What will it take to Build a Local Food Movement?
Photo: chicagopatchworkfarms.com
Lauren Gurley of In These Times writes about what's needed to build a local, sustainable food movement in Chicago and Illinois. A Sustainable Economies Law Center event in Chicago that brought together a stakeholders in the local food movement is mentioned.
Read moreThree Hippies and an Oven, 2.0 - a Karin Wells documentary
Photo: Alvarado St. Bakery in Petaluma, California (Karin Wells)
Karin Wells of CBC Radio explores the spread of worker cooperatives in the Bay Area. Sustainable Economies Law Centers' Worker coop legislation is mentioned, and Yassi Eskandari-Qajar, SELC's Policy Director, is quoted.
Read moreCalifornia Bill Would Make Investing in Local Businesses Easier
Photo: Marcin Wichary (CC-BY)
Cat Johnson of Shareable writes about the Local Economies Securities Act (AB2751) and what it could do for investors and entrepreneurs in California.
Read moreHome-cooking markets like Josephine seek regulation
Photo Credit Gabrielle Lurie, Special To The Chronicle
Carloyn Said of the San Francisco Chronicle writes about regulations around selling home-cooking in California, and the movement to change regulations to allow platforms like Josephine to operate legally. SELC Policy Director, Christina Oatfield, is quoted in the article.
Read moreBerkeley Votes to Boost Co-op Economy In the Face of Gentrification
Araz Hachadourian of Yes! Magazine covers the passing of a co-op resolution in Berkeley, CA which requires the city to create an ordinance that supports worker owned cooperatives. Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) Policy Director, Yassi Eskandari-Qajar, is quoted extensively about how worker cooperatives benefit cities and communities.
Read more4 Updates from the Seed Sharing Movement
Cat Johnson of Shareable outlines four new developments in the seed sharing movement, including the introduction of legislation protecting seed sharing in California.
Read moreJanelle Orsi interviewed on the Laura Flanders Show
SELC's Executive Director, Janelle Orsi, was interviewed on The Laura Flanders show, which will air on LinkTV Friday, 2/26/16, at 9:00pm in CA. The episode "Pirates, Hackers, and the Sharing Economy."
Read moreSeed Libraries Featured in The Journal Gazette
Rosa Salter Rodriguez highlighted seed libraries and our advocacy work on behalf of seed libraries for The Journal Gazette in Indiana.
Read moreSmall Is Still Beautiful
By: Courtney E. Martin
(Originally published September 25, 2015)
"Janelle is wise about small. In fact, she spends her days thinking about all of the ways we can navigate around, subvert, and change the laws that inhibit us from 'solving the most elementary problems of everyday existence,' i.e. create worker-owned businesses and other resilient and radical kinds of community organizations. (She also spends her days sketching out her ideas, as she’s literally the 'cartoonist-in-chief.')"
Read the full article on onbeing.org.
Oakland Is Claiming Its Worker Cooperative Capital Title
By: Malcolm Burnley
(Originally published September 22, 2015)
"[O]n September 8th, the City Council made good with a ceremonious resolution 'supporting the development of worker cooperatives in Oakland.'
Among other items, the move recognized that these sorts of businesses — estimated to number between 300 and 400 nationally — offer wages and benefits above industry averages. The resolution, too, was a tacit acknowledgement from Council that the city will look for ways to support co-ops down the road . . .
What that municipal support might look like is to be determined. But in a draft ordinance authored by the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC), one of the organizing forces behind the referendum, the wish list for worker co-ops includes: getting the city to offer low-interest loans for converting traditional businesses into worker co-ops; preferential status to co-ops in the city contract procurement process; and waiving taxes and permit fees in the initial year of existence."