Cheryl Maffei & Jonathan Stevens of Hungry Ghost Bread
Massachusetts has a deep agricultural history stretching back before the days of chemical-based industrial agribusiness. How are farmers using older methods to make the transition to more sustainable agriculture? Sea Change Co-Host Francesca Rheannon goes to the Colrain Dairy to talk with Larry Shearer about his low-impact, pasture-based method of organic dairying. She then talks with Cheryl Maffei of The Hungry Ghost Bakery’s Little Red Hen local wheat-growing project . Finally, she interviews historian Dan Bennett about the use of water to power grist and sawmills in the smaller communities of the Connecticut River Valley.
Labor Day’s come and gone, and the leaves are starting to turn color here in New England, so we at Sea Change are highlighting some of our summer programming. We focused a lot on sustainable agriculture, economic alternatives, green jobs, and the climate crisis. Check out some of our summer shows below.
Banks are increasingly viewed as a bane to a healthy economy. But done right, banks can play a key role in the shift to sustainability. Today, Sea Change presents three perspectives on futures for banking. Peter Blom, CEO of Triodos Bank in the Netherlands, proposes a shift in the mission of banks, from maximizing profit to maximizing sustainability. Doug Rushkoff, author of LIFE INC, discusses how a surplus of debt that banks needed to sell triggered the financial meltdown. And Lyle Estill describes the role a chapter in his book SMALL IS POSSIBLE played in a local currency in North Carolina, The Plenty, being carried by a local bank.
The Center for Popular Economics (CPE) recently hosted the first Forum on the Solidarity Economy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst — home of Sea Change Radio. CPE Executive Director Emily Kawano explains the theory and practice behind the solidarity economy, and discusses strategies and next steps for the US Solidarity Economy Network in cultivating a socially and environmentally sustainable economy. And Chilo Villarreal of the Coalición Rural in Mexico illustrates solidarity economy concepts through story. Finally, the News Analysis examines the business of water.
Today, Dada Maheshvarananda meditates on the alternative economic model of Progressive Utilization Theory, or PROUT. Joe Romm of Climate Progress analyzes the climate resolve of the Obama Administration. Lisa Woll of the Social Investment Forumproposes an Office for Innovation in Corporate Social Responsibility to the Obama Administration. And auto and environment expert Jim Motavalli comments on the significance of President Obama’s executive order directing the EPA to reconsider its refusal to grant California a waiver allowing it to regulate greenhouse gases from autos.
Sea Change is a a nationally syndicated weekly radio show and podcast covering the shift to social, environmental, and economic sustainability. You can contact us here.
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Francesca Rheannon and Bill Baue of Sea Change host an intimate chat with 
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Alex Bowen, a Principal Research Fellow at 
Today we measure the speed of money. 
