useful websites

Time Banking for Markets?

Next week, citizens in New Orleans will hold their first Time Banking informational meeting. For those new to the idea:
here are hundreds of TimeBanks around the world. TimeBanking is based on the belief that our communities work better when all of our contributions are valued. It rejects the notion that we belong in separate classes of “givers” and “receivers” and establishes a way to reward all types of work — caring for our children, elders, and others who need it, building community, helping out our neighbors.

TimeBanking is about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community. That hour is counted as a TimeBank Hour that you can spend on having someone in the network do something for you. You earn TimeBank Hours for each service you perform. Instead of members “owing” the one person who helped them individually, we can choose to give and receive the many talents and skills of all the members.

TimeBanking connects you to the best in people because it creates a system that connects unmet needs with untapped resources. It provides ways for us all to contribute and benefit.

Timebanking can be a very effective way to bridge gaps across different demographics, bring people together as a community, build a resource base to solve problems or realize dreams, connect people with needed goods and services, and give people a way to feel valued and do what they like to do.
This seems like a natural fit for a market to take on for their own community or maybe even for the larger community they reside in. Anyone out there who has a Time Bank in their market, do let me know…

And for those who want more information, check out:timebanks.org

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Conservation incentives

According to a press release from The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition,
the Conservation Stewardship Program (which is outlined in the link below) offers support to farmers in exchange for better environmental practices, The Conservation Stewardship Program pays farmers for adopting “new conservation enhancements” and actively managing ongoing conservation activities. Those payments are calibrated directly to the environmental benefits derived from specific practices.

Each geographical region has its own unique agricultural challenges, which are addressed in a five-page section of data analysis. The data includes analysis of program participation by geographic region, land use type, commodity type, and the top conservation practices and enhancements chosen by farmers and ranchers who enrolled in the program.

Some of the important issues addressed by the program include water quality, wildlife habitat, soil quality and erosion. In some areas of the country, water conservation and air quality are also important considerations

Read more: More information here

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Reuseable bag reminder

The tip I read in Larry Leach’s HuffPostcolumn gave yesterday is another excellent idea for markets with chalk or dry wipe signs at their entrances:

I also have yet to see a retailer place a reminder sign on their entrance, “Did you remember your reusable bag?” Now that would show shoppers they care for the environment, especially if they GAVE you a reusable bag with their logo on it.

His advice is often geared to the small business with sensible tips and ideas for all sizes. Do yourself a favor, get a board member or a volunteer to subscribe to his blog’s RSS.

Larry Leach is an advertising sales rep for 11 Calgary Community Newsletters and the British Canadian newspaper. He is chair of ARTICS a Calgary based education group, publicity director for Crossroads Community Association and past president of Deerfoot Soccer.
His advertising blog (2011 Canadian Weblog Awards Nominee) can be found at larrytheadman.blogspot.com

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Campaign for Fair Food

In 2001, CIW launched the Campaign for Fair Food with the first-ever farmworker boycott of a major fast-food company. The national boycott of Taco Bell called on the fast-food giant to take responsibility for human rights abuses in the fields where its produce is grown and picked.

The logic behind the Campaign for Fair Food is simple. Major corporate buyers — companies such as Publix, Ahold, Kroger and Wal-Mart — purchase a tremendous volume of fruits and vegetables, leveraging their buying power to demand the lowest possible prices from their suppliers. This, in turn, exerts a powerful downward pressure on wages and working conditions in these suppliers’ operations.
CIW

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Booth Tracker

Once again, going back to the flea market world, I noticed this software offer for flea market organizers. I wonder if the flea market world has some ideas about rent and mapping systems we in the farmers market field need to study?
website

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Report from Center for Rural Affairs on USDA impact on mid-size farms

An excellent report to view return on investment (ROI as it is known in the philanthropy and corporate world) for USDA and to see where the support has gone.

With this (2006) study, we seek to better understand how key USDA grant and research programs are serving beginning and small and mid-size farms and ranches, and what steps might be taken to improve these programs or develop new solutions to enhance farm profitability and rural community success.

The Impact and Benefits of USDA Research and Grant Programs to Enhance
Mid-Size Farm Profitability and Rural Community Success Download Report

Published on Center for Rural Affairs (http://www.cfra.org)

0 CommentsLeave a comment

A town’s new agricultural plan

Thanks to our friends the Greenhorns (well in the way that all farmers are our friends, not like we share a car or anything like that), we heard about this town named Cato in New York that has adopted a comprehensive agricultural plan to preserve farmland for the future. The town has 13 strategies, including conservation easements, the adoption of a Right-To-Farm Law and changes in zoning.
Read about it on the Greenhorns site “The Irresistible Fleet of Bicycles” where they blog well about food and community.

Cato NY

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Proper procurement

One of my “go-to” organizations to learn from and to pass along ideas to others is the New Economics Institute which was formerly known as the E.F. Schumacher Society. The Society is housed on a hilltop in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in the middle of one of the many land trusts that the society has helped build.
Taking labor, currency and land out of commodity thinking and practice is the fulcrum of their work and may I say they do it beautifully. Or to say it in a positive way, ” to promote the building of strong local economies that link people, land, and community.”

This audio is one of their excellent lectures and is something to listen to while typing, while sipping that morning coffee before diving into the pile of work. I say that after you read it, gift it to your local colleges and universities to hear on their own. In my mind, this is the way to tackle behavior changes everywhere- thinking about the responsibility of use of any and all resources in each small world. And, if you want to understand what a campus goes through to make changes, this might help you.

And if these ideas sound right, go procure a copy of ‘Small is Beautiful”, Schumacher’s landmark book. Then go back for many of their publications because I think, you might find they add to your perspective.

Audio

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Strong Towns

A link to a site that explores land use from a planners point of view. I downloaded the Tactical Urbanism report that talks about diversity of use (both informal and formal).
Jane Jacobs’ words and ideas are embedded throughout the site and that is always a good thing for us in the public market movement…

They write:
“The American approach to growth is causing economic stagnation and decline along with land use practices that force a dependency on public subsidies. The inefficiencies of the current approach have left American towns financially insolvent, unable to pay even the maintenance costs of their basic infrastructure. A new approach that accounts for the full cost of growth is needed to make our towns strong again.”

I look forward to reading more.

Strong Towns

0 CommentsLeave a comment

A wild underground market

The forageSF folks are receiving some coverage about their underground market in the New York Times and in other publications. Their mission is about reconnecting the urban SF dweller to their wild foods and the market seems to have grown out of the need to have a place to encourage more knowledge, more new items AND because they could not get in to markets because of the rules about “grow it to sell it”. I wonder, how many markets around the country would have flatly said no to these foragers?
As some of you know, I am fascinated by the relationship between CSAs and public markets, and have noticed that many CSAs end up operating as a type of market, and I am always curious if the opposite is true too. This one seems to be moving more in the direction of the market being more useful for their work as it evolves.

What’s interesting about this is the idea is they seem to rate new vendors highest (based on the quotes in the story.) So, the usual criteria of favoring return vendors is much less useful to them, which tells me they have a very good sense of their 4Ms (mission, management, marketing and measurement).
On top of that, they have a free membership that you need to sign up for to get into the market, as you need to check off their hold harmless as a shopper so it really seems like the are dotting their is and crossing their ts…

So I wonder if this is a new typology of market (in marketumbrella.org’s spectrum of market analysis we are collecting with the Market Portraits).

They are definitely an organization to watch.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Open-air market dot org

I just posted some information on the street vendor project in New York, so thought I’d better also send this link for the Open Air Market Network. The site bills itself as “The World Wide Guide to Farmers’ Markets, Street Markets, Flea Markets, Street Vendors, and the Informal Sector.”
open air market network

It has not been updated in some time, but still has loads of pieces from all over the world and all type of markets to check out. Dr. Morales, who many markets know from conferences and listserves among other places, is one of the folks behind this site and a few others sites like Streetnet.org. His work is researching and writing about the informal networks of vending and is a must for any market organization to know as a reference. Just like our friends at Projects for Public Spaces, he links our markets to academics, city planners and social scientists. I know he is currently working on a book covering how markets take part in furthering community. I look forward to that coming out.

0 CommentsLeave a comment