In Great Barrington, MA, a low- price popular hangout, The Deli, had to move when its lease ran out, but the bank wouldn't loan the proprietor the money needed to renovate the new location. SHARE (see below) helped him issue a ten Deli Dollars note (at right), which he sold at US $9 to customers and friends. This provided him a low- interest loan that he would pay back in preparedfood over the following year. He raised $5,000 in one month. Other community notes followed, side-stepping today's credit crunch and adding the element oftrust to local economics. The Federal Government doesn't care about such local scrip provided it can be exchangedfor US currency, and transactions using it remain taxable. In Kansas The Land Institute conducts extensive research into prairie ecology, and hosts a number of interns every year at their popular school. The results from this well-respected research program are published in an easy-to- read quarterly, The Land Report, available for $ 15/year from: The Land Institute, 2440 E. Water Well Rd., Salina, Kansas 67401. UC Santa Cruz offers an Agroecology Program, which for years has helped organic farms survive despite the nearby agri-business regime in Watsonville. Get their/ree quarterly report; The Cultivar, Agroecology Program, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064. Phone: (408) 459-4140. Land Trusts: The Institute for Community Economics helps non-profits buy land and lease it to low- income homes-owners on the same land, in order to both halt speculation on that property and provide low-income affordable house ownership. The land is common property but the house is yours. This makes your mortgage lower, since it doesn't include the land value, but the trust keeps you from selling too high. For more information contact ICE, 57 school street, Springfield, MA 01105-1331, phone: (413) 746-8660, fax: (413) 746-8862. Farm conservation land trusts having difficulty preserving actual farm activity might benefit from a new booklet published by The E.F. Schumacher Society headquartered in Great Barrington: A New Lease on Farmland: Assuring a future for Farming in the Northeast. It describes the creation of working community agricultural land trusts through partnership. Revolving Loan Funds, CSA’s, Loan Collateralization Funds, local currency financing and non-profit lease management. It’s $6 from: The E.F. Schumacher Society, Box 76, RD 3, Great Barrington, MA 01230, phone: (413) 528-1737. The Schumacher Society has built a Decentralist Library in Great Barrington, and has organized local community projects including Self Help Association for a Regional Economy (SHARE), which captured national media attention in 1991 helping some businesses issue local currency (see illustration). From A New Lease on Farmland: “Two Farm stands in Great Barrington, MA have jointly issued a voucher or coupon which they sell in the late fall when cash is short and redeem in the summer, when cash flow is greater. Called a ‘ ‘Berkshire Farm Preserve Note”, it is redeemable for $10 worth of farm produce at either stand from June through September. Berkshire Farm Preserve Notes are sold at a 10% discount for $9, effecting a low-interest short-term loan from the customers to the farmers.” The Society publishes transcripts of its annual lecture series, including work by Stephanie Mills, Francis Moore Lapp6, Hazel Henderson, Jane Jacobs, Kirkpatrick Sale and Wendell Berry. England’s Schumacher College swings into it’s second year lofted by the previous season’s terrific response. On a dreamy 800-acre medieval estate in rural Devon, the college runs long courses taught by a fine faculty: the likes of Theodore Roszak, James Lovelock, Petra Kelly and David Bohm. Fees are about £1,000 for a month’s course, including room and board. For more information, and a prospectus, write The Administrator, Schumacher College, The Old Postern, Dartington, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EA, U.K., phone: (0803) 865934, fax: (0803) 866899. Rain Winter/Spring 1992 Volume XIV, Number 2 Page 9
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