Jain Spirit 2004 06 No 19

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 66

64 ENVIRONMENT
SMALL IS
BEAUTIFUL
CHRIS WRIGHT ENVISAGES A NEW TYPE OF COMMUNITY ORGANISATION, WHICH JAINS COULD HELP SHAPE
In 1895, the National Trust was founded as a response to the effects of an uncontrolled urban sprawl on the English countryside. Using the same approach, is it not time to do something to protect our local shops from the relentless tide of supermarkets and out-of-town malls? Should not each community at least have access to locally based greengrocers, bakeries and cafes, where produce could be sourced as locally and ethically as possible? Perhaps we should create a new type of organisation, a Community Trust, which belongs to its members and aims to restore to local economies in a human scale, promoting small businesses, self-employment and co-operatives.
S
uch facilities would have to operate in a commercial world that is not kind to small-scale enterprises. That was why our local vegetable shop went out of business. The obvious question is: "Can they be run viably in our day and age?" A greengrocer's main costs include the food itself, and sourcing produce locally is likely to be more expensive than the supermarket equivalent, despite reduced transport costs. The Guardian recently ran an excellent Food Guide and gave the example of a dinner lady who had approached local farmers and now uses one hundred per cent fresh, local
produce. She spends approximately 50% more, but the price to A key question is how a Community Trust might operate in
the children remains the same because there are no administrators or others involved.
practice? It is at this point that the highly centralised character of the National Trust ceases to provide any kind of role model. The emphasis would be on local sovereignty, with any central functions serving the needs of the membership, rather than vice versa. Apart from finance, the Trust could provide education, training and a range of other expertise, including partnerships with fair trade organisations, that might be valuable to the ongoing development of local communities. But, and it is a big but: whatever the Trust provides should be what the membership wants, and the constitution must allow changes to the focus to be made at any time and relatively easily. Its very way of working would thus provide an alternative to the increasingly hierarchical and remote way in which our world is organised.
How to absorb such an increase in costs? It doesn't look hopeful until you realise that both the National Trust and most of our charity shops are run on volunteer labour, mainly the retired. When you consider that this is precisely the group who would recognise the value of local fresh food, you have a huge potential source of willing and committed helpers. There would be a need for limited, paid expertise, someone who could spend time with the farmers and negotiate deals that were good for both them and the community. That might include volunteers from the community working on the farm to reduce costs further. This would be relatively inexpensive in the scheme of things and such shops might also sell a range of fair trade goods.
The other major cost is the premises, whether these are owned or rented. That is where a Community Trust would come in. Opportunities to purchase properties do not come up often so there is a need to act quickly. Once the idea of the Trust had taken hold, groups of local people already aware of its potential would act as an early warning system and identify suitable properties. It may even be that traditional traders would pass their premises on, rather than risk them falling into the hands of estate agents and money lenders. Over time the local community would buy the property from the Trust through the issue of community shares, which could be bought and sold only within the community (many precedents for this approach already exist), and the money would be used to finance further initiatives.
How to get the ball rolling? The same people who currently make bequests to the National Trust and other charities might be taken with the idea of saving local shops as their gift to posterity. It would only take a few such donations to make the purchase of the first property feasible. Wider publicity could be then be based on a successful venture. It might just be the start of the long overdue reaction to the mass culture that is ripping the heart out of our communities.