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Silk Oak owner Jan Norman, shown above, and Leslie Ackerman, who works at Alternatives Federal Credit Union, were the driving force behind the creation of Local First Ithaca Ñ now officially a chapter of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. (Photo by Rachel Philipson) |
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Finger Lakes ReUse Director Diane Cohen, left, and Ivan Yalanzhi, the ReUse Center's operations supervisor, stand in the lumber area of the non-profit's space in the Triphammer Mall. (Photo by Rachel Philipson) |
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'Buy local' movement going full force in Ithaca
Joseph Murtagh
Reporter
It can be tough to feel good about the economy these days, with people losing their jobs and homes going into foreclosure. But the downturn in the national economy might have one bright side: support for local business.
While the 2008 financial crisis sent the nation into an economic tailspin, it's also encouraging people to reassess the way they do business in their local communities. The "buy local" movement has been picking up steam for years, said Joe Romano, marketing manager for GreenStar Cooperative Market, but it's never been stronger than it is today.
"If you had asked me a few years ago what the 'buy local' movement meant," said Romano, "I probably would have said supporting local farmers. But now I would say that it means supporting not just local agriculture, but also local retail and finance too.
"I think disasters like what we're seeing in the gulf with BP and also the collapse of the financial institutions are really waking people up to the way that big corporations and even big government can negatively impact local communities," he added. "Our goal should be to focus on a broader picture that looks at how a community can be self-sufficient."
Romano is part of a growing number of business leaders and entrepreneurs in Ithaca who are encouraging people to spend more of their money locally. The buy local movement got a big boost a few years ago when Jan Norman of Silk Oak and Leslie Ackerman of the Alternatives Federal Credit Union formed "Local First Ithaca," which, as Norman explained, is the local chapter of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), a nationwide network of independent businesses committed to supporting local economies and building sustainable communities.
"BALLE is a fast growing organization, with over 80 community networks across the country and in Canada," said Norman. "While some of these networks are older and more established than others, they share the goal of educating the consumer to understand the choices we make on a daily basis, and how these choices can filter down to the local community."
As Norman explained, BALLE draws a lot on a concept known as "the ten percent shift," which contends that a small change in a community's purchasing power can have a dramatic impact on its local economy. A 2008 study done by the policy group Civic Economics in Grand Rapids, MI, found that if all the households in the city "shifted" only 10 percent of their purchases from non-local businesses to local independents, Grand Rapids would see 1,600 new jobs created, generating millions of dollars worth of economic activity.
"The economics behind this is fairly straightforward," said Norman. "With a locally-owned business, the money tends to stay in the community, since local businesses usually service other local businesses. But with a big box store, the money quickly spins out of town and goes to corporate headquarters. As the studies show, there's a real economic benefit to having the money stay in the community."
Norman recalled that the economic landscape has changed dramatically since she started doing business in Ithaca in the late-'70s.
"When I started doing retail in Ithaca in 1977," she said, "there were virtually no chains, or the concept of chains was very different. But today we see that public policy favors tax abatements to attract big box stores, because they create new jobs."
But Norman argued that the job-creating potential of the big box stores is deceptive.
"When you run the numbers," she said, "it actually comes out in favor of small businesses. With a big box store, there are a lot of questions you have to consider. Yes, it might be creating jobs, but what kind of jobs? Are they living-wage jobs? Do they have health benefits? Will the store require building new roads, new infrastructure?"
Norman said these questions have become more urgent in light of the collapse of industry throughout upstate New York. Throughout the earlier part of the 20th century, upstate New York relied on a primarily manufacturing-based economy, with companies like Kodak, Carrier and Bethlehem Steel providing jobs for local communities. But today much of that industry has disappeared, thanks to companies relocating their manufacturing operations overseas. The result, said Norman, is that many communities in upstate New York have been turned into ghost towns where there is a lack of things to do at the local level.
"In many upstate communities there is virtually nothing left that is independent anymore," said Norman. "There's very little power that resides locally."
But Norman is confident that BALLE could help turn things around.
"The problem with some of the green groups in the past is that they haven't been able to connect with the masses," said Norman. "But I think BALLE is different. The focus on small and independent businesses provides an entry point, a critical mass for people of all backgrounds. It's an inclusive organization. Everybody should feel they have a place."
Both Norman and the other BALLE members agreed that Ithaca is lucky in many respects since it has people who have already been working on these issues for years.
"Ithaca isn't just any town," said Norman. "It's a desirable location, there's a real flavor to the city. We're fortunate that we have so many people doing such important work here."
Leslie Ackerman, who together with Norman was a cofounder of Local First Ithaca, and who today runs a small business resource program at the AFCU called Business Cents, agreed that Ithaca is unique in its support for community sustainability, but adds that there's still a lot of work to be done to get the message out.
"BALLE is definitely growing," she said, "but there are still a lot of communities out there that aren't really aware of it at this point. We're lucky in Ithaca because we have a lot of resources, a lot of people who are already tapped into the issues: a good co-op, the Workers Center, Ithaca Hours, the Ithaca Health Alliance. But other communities don't have that kind of base. The philosophy for years in communities like Utica or Cortland, for instance, has been 'Let's just bring a big company back into town, it will bring back jobs.'"
History
While the buy local movement may be thriving today, Ithaca already has a long history of supporting local food production. Food is something of a gateway to the local movement, and it's often what first springs to people's minds when they hear the word "local," said Monika Roth, regional agriculture team leader at Cornell Cooperative Extension.
"Ithaca has had a local food movement since the 1970s, with GreenStar, the Farmer's Market, and Moosewood," said Roth. "They've done a great job at fostering small-scale farming and building relationships with local farmers."
Roth added that local food production has really taken off in the Ithaca area over the last two decades, mostly owing to the growth in popularity of CSAs, which stands for "Community Supported Agriculture." In a CSA, a group of individuals buy into a local farm operation and can get weekly deliveries of fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, and dairy products.
"Where we once had farm stands on the side of the road in the 1970s," said Roth, "today we have over twenty CSAs serving the local community, and much of that growth has been over the last decade."
She said the growth in popularity has occurred because people are more interested in knowing where their food comes from.
"Initially it started with organics but now it's spread to locally-produced food in general," said Roth, "and there's definitely overlap between the two. A lot of the interest stems from concern about food safety. When we had the beef scare a few years ago, for instance, there was a surge in demand for local meat. People are worried about pesticides, contamination."
Roth also said that far more foods could be produced locally than people realize.
"We could get at least 90 percent of products locally if we made a conscious effort to do so," she said, adding that some groups, like Cayuga Pure Organics, are now producing foods that might have been more difficult to obtain locally in the recent past, such as flour and black beans.
Norman agreed, noting that in the 19th century New York was far more diverse in its food production than it is today.
"We get to the point where we think, 'Oh, we can't grow that here,'" but it wasn't always like that," she said. "We went from being a major producer of black beans to the point that we can't even supply our local restaurants with local black beans."
Like Roth, Norman is excited that local farmers are now stepping up to the plate to produce these foods locally. Cayuga Pure Organics, she said, can now supply beans directly to restaurants like Viva Taqueria.
"Food is the most logical starting point when you think locally," said Norman.
Building a sustainable economy
But food is only one part of the story, Norman points out. The real goal is to build a self-sufficient economy, with local and independent businesses contributing to a healthy and thriving community, and this takes hard work to shift the perspective.
One independent non-profit organization that's trying to do just this is Finger Lakes ReUse, run by Director Diane Cohen. Located in the Triphammer Mall, Finger Lakes ReUse is a kind of clearinghouse for used furniture, household goods, and building materials. People donate goods they don't need or that they would normally throw away, and the Center resells them for dramatically lower prices.
"It's like a department store for used goods," said Cohen. "We're trying to find an alternative to the waste stream."
"Often, something like this would just be thrown away," she added, pointing to an electric stove in almost perfect condition that had just been sold for $50. "But why throw it away? It's still in great shape, and now someone can come here and buy it at a discount."
The ReUse Center also does what's known as "deconstruction," which Cohen described as a green alternative to demolition. A crew will go out and take apart a building, and salvage the parts to be used in other construction projects.
"We sell tons and tons of lumber," said Cohen. "We also sell recycled nails and other building materials."
Cohen, who hopes the ReUse Center will serve as a pilot program that can be opened to other communities, said there's a significant educational element to the project as well.
"We'd like to develop a student apprenticeship program," said Cohen, "where we take stuff that needs to be refurbished and give people job skills. There are a whole bunch of industries that can spin off the use world."
Already some of this educational activity was happening next door. Just recently, Cohen expanded Finger Lakes ReUse to include an "E-Center" where people can donate and purchase reused computers. In the back of the store, a group of students supervised by Marty Schreiber, who runs a program at the Ithaca Youth Bureau called "Computer All-Stars, were dismantling some donated computers.
"We try to foster as educational an environment as we can here," said Cohen. "The idea is to help the local economy by changing the way that people think about waste."
Promoting the local economy
Changing the conceptual paradigm when it comes to local business is a common refrain throughout the buy local movement. Recently, several members of Local First Ithaca were involved in trying to push a bill through the state legislature that would create a special legal designation for corporations that want to make social responsibility a core part of their mission. Called a "B" corporation (short for "benefits"), such a company could be held responsible not only on fiscal matters but on its commitment to social values, such as a living wage, or a promise to be environmentally sustainable.
The bill was passed in the State Senate, but got caught up in committee in the Assembly. Still, Norman the signs are promising, and she's hopeful for the future.
"The bill made it really far, and what's even better, it made it really far without opposition," said Norman, adding that the bill passed to 60-1 in the Senate.
The group also met recently with Mayor Carolyn Peterson, and they are exploring options for supporting the local economy at the municipal level.
"In the past we've seen this paradigm where a city tries to lure employers in so as to create jobs," said Leslie Ackerman. "But we'd like to see more municipal governments providing incentives to local businesses that are already there. Some agencies do this already, like the Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency, but there could be more of it."
One piece of the local economy that has brought some attention to Ithaca over the years is Ithaca Hours, the alternative currency system that's one of the oldest and largest in the country. The purpose of Ithaca Hours, said Paul Strebel, who serves as the president of the Board of Directors for Ithaca Hours, has always been to promote local economic development.
"Ithaca Hours was never meant to replace the dollar," said Strebel. "It was intended as a complimentary currency that would encourage people to buy locally. The big box stores don't accept the currency, which means, if you're using Ithaca Hours at all, it's going to be at local businesses."
Keeping the money in circulation locally adds to the currency base, said Strebel, who also runs a financial planning group.
"Ithaca Hours is partnered with Local First," said Strebel, "and obviously, we support the mission of buying locally."
One well-known local business that's enthusiastic about using Ithaca Hours is the Ithaca Bakery.
"We've been accepting Ithaca Hours for years," said Ramsey Brous, owner of the Ithaca Bakery. "Ithaca Hours makes up a small portion of our business, but it's an important piece.
Brous added too that he tries to support the local economy in other ways.
"We've also been quite aggressive in establishing relationships with local farmers," he said. "A lot of the food we sell, like eggs, produce, honey, sandwich meat, syrup and other items, comes directly from local farmers, who we are proud to support. Other items come from local food distributors, like Regional Access."
Brous also said the business has been holding a local farm market in the parking lot of Ithaca Bakery every Thursday. A farmer comes from Bainbridge, NY, and sells his products to local customers.
With so many different people moving in the same direction, the buy local movement has a lot of moving parts, said Norman, but that's part of what makes it exciting.
"With Local First Ithaca, we're trying to pull all the pieces together, educate the consumer, generate new ideas, capture the synergy of all these people working together," she said.
Ackerman agreed, adding that the recent disarray in the economy is encouraging people to support local resources.
"People are really listening to the conversation now," she said. "You know, when gas prices go up, people buy fuel efficient vehicles. The time is ripe for this."
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