Re-localizing our economy creates community wealth and growth.

In tough times people come together to lean on one another. In times of economic woes we can either see each other as some form of competition in a global economy, or we can begin to imagine each other as apart of a community of which we interdependent on for creation of meaningful work.  I like to share my opinion and thought on the subject of re-localizing the economy.  If we focused on scaling up re-localized businesses we could employ people in creating a sustainable economy while also over time lowering all of our monthly overhead expenses from the reduce use and production of local sources of goods and energy. 

Food, Right now one corporation "Monsanto" is aiming at monopolizing the entire food industry with genetic modification of organisms technology along with manipulation of laws at the Federal level to protect them. The most sincere and earnest thing we could do locally is take back control over our food supply from monopolization of one corporation. Give back the power to the people and hire ourselves employing ourselves to create our own food to fuel our bodes.  Everyone should plant a victory garden and attempt to eat as local as possible to enable the economic generation of local production in quantities to support more people. The more you spend locally the more local food will become available as each dollar is an investment into more production and stimulation of local economies of scale.

Energy, Right now one corporation "Duke Energy" has taken over Progress energy and is in control of a large percentage of energy production throughout the continental United States.   The old fallacy of investing into nuclear energy (That is leaking and outdated!) rather then in Solar in the Sunshine state is incredibly illogical unless your ethic alone is to make profit. We must move our money and stop using un-ethical businesses. We should move our wealth towards liberating ourselves locally and generating our own power sources. Their is no set course, but multiple alternatives that if scaled up could supplant the monopoly of energy giants. We could invest in local creation of Bio-diesel or Ethanol, We could cooperate as entire neighborhoods and go in together purchasing solar energy reducing the overall costs for anyone involved though economies of scale. We could use the system of economies of scale to reduce the costs of weatherizing our homes and lower the overall energy use by retrofitting our homes to become more energy efficient. Rather then one person going at it alone, together we could coordinate and organize bulk purchasing consumer power and lower the costs substantially if we so willed to work together closely as community. 

Water, Right now new science is coming out about the Aquifers below our soles of our feet. They state that the current understanding of how Water flows means that our Aquifer can really only support 8 Million people in Florida with current usage while currently 18 million Floridians depend on daily use of the source of water.  Future predictions show salt water intrusion and a big drying up near metropolitan areas meaning we are tapping deep into a bank account of stored water that will one day end up dry. We can change this way of living that causes such wasteful use of water.  Deep mulching to conserve water, Use of native plants and edibles rather then lawns. Development of local cistern creation projects to store rainwater for use should be a community wide project. No toilet should be flushed from Aquifer water but rather Rain water in Florida. No land should be irrigated with aquifer water but rather stored rain water.  We have an imperative to make meaningful work creating ways to save resources for future generations. 

If we really wanted to get Independence from the global economy we could begin re-manufacturing everything locally once more. With new 3-d printers and open source designs we could fabricate anything locally and with our new agriculture economic base grow all the bio-plastic needed for fabrication of anything our community needs.  We wouldn't need Wal-mart or supply chain lines from China, we could employ people locally in manufacturer companies that the owners own and operate. 

All of these endeavors could be done as worker owned co-ops run and owned by the workers that do the work themselves. The capital can be pooled from the community and profit redistributed to the owners of the businesses which would be the community. This cycle of money regenerates and cycles within causing generation of more jobs and business. The revolving nature of local money being used locally adds to the deeper connections. 

Only together as a group working united can we free ourselves as well as empower ourselves towards a better future. The choices we make together as individuals united under a common mission for mutually protecting resources and creating meaningful work towards a sustainable community.  We got to where we are because we are ingenious and resourceful people who's diversity was brought together in unity and justice for all. When we cooperate together as a community nothing is unfathomable from happening. We could have an abundant future full of clean water,  renewable energy, healthy food and an economy justice where the wealth is more equitably shared and all are abundantly wealthy. By choosing meaningful work and supporting one another we can travel down the path towards sustainable community that's more beautiful then one where all the wealth and resources of our country are only in ever smaller hands.  For the past year I've been brainstorming on how to relocalize our economy. I feel the scale of economy needs us to think of a bio-region sized effort. All of Tampa bay would have to get on board (or a small sizable faction of us!) in uniting towards sustainable relocalization efforts in economic ways. The idea would to be create a series of worker owned co-ops that work cooperatively as a network independent and autotmounous from one another but in joint commitment towards singular purpoe of creating a relocalized interconnected economy of local production.

http://prezi.com/iwc2wr0tuni5/local-co-op-economy/