posted Mar 9, 2011 11:31 PM by ania moniuszko
We met at dinner after the future of money conference and again at om
shan tea tonight, and between the two meetings discussed mainly 3
points in 2 potential tiers of development.
Tier 1. Immediate.
Point 1. Money tagging for promoting consumption local food
production: Arno + ClearBon, Michael + Ania + Beverly + Transition SF
Money tagging is readily accessible and with Arno and Guillaume
having launched ClearBon, can tie into a rewards-type currency for
local food. Transition people remain interested and will proceed with
it.
Tier 2. Things that seem to build well on a food market. Chris, Evan,
Anthony interested in food markets in various ways. Much more needs to
be done to organize the effort of organizing one but Tier 1 can
provide a sound foundation in the form of a network of relevant people
in the habit of cooperating with one another in matters of local food.
Iso Rabins of ForageSF expressed to me outside of our meetings
interest in checking back in a few months as he is now busy organizing
a distribution network for foraged food which is also highly relevant.
As background, I need to write up a summary of The Social Construction
of a Perfect Market: The Strawberry Auction at Fontaines-en-Sologne by
Marie-France Garcia-Parpet.
Point 2. Finance: Prepayment to advance capital to local farmers
Farmers large and small, urban and rural, to varying extents, can
benefit from finance in the form of advance payment for food
production to be able to front the capital to sow what they will later
reap. This is a main incentive for the CSA practice of selling
subscriptions and farmers demand more finance of this kind. Organizing
a local food market and selling food futures through it, based on it,
could serve this need.
Point 3. Backing: Local food market as backing for food currency
Food is an attractive standard of value because it is universally
needed by and appreciated by people. Its perishability also introduces
beneficial economic incentives to currencies provided the accounting
is done correctly. To provide a standard of value based in food, an
equivalence between units of currency and units of food needs to be
established. Shares in the index of a food market is one mechanism for
doing that which is fairly straightforward.
Leslie joined us from the Wigg party who are busy creating their own
neighborhood currency in the vein of Bernal Bucks. Dr. Jesus also
joined us from Heaven via Ohio and informed us about 501(d)
corporations and several other interesting and potentially useful
miscellanea and we look forward to more of his legal advice as plans
unfold.
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