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NCPlenty 126 Justice Street Chapel Hill, NC 27516 www.ncplenty.org ncplenty@ncplenty.org |
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Mission Statement NCPlenty, Inc. is a non-profit corporation working to promote local commerce, fair wages, environmental responsibility, self-reliance, and neighborliness through the implementation and support of a local currency, the PLENTY. |
For NCPlenty's main page, click here.
For the current issue of the NCPlenty membership newsletter, click here.
The following is an article by NCPlenty which was originally carried in the Weaver Street Market May 2005 newsletter.
Local Currency and the Environment
One of the major hurdles in educating the public on local currency is linking the values espoused, such as promoting local commerce, environmental responsibility, or neighborliness, to the actual act of paying for goods and services with a slip of paper that says “PLENTY,” or “HOURS,” or “Bread,” instead of the more familiar green paper that says “Federal Reserve Note.” The connection to local commerce is usually understood first—the money stays here so the buying power does, too—but it is difficult to go beyond this into important areas that seem less linked to economic indicators and more to social justice and stewardship concerns.
As of this article’s publication, the 35th Anniversary of Earth Day will have elapsed. As it is being written, the headline for the April 2005 edition of (NCPlenty member) Triangle Free Press reads “Evangelical Leaders Join Effort to Combat Global Warming,” bringing a group that overwhelmingly voted for Bush in the 2004 election into an issue the current Administration does not officially acknowledge. At such a time, it seems appropriate to draw the connection between the local economic movement and a responsible approach to the environment.
Part 1: Money Where Our Mouths Are
Local currencies such as the PLENTY are designed to foster locally-owned businesses. A business which accepts the PLENTY by necessity spends the currency within the community. The business or employee receiving the same PLENTY also has the same impetus to spend within the community, and so on. Those who use local currency are connected to the area that will be impacted by the economic decisions surrounding its use.
Simple enough, but what effect does this really have? This can be seen by contrasting it with the converse occurring in the global economic model. Materials are extracted and exported from wherever it is cheapest to do so. The low cost comes from presence of the material in some (often fleeting) abundance, but other factors include whether labor is adequately compensated and whether impact to the environment will be a cost borne by the company purchasing the materials or absorbed by the local populace. Areas with some degree of economic security usually refuse environmentally degrading or hazardous projects outright or require a substantial compensation which could partially be used to repair the damage. Economically desperate citizens combined with governments concerned primarily with a short-term outcome will put up less resistance to environmental degradation. A study published in the March 2003 UN Development Policy Journal verifies the common perception that proximity to environmentally hazardous sites is strongly correlated with poverty (Selim and Alvaro), while Economics Professor Raymond McDermott of Western Illinois University’s “A Panel Study on the Pollution-Haven Hypothesis” confirms that comparatively low environmental regulations increase Foreign Direct Investment in a region (McDermott). Adding in the artificially low cost of fossil fuel (given the long term effects and entanglements) means there is a hugely reduced impact to the bottom line when deciding to burn more and more fuel moving items further and further.
Upcoming in this series: The Good Less Traveled and Local Retail plus Local Currency Leads to Local Production
Act Locally, Inspire Globally
Local currency has a rhetoric of value attached to it, not simply because of inherent qualities but because of the values put forth by those people who support it. Viewing the artwork on a PLENTY, there is a visual reminder of the beauty and character of our region that many want to amplify and preserve. All money is a form of power, power to be used for good, ill, or indifference. When you spend or accept a PLENTY, you are connecting yourself to goals that go beyond the bottom line, but you are also putting more economic “bottom line” power in the community to affect changes in line with those values—providing an example for other communities in the world to do the same.
For more information or to join as a member, please visit our website, http://www.ncplenty.org or call (919) 619-9368.
Matthew Kalb, Trustee, NCPlenty, Inc.
Works Cited
For NCPlenty's main page, click here.
For the current issue of the NCPlenty membership newsletter, click here.