EcoFarm PreConference: The Business of Sustainability

Presented by the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) at UC Santa Cruz, The Business of Sustainability PreConference took place in January 2010 as part of the annual EcoFarm Conference.

From CASFS: "The Business of Sustainability: Growing Health, Wealth, and Ecological Integrity in Our Food System will be an invigorating, practical glimpse of how some business ventures are creating a new economic paradigm — shaking the roots of the American economic system, which typically encourages consolidation, cost-cutting, and shifting costs onto others such as marginalized workers or planetary health. Newer business models are popping up all over — from unionized strawberry farms in California to community-based cafés in Washington D.C. to rural food distribution networks in New Mexico — that are better for people, the planet, and our collective pocketbook. They embody what is described as the “triple bottom line,” in business success is measured by more than financial profit and loss statements: a new form of commerce that makes money while making good, that considers not just shareholders, but all stakeholders, whether employees, customers, or the communities in which they operate. We want to make this alternate model the mainstream, rather than a passing fad."

The Business of Sustainability PreConference was sponsored in part by the Wallace Center at Winrock International and the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). For a complete list of sponsors, a full agenda, and additional resources, visit the CASFS website.