It’s hard not to be frustrated with our current political system. It’s complex, confusing and contentious. But even as we would like to ignore it, we cannot avoid its impact on pretty much every part of our lives. So, what can we do? You know the old saying, if you can’t beat them, join them….
Partnering with your elected officials
Working together for an equitable, sustainable future
We’ve arrived at a critical point in human history. Society is using resources faster than Nature can replenish them. What will happen if we continue on the same path? We can find solutions that will benefit everyone if we work together. Solutions will have to make sense for businesses—that’s economics. It will need to…
Will there be enough food, water and energy to support your community in the future?
Wouldn’t it be important to know if there’s enough ground water to support a community before we build more houses? Is there enough locally grown food to feed the population or will we have to ship higher priced food in to meet everyone’s needs? How much energy will a community need in the future? …
You can make a difference
There’s a lot to be concerned about today, no matter where you live. Identifying a problem is the first step, whether it relates to the cost of living, problems with the environment, or decisions affecting you that are being made by your elected officials or local businesses. But to create the kind of change you…
What’s happening to our Commons?
What’s happening to our Commons? The loss of our Commons affects all of us. When public spaces like parks and lakes, our libraries or even the internet are taken over by private enterprise, we lose something that belongs to all of us. We have a collective responsibility to care for and preserve our Commons. This…
Let’s Talk About Climate Change
This the first in a series of short background papers on issues affecting all of us. Is your community meeting to discuss this problem? Download and share this document with friends, neighbors and other community members. Use it to start a discussion in your community . Do you need help getting started? For more…
Bourdain’s New Documentary, ”Wasted!,” Details Why Food Waste Demands Our Attention
While the documentary, Wasted! The Story of Food Waste has debuted in the Tribeca Film Festival, and has been released in theaters around the country, many haven’t heard of it, and most aren’t aware of the real impact that food waste has in the world. For example, when you throw a head of lettuce in…
He Hacked a Way to Talk to Plants — and They Talk Back
Food insecurity is an issue all around the world. Many scientists are focusing on ways to make home gardening more foolproof. When we can grow our own food, we can begin to feel that we have control over our future. This article reveals the work of one scientist who has developed a tool to “talk”…
Emergence of a New Story: Redeveloping a Vernacular for Workers as Commoners
EDA is blessed to have one of the leading economic thinkers in the world as a Senior Advisor. James Quilligan is a man with fresh ideas, and a new way of looking at the issues we face in the world we live. This brief article is an introduction to the “real” meaning of The Commons. …
5 Reasons to Join the Locavore Movement
Over the past several years, there has been a growing movement of people who have found a passion for the growing locavore movement. This stems from an expectation of local food as the healthy alternative. This brief article gives you five reasons to embrace the locavore movement if you haven’t done so already. Whether your…
Short Answers to Hard Questions About Climate Change
We’ve had a remarkable year as far as climate goes. So far this season, we’ve experienced five Category 3 (or above) hurricanes, with substantial damage to the Houston area with Hurricane Harvey and the devastation of Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria. With another 45 days left in hurricane season, we can expect more to come. …
How Electricity Cooperatives in the US are Paving the Way for a Renewable Future
We’re seeing a new wave of cooperatives gaining foothold around the country. Food cooperatives have been around for quite some time and we’re seeing more of these emerge each year. Energy cooperatives have also been with us for a while, but there is a growing movement in this area to push for energy cooperatives to…
An All-Volunteer Squad Of Farmers Is Turning Florida Lawns Into Food
There is a growing movement throughout the country of homeowners who are taking steps to make the “local-vore movement” very, very local. These homeowners are transforming their beautiful lawns into their own mini-farms. The interest in this trend is spreading quickly and is particularly being embraced in more moderate climates where lawns can evolve into…
Lauren Baker on the Importance of Transparency in the True Cost of Food
One of the hidden mysteries of modern living is the experience of shopping at the local grocery store. We become complacent right from childhood to expect food will be there for us. And, we rarely think about the cost of the food item that we place in our shopping cart. With the advent of an…
Personal Indoor Farming — Fall 2016
Our blog posts have shared ideas that communities can adopt to address providing a healthy resource for food. Even larger communities and cities like Chicago can take a fresh approach to infusing high-quality food locally. We’ve shared many examples of this nature in hopes that some of these would provide inspiration to you to take…
Study says bioregion could be food self-reliant by 2050
At our annual conference last May, we introduced our new research initiative focusing on carrying capacity, with presentations from members of the EDA Research Team. The research was a beginning of our effort to determine what the capacity for bioregions was for several places around North America. Carrying capacity is the ability of a specific…
Five Basic Survival Needs of Human Beings
We hear the word “sustainability” and realize that it often means different things to different people. But when you strip away all of the niceties, and really get down to it, sustainability is simply long-term survival. To establish sustainability, we believe that there must be a radical change in the thinking of what is essential…
A Solution for Struggling Small Towns: Organic Food?
Small towns and communities all over our country are constantly in a search for make-over, particularly those that have had their industrial base shut down, like Gasden, AL shown in this photograph. Gasden lost their major industries in the 1970’s and 1980’s, and was forced to take steps for revitalization. After decades of struggle, Gasden…
In Maryland, rescuing food that might otherwise be wasted
A recent article in Fast Company revealed a study done by the Potsdam Institute which concludes that food shortage is less an issue of availability than it is a distribution problem. In 2010, the last time the data was collected, we wasted 510 kilocalories per person per day, as compared with 310 kilocalories in 1965….
U.S. Mayors Back 100% Renewable Energy, Vow to Fill Climate Leadership Void
The U.S. Conference of Mayors also voted to support quick electrification of vehicles and urged Congress to back the Clean Power Plan and Paris climate agreement. Scenes like the image above are likely to become more prevalent in urban cities across the US as the US Conference of Mayors has made a commitment to move…
UPCYCLED MUSHROOMS
In our coverage of the growing local food movement, we’ve been sharing several entrepreneurial efforts that have addressed the need for a focus on growing food on a small scale and distributing that food in an economic way to stores, specialty grocers, and restaurants. This is a small but ever-increasing group of visionaries who see…
The Next Health System
Now that the US has experienced the new government’s apparent direction toward health care, we’re somewhat painfully aware of how different sides of the political aisle view this complex topic. We think it is very likely that what has come out of the House and Senate will be modified before it is signed into law,…
Follow a gallon of water from Lake Mead to a Las Vegas tap
The recent stories about the extensive California drought in the summer of 2016 raised awareness of the fragility of access to the one resource that we all need to continue living on this planet. This renewed focus on water as resource was further heightened in the stories of the previous year about water quality problems…
10 Urban Agriculture Projects Making a Difference in Columbus, Ohio
In May 2017, EDA held our first “Our Common Good Conference” where we featured a presentation about carrying capacity in geographical areas around the country. The term “carrying capacity” refers to the ability or limitations of a geographical area to sustain life through the local availability of water and food production. One of the case studies shared in this presentation analyzed…
Trump says goodbye to the Paris climate agreement. Here’s what that means…
The United States of America now finds itself in some pretty unusual company joining only Syria and Nicaragua in declining involvement in the Paris Climate Agreement. When the agreement was originally created, Syria was so deep in its own difficulties and mired in international sanctions that from a practical matter, travel to Paris was nearly impossible. And with…
5 Clean Energy Innovations That Could Transform Our World
We’re confident that our readers know that a sustainable future for the world will require some major innovations in how we manage our water resources, how we raise and distribute food, and how we will produce the energy required for future generations. The days of reliance on fossil fuel for our energy source are quickly…
Why Chicago Is Becoming The Country’s Urban Farming Capital
In recent blog articles we’ve shared the growing trend toward urban farming where some pioneers are using technology to transform old warehouse and industrial buildings into thriving indoor farms. If you attend our conference in May there will be several presentations on bioregions and looking at carrying capacity for water and food production to serve…
Rainwater Harvesting 101
With the recent rains in the CA Bay Area, for that part of the country the drought has been relieved, and the Governor even made it “official”. But, other parts of the US aren’t so lucky. In fact, drought seems to be a constant for many places in the country for a while. You can…
Toward a Socio-Economic System of Common Wealth – Comments from EDA Learning Call #3
It’s widely recognized that a new kind of common wealth is needed to revalue and protect the assets of Earth. Something that would resolve our private and public debts, create a global society of justice and sharing for everyone, and totally rebalance our ecology through sustainability. There is an answer to this and it’s always…
UN Report Says Small-Scale Organic Farming Only Way to Feed the World
We recently published an article about the Local Food Movement that emphasized the importance of having access to healthy food – free of preservatives and chemicals. While the natural trend in large-scale commercial farming is focused on heavy use of chemicals in fertilizing as crops are planted, and chemicals to preserve the food for long…
The Local Food Movement
Recently we have posted several articles about the growing interest in accessing locally grown food. There is an increasing awareness that many places in our country are suffering because there are no local groceries that offer healthy food to residents. The term “food deserts” was introduced in a recent post to shine a light on…
Trump orders review of national monuments, vows to ‘end these abuses and return control to the people’
The Trump administration recently issued another Executive Order that seemed to slip under the radar of many in the news media. This new Executive Order opens the door to commercial exploitation of some of our country’s most beautiful and untouched areas. The idea is to allow these National Monument sites to be managed by state…
Food Deserts
The image of this desert triggers our imagination. It is a vast region that for the most part is without a lot of resources. Life in a desert is difficult to sustain, with the harsh environment offering little food or water. It is this image that triggered the term “Food Desert.” Sadly this is a…
A Future Farming Industry Grows In Brooklyn
The startup Square Roots is training the next generation of urban farmers in a Bed-Stuy parking lot. One of the things that EDA believes in strongly is that sustainability in the future will rely on local efforts for food. That can serve as a challenge in urban areas. We recently released a post about the…
Beating Nature at Its Own Game
This article written by Bill Gates offers us an amazing view into the future of energy. We’re reading about the creativity of scientists and engineers that are tackling the potential of the use of the energy that is available to us from the sun. Elon Musk’s team has done amazing work in two areas recently: …
Rural Americans’ Drinking Water At Stake With Trump Budget Cuts
Trump strongholds would be hit hardest by his plans to reduce funds for small-town water systems and ease rules on polluters. Our recent blog posts have had two themes: the proposed cuts in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funding; and the celebration of the United Nation’s World Water Day. Both of these themes have had a…
11 Ways the EPA Has Helped Americans
Trump wants to demolish a federal agency that has played a crucial role in American history. The Mission of Economic Democracy Advocates (EDA) focuses on the protection of the natural, social and economic systems that make up our Commons to meet the basic human needs of this and future generations. This Mission is extremely important…
The Role of the Worm in Recycling Wastewater
Over the past week or so we’ve taken a glimpse at the world of wastewater recycling to acknowledge 2017’s theme for World Water Day. We looked at recycling efforts in Orange, CA, Singapore, and the pioneers of wastewater recycling in Namibia. While these recycling efforts were focusing on water for human consumption, there are needs…
Recycling sewage into drinking water is no big deal -They’ve been doing it in Namibia for 50 years
This week we mark the upcoming United Nation’s World Water Day on March 22. Every year there is a new theme for World Water Day – this year the theme focuses on wastewater. In EDA’s two most recent blog posts we shared some of the advances in wastewater recycling, and much of this seemed to…
Drinking Toilet Water: The Science (and Psychology) of Wastewater Recycling
We’re continuing our exploration of how wastewater is recycled as EDA celebrates World Water Day on March 22. This year, the United Nation’s World Water Day theme is wastewater. Our previous post began this series looking at “toilet to tap” and introduced the innovations of wastewater recycling in Singapore and Orange, CA. We wanted to…
From toilet to tap: Getting a taste for drinking recycled waste water
A third successive year of California’s worst drought in a century has the Golden State’s reservoirs at record lows. Agriculture has been affected, hitting the local economy, while some small communities risk running out of water. But business is booming in California’s Orange County Water District (OCWD), through a pioneering wastewater treatment facility that recycles…
Trump Wants To Dismantle The Clean Water Rule. Here’s What’s At Stake
The Executive Order that was signed recently will undo decades of progress in cleaning up our environment. But what’s worse, it will impair the environment for us and for future generations of Americans. This article published by Huffington Post will remind you of the origins of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Many of our readers…
President Trump’s Opening Salvos on Clean Water—and Other Public Health Safeguards
Earlier this month we published two posts about the concerns that we are seeing regarding the future of clean water with the US Administration’s desire to severely weaken the Environmental Protection Agency. In combination with an Executive Order intending to rescind regulations preventing pollution of our rivers, lakes and streams, the head of the EPA…
US drinking water at risk from Trump’s cuts to pollution rules
Recent actions by the new US Administration have raised alarm over the protection of water for our citizens. An earlier post in our blog this month discussed the budgetary changes that will cause an enormous impact for the Great Lakes. This collection of five lakes is the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth, and…
Great Lakes Restoration Program Reportedly Facing Drastic Funding Cut
Great Lakes Water Basin. Image courtesy of Wikimedia The new administration of the United States is starting out with an alarming explosion! An early view of the first proposed budget is reflecting catastrophic cuts in funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The proposed reduction of between 90 and 97% of funding would decimate the…
World’s largest vertical farm grows without soil, sunlight or water in Newark
The interest in growing plants vertically was put in high gear in Milan, Italy in 2011 with a project that was conceived by architect Stefano Boer to build a vertical forest. He incorporated trees into the design of his high-rise residential towers. His buildings were completed in 2015, and launched an interest in vertical farming…
Water fight – you lose, big business wins
Article written by Janice Bobbie In the last 20 years, Nestlé’s bottled water sales in the United States and Canada has grown tenfold from $400-million (U.S.) to approximately $4-billion. Nestlé has aggressively acquired water resources in communities all over North America. They either have direct ownership, leases, easement or other arrangements that allows them to…
Evolutionary Voices with Lisa VanderBoom 1 January 2017
Wayne Wilson, co-founder, Economic Democracy Advocates Wayne Wilson, President and one of the founders of Economic Democracy Advocates (EDA), is in dialogue with Lisa Vanderboom of Evolutionary Voices, discussing the mission and vision of EDA– “economic empowerment and justice by, for and of the people.” Wayne explores how basic human needs–water, food, and energy, in particular– are in…
Bioregions: Notes On A Design Agenda
This article offers us a beautiful look at the concept of Bioregions, and their importance in our collective future. Originally published by John Thackara in April 2015. His focus on stories about the practical steps taken by communities to realize sustainable future is clearly reflected in this piece we share with you. Giving us an…
California officials say a new plan will make water conservation ‘a way of life’
In the United States, it seems as though California’s water shortages are constantly in the news. And while the month of January this year saw some relief with a welcomed influx of weeks of rain, we can assume that we’ll begin to hear the stories once again about water shortages and the need for conservation. …
Beyond Sharing Report — Part 1: Benefits of Community-Owned Renewable Energy
This article from Clean Technica is from the original work published by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) which studied how communities could take ownership of renewable power. The focus on this report from ILSR is to explore the barriers in the US to the adoption of community-owned renewable energy and the ways in which…
Take A Look At How Technology Makes Smart And Sustainable Farming
Sustainable farming requires innovation. As climate change is impacting us, farming can be more and more challenging. But at the same time, as our population is growing, the need for food is growing as well. The new technologies that are being introduced to our farms are a testament to ingenuity and our increased need to…
Five Global Challenges Designers and Architects Can Solve in 2017
We face enormous challenges in the future. Our little planet seems to be struggling in its attempt to house our growing population and deal with the increased waste that this population generates each day. The growth in population in turns puts a constant focus on how we’ll feed everyone, while our oceans are suffering from…
Top 10 Movers And Shakers In Sustainability – 2016
As we launch Economic Democracy Advocates at the top of the New Year in 2017, we can look back to some of the leaders around the world that have inspired us. Advocacy takes many forms as we see in this Huffington Post article. The list they provided offers a wide profile of advocacy leaders around…
Costa Rica barely used any fossil fuels in 2016
2016 heralded many advances around the world. While the Presidential election took over much of the attention toward the end of the year, and the focus on Brexit in the middle of year both captured a lot of interest, there was exciting progress being made in other parts of the world that are not often…
President signs bill including historic Oklahoma water agreement
by William Crum Published: December 20, 2016 12:00 AM CDT With eyes on the Standing Rock community in their struggle to retain their control over their water supply throughout the past months, it was a pleasant signal that our government was still able to pass legislation that offered the regional protection over water rights to…
Energy – The Fuel for Modern Society
by Jack Rued Published: Dec 22, 2016 12:00 AM EST While not essential for human survival as are water and food, our capacity to harness energy for the production of goods and the delivery of services such as light and fuel, is a vital component of our modern industrial civilization. It has improved our quality…
Omaha brothers bring clean energy to Standing Rock, help activists share stories worldwide
by Ifesinachi Egbosimba, Wednesday, December 7th 2016 We’re starting to see interest all over the world in solar power. At Economic Democracy Advocates we believe that solar energy is a resource that should be available to anyone and everyone. In theory, solar energy is all around us – all we need is the technology to…