Search

GREENFIELD — From pickles to granola to beverages, a few local food makers are mixing up the recipe for how to own their growing businesses.

Picking up key paragraphs from Marjorie's recent article on Alternet (also run in Yes! Magazine). Marjorie has a new book: Owning the Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution.

With reference to Zingerman in Ann Arbor, mentioned earlier in our Blogs.

A very strong statement from a 4th generation family farmer working a homestead established in 1889. It reminds us that the agricultural co-ops of the 19th century Progressive movement didn't die. The political arm died but many of the co-ops are continuing to work for Food Security and a fair deal for the family farmer.

This is a really good and simple explanation of the use of an alternate currency, a credit arrangement, actually, on co-operative principles and structures to revitalize the local economy of a community that is in a country under a New-Liberal Austerity job and social-benefits crunch.

This is a two-part story on CounterPunch.org by Jane Slaughter. It tells the story of the formation of the TRADOC Cooperative that started with a three-year worker's strike and has led to a successful worker co-op. Part two [can be found here](http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/04/04/can-worker-owners-make-a-big-factory-run/).

Highlighting the Importance of Student-Run Cooperatives

by Meghan McDonough, (University of Massachusetts, Amherst student)

(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is an original report written for GEO.)

Mostly, capped landfills remind me of the mausoleums of a consumer society.  For most of a century we dumped our solid waste onto these Mt Trashmores and mixed up a brew of concentrated toxins which seeped into the surrounding areas and often polluted (and still do) our water.  So we learned to treat our waste as a resource, close the landfills, cap them, and leave them idle.  We’re still very primitive about this, but progress is steady.

Paul Glover, instigator behinc Ithaca Hours and a passionate spokes-person for local money contributed this overview to Shareables.net. A local money or, alternatively, a time-bank, can bring the community together, provide the "money" for local improvement(s), and teaches the participants trust in each other and the community as a whole.

Yochai Benkler, Co-Director of the Faculty at Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, talks about his newest book. Video and audio are both available through the page.

The IV International Gathering “The Economy of the Workers” seeks to explore these and other questions relating to the struggle of the workers from different perspectives and in different national contexts. It seeks to provide a space for discussion and debate using the experiences of worker economic control and self-management as a point of departure, bringing together the perspectives of academics, social activists, and the workers themselves.

The biennial Democracy Convention is coming up in early August, 2013, in Madison, Wisconsin. The ItsOurEconomy team is spearheading the Economic Democracy track. GEO is planning on supporting them in this event.

Quilted co-op is excited for someone to join their Berkeley office full-time and contribute to our team doing project management, support, and training for our nonprofit, cooperative, and social justice clients..

The Communities Conference at Twin Oaks Community is a chance for people interested or involved in intentional communities and other community-oriented projects or businesses to share ideas, network, and enjoy a weekend together.

This is a very supportive piece about the takeover of a window company by the workers and union membes. Worth reading and sharing.