Local Living Economies - Protecting What We Love

Peak Moment 144: Judy Wicks' love of place has made widening ripples on a global scale. She's the founder of BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies), a national network of sustainable, small businesses. After moving onto a quaint street in Philadelphia, she learned it was slated to be torn down. Organizing her community, she saved the block as a walkable community. She opened White Dog Cafe coffee shop on the first floor of her home, which grew to a large restaurant proudly serving food from local farmers. Reading John Robbins' Diet for a New America about the cruel treatment of factory farm animals, she located small family farmers and created a cruelty-free menu. Rather than hoard this proprietary information, she founded a local sustainable business network based on cooperation between businesses, and later the national organization, BALLE.
http://www.livingeconomies.org http://www.whitedog.com

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• economy
• local
• business
• food
• community

[DoblyTufnell]

Judy.. You rock!

What a thought provoking video.. Seeing how localization can become a network of localized communities. Great stuff.

[peakmoment]

"a network of localized communities" -- that's the vision of the Transition Movement that started in the UK, more recently catching on in Australia and the U.S. You might enjoy our Peak Moment program with Jennifer Gray on "The Transition Movement Comes to America."

[otis31755]

enjoyed this video very much and living in Philadelphia we love what this cafe' is doing. I learned alot for my nonprofit geo-life.org from this video. check out my walkable video out and let me know what you think

[livepsycle]

That was a real moment of confirmation for me when Judy said "In the end it's life that we love, much more than we love life style."

Nice interview. I really like the strong feminine flovour of the way you are sharing information. Admirable stuff.

[theproducegarden]

beautiful area

[PermaFreak33]

Loved her positive response to the Battle of Seattle - ... we are all AGAINST something, she took action to create something to stand FOR.  What an amazing story of evolution and energy.

[DoblyTufnell]

I enjoy all the videos of your's I have seen, but not that one with Jennifer Gray. I'll check it out. Thanks.

[scarmenl]

What I think is that here is a lady that finally gets it. It's not about weather you meat or not. It's about treating people, animals, business all of it in a manner that is good for all. There is no future in the rip it up and mangle it world of large business.

Now, try to imagine a world without the destroyers at the top that are raping our planet, us and our future. Big industry is not the problem, no morels or feeling of right IS!!

[madeofyucca]

Fascinating books. a lot of interesting ideas, particularly the child raising ideas.

[madeofyucca]

Baratgad: Love and butchering are not mutually exclusive.

One can love, give a good life to and care for an animal as well as kill and eat it. So, I don't think it is objective to say the the video is about selling the suffering of other sentient beings at all, because wether the animals are suffering or not is subjective.

[westkan]

I guess one could interpret this video in that matter. But one would have to first agree that the consumption in moderation , of the meat of topic, causes unreasonable suffering of human individuals