Dear Sustainable Tompkins Listserve Members: Quick idea I had last night:
Operating a small scale farm is a challenging business when you constantly have to go up against the likes of Acher Daniels Midland and Monsanto. Yet healthful, local, sustainable food production is going to become absolutely vital as peak oil makes itself more and more apparent. Readers of *Barbara Kingsolver* certainly know this. *Imagine we put a tax/tariff on all non-local foods. The tax would be assessed to the companies who sold or distributed the food as opposed to the purchaser.* Citizens could then vote for what they money would be used for, though, the recommendation could be made that the money be split four ways: 1) To support help support existing farmers and to encourage more young people become farmers 2) To establish an emergency foodbank / community kitchen in which all food is purchased from local farms 3) To establish a regional seedbank of bioregionally strong and suitable seeds available to general public for planting 4) To start a "free tree" program whereby citizens would be given edible fruit and nut trees and berry bushes for edible landscaping that could be planted in their home gardens. The tax/tariff could be assessed such that it only applied to business grossing over a certain amount of income per year so that it did not put strain on small local businesses, but at the same time generated a moderate but nice little pot of money for important projects related to sustainable agriculture such as those mentioned above. *Ideas? Suggestions? Feedback?* Peace and Thanks, Ryan D. Hottle -- Ryan Darrell Hottle The Renaissance Group Program Manager www.ConserveFirst.com Global Climate Solutions www.GlobalClimateSolutions.org (coming soon!) Ohio Peak Oil Action (OPOA) Co-Founder, Director www.ohiopeakoilaction.org 30 N. Rose Blvd. Akron, OH 44022 (740) 258 8450 _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
