In the late 80′s and 90′s, farmers, food manufacturers, distributors, retailers asserted that their products were “organic”. There were multiple standards that were voluntarily adopted and hopefully posted as the basis of assertions on product labeling (sometimes). In the 90′s, the USDA finally realized that distinctly “organic” food was desired, demanded, by many consumers, and [...]
Archive for the ‘Locus’ Category
What is a Local Product?
Posted in Food, General economic, Locus, Regional Economy on May 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Locus
Posted in Food, General economic, Locus, Regional Economy on February 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
What is sustainability? As a definition, I like the one articulated by the 1987 Brundtland Report, “Meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.“ My own definition: http://rwitty.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/sustainable-societyeconomy-definitions/ In the few cases where I’ve been engaged to conduct “sustainability audits” for small companies, the criteria [...]
The Supply Trane – The Beginning of my Lunch Inquiry
Posted in Ethics, General economic, Locus on October 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I hope folks got my reference to the great JC (thats John Coltrane – “Chasing the Trane”). My wife made lunch yesterday and she made the exercise to “Chase the Trane”, too easy (I think). We had baked potatoes grown in our backyard, and some grown at friends’ around 7 miles away. That was grown [...]
Sustainable Product Disclosure – What Belongs There
Posted in Food, Locus, Regional Economy, Sustainable Economics on April 30, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
If we were really interested in some indication of whether a product or service complied with a definition of “sustainable”, what would that include? When people speak of sustainable currently, most people think of something comprehensive, more than one characteristic. So what characteristics would that entail? How important is each characteristic to consumers and to [...]
Product Disclosure
Posted in Food, Locus, Sustainable Economics on April 30, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Currently there is no product or supplier designation for compliance with comprehensive sustainability definitions. Its hard to know if that is because the definition of sustainability is difficult to articulate and/or difficult to define a consented universal definition. There are ISO type certifications of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, etc, and those aren’t used as widely [...]
Introducing “Locus”
Posted in Food, Locus, New England, Progressive Utilization, Regional Economy, Sustainable Economics on August 10, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I remember hearing a Sweet Honey in the Rock song 20 years ago “Are My Hands Clean”, that traced the production of a fashion shirt from the source of its materials, labor, machining, all value-addition. Cotton from who knows where, oil drilled in Bahrain -> refined in ____->made into polyester resin in ____-> blend spun [...]
