hospitals, schools and universities in a cost-effective and efficient way.”
The study details how these organizations help local and regional producers overcome bottlenecks in the food marketing system through collaborative and transparent planning and adherence to a shared set of operating principles. By sharing lessons learned and best practices, the new study serves as a resource for producers, food processors and marketers organizing to supply local and regional food products to commercial customers.
To compile the report, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) studied each of the eight network models over a three-year period. The eight models were La Montanita Co-op (New Mexico), Oklahoma Food Cooperative (Oklahoma City, OK), The Wedge Cooperative (Minneapolis, MN), Red Tomato (Boston, Massachusetts), Community Alliance for Family Farms (Davis, California), New North Florida Cooperative (Marianna, Florida), Appalachian Sustainable Development (Abingdon, Virginia) and Minnesota Food Association (Marine on St Croix, Minnesota). AMS looked at network organization, product branding and labeling, infrastructure management, and price negotiation.
The report identified four factors that influenced performance across all the case studies:
  • The amount and timing of investments made in infrastructure are vital to the success and survival of food value chains;
  • Preserving the identity of growers on product labels is critical for connecting with consumers, distinguishing the product from the competition and providing traceability;
  • Informal farmer networks can offer additional flexibility for suppliers and buyers and allow food value chains to be highly responsive to the shifting demands of specialty food markets; and
  • For-profit businesses, nonprofits and cooperatives all have unique strengths. By partnering with each other within food value chains they can leverage organizational competencies and reduce the risk of failure.
The study amplifies the successful local and regional investments detailed in USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food (KYF) Compass. The KYF Compass is a digital guide to USDA resources related to local and regional food systems. The Compass consists of an interactive U.S. map showing local and regional food projects and an accompanying narrative documenting the results of this work through case studies, photos and video content.
A large selection of USDA-supported programs and projects is also visible on the KYF Map, which can be displayed by theme, program, or recipient type. Both the KYF Compass and map will be regularly refreshed with new data and case studies.
Download the complete report: Moving Food Along the Value Chain: Innovations in Regional Food Distribution or visitwww.ams.usda.gov/WFMPublications to learn more.
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Get the latest Agricultural Marketing Service news at http://www.ams.usda.gov/news or follow us on Twitter @USDA_AMS. You can also read about us on the USDA blog.
USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Office of Adjudication, 1400 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (866) 632-9992 (Toll-free Customer Service), (800) 877-8339 (Local or Federal relay), (866) 377-8642 (Relay voice users).
Food Policy and Advocacy

Millennials Are More ‘Generation Me’ Than ‘Generation We,’ Study Finds

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March 15, 2012

The Chronicle of Higher Education

By Joanna Chau

Millennials, the generation of young Americans born after 1982, may not be the caring, socially conscious environmentalists some have portrayed them to be, according to a study described in the new issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The study, which compares the traits of young people in high school and entering college today with those of baby boomers and Gen X’ers at the same age from 1966 to 2009, shows an increasing trend of valuing money, image, and fame more than inherent principles like self-acceptance, affiliation, and community. “The results generally support the ‘Generation Me’ view of generational differences rather than the ‘Generation We,'” the study’s authors write in a report published today, “Generational Differences in Young Adults’ Life Goals, Concern for Others, and Civic Orientation.”

For example, college students in 1971 ranked the importance of being very well off financially No. 8 in their life goals, but since 1989, they have consistently placed it at the top of the list.

The study—by Jean M. Twenge, a professor at San Diego State University; Elise C. Freeman, a graduate research associate at the same university; and W. Keith Campbell, a professor at University of Georgia—is the latest to seek to define the behavior and traits of the millennial generation.

Views on this much-debated topic have varied widely among experts.

In 2000, the popular book Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation, by Neil Howe and William Strauss, portrayed the group as engaged, high-achieving, and confident, among other “core traits.”

Ms. Twenge, the lead author of the new study, believes otherwise.

She has also published a book on the millennials, Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—and More Miserable Than Ever Before, in which she writes: “I see no evidence that today’s young people feel much attachment to duty or to group cohesion. Young people have been consistently taught to put their own needs first and to focus on feeling good about themselves.”

That view is apparent in the new study’s findings, such as a steep decline in concern for the environment. The study found that three times more millennials than baby boomers said they made no personal effort at all to practice sustainability. Only 51 percent of millennials said they tried to save energy by cutting down on electricity, compared with 68 percent of baby boomers and 60 percent of Gen X’ers.

The study also found a decline in civic interest, such as political participation and trust in government, as well as in concern for others, including charity donations, and in the importance of having a job worthwhile to society.

The millennial generation has been raised in a culture that places “more focus on the self and less focus on the group, society, and community,” Ms. Twenge says

“The aphorisms have shifted to ‘believe in yourself’ and ‘you’re special,'” she says. “It emphasizes individualism, and this gets reflected in personality traits and attitudes.”

Even community service, the one aspect where millennials’ engagement rose, does not seem to stem from genuine altruism. The study attributes that gain to high schools in recent years requiring volunteer hours to graduate. The number of public high schools with organized community-service programs jumped from 9 percent in 1984 to 46 percent in 1999, according to the study.

Most of the study’s data point toward more individualism and less cohesion. The advantages of individualism are more tolerance, equality, and less prejudice, says Ms. Twenge. But the broader implication, she says, is not good.

“Having a population that is civically involved, is interested in helping others, and interested in the problems in the nation and the world, are generally good things,” she says. But Ms. Twenge does not believe this is happening. People are “more isolated and wrapped up in their own problems,” she says. “It doesn’t bode well for society in general.”

Backyard Chickens, Local Food

Raising Hens in the Backyard – A Workshop

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Please join us for our annual

Backyard Hens Workshop

Saturday, March 31, 2012

10:00am to noon

David Tepfer and Katie McDermott will share their experience raising hens.  Learn about getting started, housing, feed and health care, chicken biology and anatomy, harvesting eggs, protection from predators, and more.

 

This workshop is designed for beginners!   Please join us if you are interested in raising a few hens (for the eggs!).

Workshop Fee =  $10/family (bring the kids)

The workshop will run from 10:00am to noon at Simple Gifts Farm & NACF

 in North Amherst

1089 North Pleasant St. (map)

For information contact John M. Gerber at (413)549-6949 or jgerber@psis.umass.edu

Co-Sponsored by:

Education

UMass Permaculture Project receives national recognition

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The UMass Permaculture Project is one of 15 finalists (from 1000+ nominees) for the White House Campus Champions of  Change Challenge.  The top five vote getters will be invited to an event at the White House. They will also be featured by mtvU and MTV Act and be given the opportunity to host an episode of mtvU’s signature program, “The Dean’s List.” Please vote here to make UMass one of the 5 selected to visit the White House. 

“All Across America, college and university students are helping our country out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world,” said President Obama. “I hope this challenge shines a light on their efforts, and inspires Americans of all ages to get involved in their communities.”

The deadline to cast your vote is Saturday, March 3rd at 11:59 p.m.

Activities and Events

UMass Permaculture Project gains national recognition

The UMass Permaculture Project is one of 15 finalists (from 1000+ nominees) for the White House Campus Champions of  Change Challenge.  The top five vote getters will be invited to an event at the White House. They will also be featured by mtvU and MTV Act and be given the opportunity to host an episode of mtvU’s signature program, “The Dean’s List.” Please vote here to make UMass one of the 5 selected to visit the White House. 

“All Across America, college and university students are helping our country out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world,” said President Obama. “I hope this challenge shines a light on their efforts, and inspires Americans of all ages to get involved in their communities.”

The deadline to cast your vote is Saturday, March 3rd at 11:59 p.m.

Business

The Amherst Winter Market features a diversity of local products

If you have not yet visited the Amherst Winter Market on Saturday mornings at the Amherst Middle School, you are missing out on a wonderful community meeting place.  Lots of vendors of local food and crafts. Good coffee and baked goods, a place to sit and chat with your neighbors on a cold, wintry morning, and a play area for young children.  Please join us between 10:00am and 2:00pm (although the fresh eggs usually sell out by 11:00am).

To meet Angie with Mother Herb Diaper Service , Bobbie with Bobbie’s Beebalms, and Stella with Stillmans at the Turkey Farm local meat, see:

Food Policy and Advocacy

Brian Donahue on the future of New England farming

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Professor Brian Donahue knew from a relatively young age that he wanted to have an impact on the world and he was gonna to do it his way.

Having left school after sophomore year to pursue a life more “interesting,” he started making it on his own. From logging to starting a non-profit to teaching and writing, Mr. Donahue has become well versed in the art of raison d’être, finding his “reason to be.”

One of Mr. Donahue’s more important involvements comes from a 2005 report titled, Wildlands and Woodlands . In this is an outlined vision pertaining to New England’s forest lands that calls for 70% of it to be put aside for conservation within the next 50 years. The report also summarizes a plan for New England growing a large chunk of its food supply.

In his latest pursuit of happiness him and a few friends are working on a start-up pasture based family farm in Gill, Ma called Bascom Hollow Farm.

According to a recent article in the Hampshire Gazette…

Brian Donahue has done the talk, he’s done the walk, and now he’s doing the math. And for him, it all adds up:

  • his work as an associate professor at Brandeis University,
  • his three decades of working on a community farm in Weston and now,
  • the 170-acre farm he recently bought off Bascom Road (in Gill, MA) where he’s begun putting down roots with friends.

To read the article, go to Gill professor-farmer sees food as more than academic.

Professor Donahue spoke to a group of local citizens in the Amherst Town Hall last winter on the future of farming in New England.  It was an inspiring and thoughtful presentation.

Here is a synopsis of his presentation on “Leading a New England Home-Grown Food Revolution”

Lets look fifty years into the future and ask, if New England were to do about as well as we can imagine at providing its own food through sustainable farming, what might we best grow here? Let us say that we were to triple the amount of farmland in New England to 6 million acres—close to where it stood in 1945. That would return about 15% of New England to agriculture. If we assume ‘smart growth,’ that could be done while leaving 70% of New England still covered in sustainably harvested woodlands and wild reserves. Given 15 or 16 million New Englanders to feed (and presuming they were eating more healthily), we could envision five major building blocks of a sustainable New England food system:

  1. New England could produce the great bulk of its own vegetables and a substantial part of its fruit, and from that fruit a significant portion of its own beverages. This might require on the order of 1 million acres: about 250,000 acres devoted to fresh and storage vegetables; 250,000 acres devoted to fruit (notably apples, cranberries, blueberries, and grapes); and 500,000 acres devoted to dry beans, which would replace some meat in the diet. While much of this produce might be intensively grown on small acreages near cities, some vegetable crops such as potatoes and other root crops, winter squash, and beans might be grown in rotation with hay and grain on more diversified rural farms.
  2. New England could once again produce the great bulk of its own dairy products, and alongside that most of its own beef, almost entirely on grass (with some supplemental grain). This assumes dairy consumption about as it is today, but red meat consumption cut in half. Most of the farmland reclaimed from New England forest would be devoted to pasture and hay, for which our soils and climate are well suited. This defining element of our pastoral landscape might require as much as 4 million acres: about 1.5 million for dairy cows and 2.5 million for beef, along with some sheep and goats.
  3. That would leave on the order of 1 million acres of cropland that could be devoted to some combination of grain for direct human consumption, grain for livestock feed, or oil crops (such as canola, sunflower, or soy) which could provide protein meal for stock feed as well. If most of that million acres were to grow grain for human consumption (flour, pasta, beer, and so forth), for example, we could about cover those needs; but that would not leave much for feed or oil. Grain and oil crops could be grown mostly in rotation with hay.
  4. New England could produce the great bulk of its own pork, chicken, turkey, and eggs. These animals could be integrated into grazing systems without requiring much additional pasture acreage, as most of their feed doesn’t really come from grass. However, their feed grain requirements would amount to more than a million additional acres, which is probably far more than New England could supply. But importing grain is not a bad thing (presuming the grain were to come from sustainable farms elsewhere)—it is one very effective way to import fertility into intensive grazing systems.
  5. A restored and thriving regional fishery would be another crucial building

We wish Brian well and are delighted to have him joining the local food movement in Western Massachusetts.  To stay linked to some of the activities and thinking on local food in this region, please join the Facebook Group – Just Food Now in Western Massachusetts.

And for resources on sustainable food and farming, go to Just Food Now.

Written by Steven Cognac and John Gerber, January 2012.

 

Work and Internships

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs in Sustainable Food and Farming

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This is the time of year students planning on graduating from our Sustainable Food and Farming major in May are busy looking for employment opportunities.  I’ve posted some general advice on finding good work, including some links to useful jobs sites.

I also post jobs and internships on occasion to my Just Food Now blog page if they are in Western Massachusetts.

To see what some of our recent graduates are up to , check out the “graduates” link above.

Students in the major generally focus on growing good food, farm education, advocacy and public policy. They study topics from permaculture and organic farming to medicinal herbs and community food systems.

Our Sustainable Food and Farming major helps to prepare students for careers with small, organic and community farms, non-profit advocacy and policy agencies, government organizations, and food and farm related educational institutions.  SF&F offers students flexibility in choice of courses and therefore requires a close working relationship with an academic advisor.

For a few thoughts on employment in this area, please see; Yes, but are there jobs?