Why Buy Local Food?
EAT LOCAL! Guide
BUY LOCAL FIRST!
EAT LOCAL!
GROW LOCAL!
LOCAL ENERGY!
LOCAL CURRENCY!
Keep Me Informed About the BOULDER COUNTY GOING LOCAL! Campaign.
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 | "Most of the intractable problems facing our society, including environmental degradation, educational under-performance and insufficient health care are symptoms of the western money system, in which interest concentrates wealth and creates undue economic drag. What's the problem? The problem is the design of our money. These problems can only be fixed by improving the underlying function of money. The best manner to accomplish this is the creation of complementary currencies.
"Complementary currencies are designed to liberate latent resources within a community, business network or economic region. These currencies complement the national money system, working alongside it to accomplish goals beyond what the national money system can handle. It is not intended or designed to replace conventional money, which continues to fill important roles.
"When strategically deployed, a complementary currency should be carefully targeted. A targeted complementary currency is geared to solve a specific problem, serving as the catalyst to activate latent resources and creating new economic flow. These currencies exhibit characteristics that reflect the complex nature of our world, and are dynamic, interdependent and resonant with community values."
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| – Arthur Brock
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LOCAL CURRENCY!
There are now more than 4,000 communities around the world that have started their own currency, enabling matches between unmet needs and unused resources. Local currency makes local self-sufficiency more possible. It helps protect the local environment and resource base so that economic activity doesn't damage the ecological base of the region. Since money is simply an agreement within the community to use something as a medium of exchange, new agreements can be created to solve local problems and strengthen the local economy.
It will take citizens working in their own communities, region by region, to create the kind of systemic change that will lead to sustainable economic practices–practices that foster ecologically responsible production of goods and a more equitable distribution of wealth. Local currencies are a tool to bring about such change. Local currencies are about building community while building the local economy.
The purpose of a local currency is to function on a local scale the same way that national currencies have functioned on a national scale–building the local economy by maximizing circulation of trade within a defined region. Widely used in the early 1900s, local currencies are again being recognized as a tool for sustainable economic development.
A local currency distinguishes the local businesses that accept it from those that do not, building stronger relationships and a greater affinity between the business community and the citizens of a particular place.
The people who choose to use the currency make a conscious commitment to buy local first. They are taking personal responsibility for the health and well-being of their community by laying the foundation of a truly vibrant, thriving local economy.
Local currencies will not, and are not intended to, replace federal currency. Their use will help strengthen the regional economy, favoring locally owned enterprises, local manufacturing, and local jobs, and reducing the region's dependence on an unpredictable global economy.
By accepting local currency, merchants are helping to establish markets for locally made products, providing an incentive for the growth of home-based industries and creating opportunities for those underemployed and unemployed to turn latent skills into business ventures.
In an age of global commerce and internet shopping, local currency is a powerful way to strengthen the local economy of its home region. It can reform the way many business owners and residents think about their local economy. It can help educate the community on why shopping locally matters. And, most importantly, it can set in motion a revolution that can make the community not only a beautiful and wholesome place to live, but one where locally owned businesses thrive, and where economic self-sufficiency can be nurtured as an alternate model to the nameless, faceless global economy.
| "If you really wanted to make a local economy soar, the most important step might be to create a local currency."
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– Bill McKibben
Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
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