Since the important decisions on the future of SSAP have not been made yet, we must discuss them again.  One of the interesting options is to work with UDFMC, which is seeking a more direct role in community activism towards a sustainable future.  The American sustainability situation has changed dramatically since SSAP organized the first conference in 1990.  Back then, the critical need was to get people to understand the concept of "sustainability."  Today, it seems the next step is get a larger movement organized locally; somewhere between political organizing to get top-down government action and community organization to get individuals living "green," with low carbon footprints.
    
As some of you know, Ernest has had major health problems, and Elaine is overloaded handling them.
    
How can SSAP best contribute to the movement?  Without an influx of new talent, we can no longer organize conferences, as in the past, even if this is the best role for us.  SSAP can continue as a local sustainability discussion group, with 3-4 meetings a year, and a NewsLetter.  We could support the work of other organizations, including UDFMC and schools; or, what?  Your input is really needed. 
    
As usual, we will also have refreshments and conversation after the formal business meeting.  Making a sustainable world should be enjoyable, not a drag, for those who are involved.
    
So come to the joint meeting, swap some ideas, make new friends.



A few weeks ago, we attended a program at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.  The featured speaker was Bill McKibben.  We were sufficiently impressed that I got his 2007 book, Deep Economy, from the Library.  The second chapter, "The Year of Eating Locally" discusses farmers markets in Vermont, where he lives.  To paraphrase him: When you buy a tomato in a super market, you get a tomato.  When you buy a tomato at a farmers market, you are having an interaction with a farmer.  I now purchased a copy of his latest book, Eaarth, and anticipate reading it with pleasure.

Two months earlier, we attended another program at ANSP.  The speaker was Dr. Vandana Shiva, and we bought her book, Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability and Peace.  While she deals with her native India, her direction is very similar: how to get the most human satisfaction with minimum use of (non-renewable) resources, rather than how to maximize production of goods at the lowest cost.  A major part of her world view is that large global corporations are destroying the community structure in India in their search for profits.  The worship of the short-term bottom-line may be the most unsustainable culture element in the developed countries.

Local organizing seems to be a potential common ground between UDFMC and SSAP.  This will be an opportunity to explore the concept, and see where we fit in both as an organization and as individuals.  We are not in a position to found worker-owned businesses, or set up Consumer Supported Agriculture (CSA), but we can spread the ideas and motivate others to do so.

Besides being more enjoyable, local economics cuts down on transportation for both goods and people.  Since the transportation sector of the American economy is the largest user of petroleum, it will be necessary to both reduce the total amount of transportation and to switch to more energy efficient, and less oil intensive modes in order to reduce American imports of oil.  Farmers markets will be a key part of this program.  Vegetables should not have to travel 3000 miles to our tables.


    
Sociology is the study of how humans interact in society.  The sustainability problem comes from what humans and human society does.  There seems to be three areas in which social scientists can help work on the sustainability problem.  While we don't usually think about it, technology is developed and implemented by humans.  Laws are made by humans, and either obeyed or flouted by humans.  We need the help of social scientists to make a sustainable future.
1.  Bottom up: how do we change culture so that Americans and others live sustainably.
2.  Top down: what laws, and law enforcement, will actually work, and not be evaded.
3.  How to end political and religious violence that precludes dealing with the problem.

Research on cooperative settlements (kibbutzim) in Israel show that up to about 500 individuals, who mostly know each other, the culture of working together for the common good can prevail.  Above a thousand people, it breaks down, and people tend to cheat on the system.  That is why the government owned production facilities in Communist Russia are among the worst polluters in the world.

The classic book from the 1930s, Management and the Worker, shows how just working together can evolve into a social group.  Just this week end, we attended some talks on Chevra Kaddisha (holy society), Jewish volunteers who help prepare the dead for burial.  A lot of esprit de corps arises among these people who help the community.

Not only do we need the best that technology offers to build a sustainable world, but the best that social science can guide us in this task.  We have recently come into contact with people from the Recycle Bank, who get people to recycle, with small cash payments.  Without explicitly stating it, they are applying sociology.  Maybe the UDFMC group can latch onto other projects that get local people working together towards making a sustainable future.

I have asked Dr. Jack Nachamkin, who has a mini farm just south of Media, to come.  He can fill us in a lot with local small scale agriculture.