Local self-reliance, delicious desserts, on the bill for Pie & Politics
2010 the 14th year for Big Top event
By CHAD DALLY, Staff Writer, The Daily Press
Published: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 9:35 AM CDT
It is fitting the keynote speaker for this year's Pie & Politics event will discuss how local communities can become more self-reliant.
It's fitting not only because support for local businesses and industries is a source of pride in the Chequamegon Bay region, but also because the event itself relies on dozens of local volunteers to staff the event and, of course, bake all those delicious pies.
This year's speaker for the annual event — the 14th organized by the Alliance for Sustainability — is David Morris, who co-founded the Minneapolis- and Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance.
In addition to his work with the Institute, and as a proponent for what the Alliance called "humanly-scaled, community-based economic and political systems," Morris also has advised four U.S. presidents on energy, and currently serves on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Biomass Advisory Committee.
In a Monday phone interview, Morris said he will touch on areas of accounting that examine the true cost of goods and services, versus the price consumers pay, and also about the notion of "bigness" and how that notion can be contradictory to a community's or region's self-reliance.
In a broader context, Morris said the notion of self-reliance is both a strategy and a goal, "by which a city or region treats itself as a nation."
"Nations are not self-sufficient, so this is not a strategy for self-sufficiency; it's a strategy for self-awareness and self-governance," he said. "Local self-reliance means creating policies that channel investment capital and scientific genius and entrepreneurial energy in certain directions."
It also means creating and nurturing community banks and other financial institutions, and supporting the local business community over the "branch business community," he said.
The goal of self-reliance is better achieved, Morris said, by establishing policies at the local level, and pushing for policies at the state, federal and even international level that are beneficial specifically to local communities.
That is especially important in rural areas, which have an advantage over urban areas by virtue of more available land. The policy challenge, Morris said, is to make the most of what is available.
"When it comes to rural areas, if they are agricultural areas, we want to figure out ways to capture as much value from that land as possible for the local community," he said. "Right now, the rules we create — policies, the tax incentives, the regulations and so forth — undermine that dynamic; do just the opposite.
"In fact, right now, the federal government is fashioning rules on food safety that may drive small farmers out of business," he continued. "On the other hand, they're also fashioning rules that might nurture the resurrection, if you will, of small livestock farmers. So, rules matter."
Some policies are created outside a local community's control — Morris used international free trade rules as one example. But he said it is essential that local communities establish their own goals and look for policies and incentives that align to benefit themselves.
"The first question is: What is it that one wants to do, and how much can be done locally? And then, how does one organize many localities to intervene and ask higher levels of government to assist them?" Morris said. "Right now, we don't have a consensus. If you asked your city council and others what they would want higher levels of government to do, the response would be give us more money. And that's probably right, in the sense that we have a public service deficit and we need more money.
"But if you then reframe the question and take money off the table, and ask what other things would you like, you often get a blank stare," he continued. "And yet, there is a very rich treasure trove they presumably would want, and should want, in the policy realm."
Morris cited another example, that of local book store purchases. Yes, customers may pay 6 to 8 percent more at a local store than on sites like Amazon, but that is the result of no regulation requiring Amazon to pay local or state sales tax, he said.
Morris also spoke about work by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance on ethanol policy in Minnesota and pharmacy ownership in North Dakota.
For the latter, the Institute was among a group that successfully pushed for North Dakota to maintain a law requiring North Dakota certification for all pharmacy owners — essentially ensuring some form of local ownership throughout the state — despite a push by Wal-Mart and Walgreens to change the law.
By redesigning the state policy for tax incentives, Morris said the state was able to shift the incentive from one based on sales to one based on production — and in the process created a network of farmer-owned ethanol plants.
"That was essentially an agriculture and rural development policy, not so much an energy policy because community came first," he said.
The effort was hampered, however, by a federal "tidal wave" of money that flowed in when oil prices spiked and ethanol was held up as the primary replacement for oil.
As part of his speech, Morris said he will talk about actions local communities can take when situations occur in which bigger businesses move in to either ramp up production or approach an area with the idea that a bigger operation is inherently better and more efficient — not only in areas like agriculture, but also telecommunications.
"One of the arguments for bigness is that it's more efficient, and that turns out not to be true," he said. "Another argument in favor of bigness is that it can get things done more quickly, and that has turned out not to be true, either. But because we have bought into it, we can't perceive of another way."
Chad Dally can be reached at [email protected].
Info Box
The 14th Annual Pie & Politics starts Thursday night at Big Top Chautauqua with a local foods dinner at 5:30 p.m., followed by the keynote lecture at 7:30 p.m. The speech (and the pie) is free, while the dinner is $15 per person. Call the Alliance for Sustainability at (715) 682-1189 or go to www.allianceforsustainability.org for more information.
BART is offering free rides to Big Top, and you can reserve a spot by calling (715) 373-5552.
Copyright © 2010 - The Daily Press - Ashland, WI
Published: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 9:35 AM CDT
It is fitting the keynote speaker for this year's Pie & Politics event will discuss how local communities can become more self-reliant.
It's fitting not only because support for local businesses and industries is a source of pride in the Chequamegon Bay region, but also because the event itself relies on dozens of local volunteers to staff the event and, of course, bake all those delicious pies.
This year's speaker for the annual event — the 14th organized by the Alliance for Sustainability — is David Morris, who co-founded the Minneapolis- and Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance.
In addition to his work with the Institute, and as a proponent for what the Alliance called "humanly-scaled, community-based economic and political systems," Morris also has advised four U.S. presidents on energy, and currently serves on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Biomass Advisory Committee.
In a Monday phone interview, Morris said he will touch on areas of accounting that examine the true cost of goods and services, versus the price consumers pay, and also about the notion of "bigness" and how that notion can be contradictory to a community's or region's self-reliance.
In a broader context, Morris said the notion of self-reliance is both a strategy and a goal, "by which a city or region treats itself as a nation."
"Nations are not self-sufficient, so this is not a strategy for self-sufficiency; it's a strategy for self-awareness and self-governance," he said. "Local self-reliance means creating policies that channel investment capital and scientific genius and entrepreneurial energy in certain directions."
It also means creating and nurturing community banks and other financial institutions, and supporting the local business community over the "branch business community," he said.
The goal of self-reliance is better achieved, Morris said, by establishing policies at the local level, and pushing for policies at the state, federal and even international level that are beneficial specifically to local communities.
That is especially important in rural areas, which have an advantage over urban areas by virtue of more available land. The policy challenge, Morris said, is to make the most of what is available.
"When it comes to rural areas, if they are agricultural areas, we want to figure out ways to capture as much value from that land as possible for the local community," he said. "Right now, the rules we create — policies, the tax incentives, the regulations and so forth — undermine that dynamic; do just the opposite.
"In fact, right now, the federal government is fashioning rules on food safety that may drive small farmers out of business," he continued. "On the other hand, they're also fashioning rules that might nurture the resurrection, if you will, of small livestock farmers. So, rules matter."
Some policies are created outside a local community's control — Morris used international free trade rules as one example. But he said it is essential that local communities establish their own goals and look for policies and incentives that align to benefit themselves.
"The first question is: What is it that one wants to do, and how much can be done locally? And then, how does one organize many localities to intervene and ask higher levels of government to assist them?" Morris said. "Right now, we don't have a consensus. If you asked your city council and others what they would want higher levels of government to do, the response would be give us more money. And that's probably right, in the sense that we have a public service deficit and we need more money.
"But if you then reframe the question and take money off the table, and ask what other things would you like, you often get a blank stare," he continued. "And yet, there is a very rich treasure trove they presumably would want, and should want, in the policy realm."
Morris cited another example, that of local book store purchases. Yes, customers may pay 6 to 8 percent more at a local store than on sites like Amazon, but that is the result of no regulation requiring Amazon to pay local or state sales tax, he said.
Morris also spoke about work by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance on ethanol policy in Minnesota and pharmacy ownership in North Dakota.
For the latter, the Institute was among a group that successfully pushed for North Dakota to maintain a law requiring North Dakota certification for all pharmacy owners — essentially ensuring some form of local ownership throughout the state — despite a push by Wal-Mart and Walgreens to change the law.
By redesigning the state policy for tax incentives, Morris said the state was able to shift the incentive from one based on sales to one based on production — and in the process created a network of farmer-owned ethanol plants.
"That was essentially an agriculture and rural development policy, not so much an energy policy because community came first," he said.
The effort was hampered, however, by a federal "tidal wave" of money that flowed in when oil prices spiked and ethanol was held up as the primary replacement for oil.
As part of his speech, Morris said he will talk about actions local communities can take when situations occur in which bigger businesses move in to either ramp up production or approach an area with the idea that a bigger operation is inherently better and more efficient — not only in areas like agriculture, but also telecommunications.
"One of the arguments for bigness is that it's more efficient, and that turns out not to be true," he said. "Another argument in favor of bigness is that it can get things done more quickly, and that has turned out not to be true, either. But because we have bought into it, we can't perceive of another way."
Chad Dally can be reached at [email protected].
Info Box
The 14th Annual Pie & Politics starts Thursday night at Big Top Chautauqua with a local foods dinner at 5:30 p.m., followed by the keynote lecture at 7:30 p.m. The speech (and the pie) is free, while the dinner is $15 per person. Call the Alliance for Sustainability at (715) 682-1189 or go to www.allianceforsustainability.org for more information.
BART is offering free rides to Big Top, and you can reserve a spot by calling (715) 373-5552.
Copyright © 2010 - The Daily Press - Ashland, WI