2008 Woodie Awards
Local solutions key to sustainable development
Jonathan Gair
Issue date: 11/2/07 Section: OpEd Page
This weekend contained numerous moments of joy: first, not only was Miami University hockey able to sweep visiting University of Nebraska-Omaha and capture the No. 1 national ranking, but Sunday also marked another step in the drive toward local sustainable agricultural development embodied by the Harvest MOON Festival held in Uptown Park.
If I can pry myself away from writing about what I see as the numerous positive global implications of the hockey team's success, we can focus on the radically different issue of the need for localized solutions to national concerns.
These concerns-over the treatment of the environment, use of finite energy resources, and a less-than-stable economy-are running rampant; however, when situations present themselves for local activism in order to reverse even one of these looming threats on the horizon, there is no reason not to seize the opportunity and act.
The Harvest Festival is simply one example of multiple local, grassroots activities that can and have occurred as a way to gradually lay the foundation for reversals of much larger national problems. Centered in Oxford, the Harvest Festival was an event representative of numerous other local food markets that seek to empower local producers by promoting the latter's comparative advantage. If this trend were to continue, taking root nationally in larger and larger markets, then one could ensure the survivability of both small and large local farmers, possibly even allowing for a future decrease in publicly funded farm subsidies. Not only would this scenario grant more leeway in constrained local, state, and national budgets, but it is also the perfect solution to help further develop third world trading connections with our national markets (especially as the Doha round of international trade talks continue to stall). Those foreign markets would be better aligned to penetrate our domestic markets by gaining the opportunity to further specialize their output (e.g., goods for which the growing climate is not suitable for American producers) and produce those goods to supplement U.S. local markets while developing their own regional sustainable agricultural projects by locally investing the extra resources freed up by further specialization.
If I can pry myself away from writing about what I see as the numerous positive global implications of the hockey team's success, we can focus on the radically different issue of the need for localized solutions to national concerns.
These concerns-over the treatment of the environment, use of finite energy resources, and a less-than-stable economy-are running rampant; however, when situations present themselves for local activism in order to reverse even one of these looming threats on the horizon, there is no reason not to seize the opportunity and act.
The Harvest Festival is simply one example of multiple local, grassroots activities that can and have occurred as a way to gradually lay the foundation for reversals of much larger national problems. Centered in Oxford, the Harvest Festival was an event representative of numerous other local food markets that seek to empower local producers by promoting the latter's comparative advantage. If this trend were to continue, taking root nationally in larger and larger markets, then one could ensure the survivability of both small and large local farmers, possibly even allowing for a future decrease in publicly funded farm subsidies. Not only would this scenario grant more leeway in constrained local, state, and national budgets, but it is also the perfect solution to help further develop third world trading connections with our national markets (especially as the Doha round of international trade talks continue to stall). Those foreign markets would be better aligned to penetrate our domestic markets by gaining the opportunity to further specialize their output (e.g., goods for which the growing climate is not suitable for American producers) and produce those goods to supplement U.S. local markets while developing their own regional sustainable agricultural projects by locally investing the extra resources freed up by further specialization.
Be the first to comment on this story