Stimulate This Economy Right Now!
Vicki Pozzebon
You can read the newspapers, watch the news, click on an internet site or you can do none of those things to find out that the economy is bad, the price of gas is killing us, the price of food is starving us. How do we address these issues as consumers when our pockets feel empty every time we have to pay more than $4 a gallon for gas and feed our families on shrinking paychecks? How do we address these issues as a community? What can we do, really, to stimulate our own economy? Can we remain optimistic when consumers and business owners alike are feeling the pinch at every cash register?
A localized economy is what our cities and towns were founded on and it’s the answer to what we MUST get back to. It is the only sustainable community solution to global issues. “Aren’t you the “Buy Local” people, though?” We often get that question. And my answer is: Yes, and so much more, because what we do is support a localized sustainable economy and all the things that hook into that.
We work on renewable energy issues to localize our energy dollars. (Did you know that over $40 million leaves the community each year for non-local heating fuel?) We are partnering with other economic development organizations to plan for a sustainable local agricultural economy because without farmers in our local economy to support our eating habits, what do we really have left? Our local participating restaurants spend nearly $280,000 each season on local products for their menus, and our local Farmers’ Market generates over $1 million for local farmers. There is no more renewable energy than food and no more localized economy than putting 5 bucks into the hands of the farmer who has just given you your dinner salad greens.
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We have a Community Career Co-op program partnership that employs at-risk youth in green industry jobs so that our employers have a well-trained workforce and our youth are given meaningful employment in their own community. We support smart growth and sustainable neighbor development. We have business development programs for our members. And, of course, we have our Buy Local First Campaign because every time you shop at a locally owned independent business, 45 cents of your hard-earned dollar stays in our local tax base, getting recycled into our local economy.
The Santa Fe Alliance was started in 2003 from the heart, the grassroots heart of Santa Fe, during talks about how to address global economic issues. A core group of volunteers wanted to make a difference in their own backyard, to vote with their dollars and keep the money in their community. The Alliance was born and now we are well on our way to a localized economy. In 2006 we set out on an aggressive strategic plan to keep the money spent in Santa Fe recycling in Santa Fe, to address workforce issues, to educate more people about our mission, to put more power in the hands of the citizens of Santa Fe by keeping their jobs local. And we’ve succeeded. I know this because I get phone calls and emails weekly asking us to partner or take the lead on initiatives, issues, coalitions, projects. . . you name it. If it has to do with LOCAL, we hear about it. And we have accepted a number of those invitations. My to-do list gets longer every day with urgent issues on how to have effective change RIGHT NOW, with ways to accomplish our long-term goals, with ways to stay two steps ahead of the national economic downturn, with ways to stay current with national trends that are working RIGHT NOW.
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