Prosperity
Critique
Economics of a Sustainable Society
By Michael Flynn, Julia Trunzo, Alex Johnson
April 2003
The major strength of the Prosperity Report is its existence. A report and strategy plan of this nature enables community members and businesses of Humboldt County to gather together and assess the current economic situation and to collaborate on a plan for the future. Gregg Foster of Redwood Economic Development Commission notes that the strategies discussed in the plan are a holistic look at long-term outcome of economic practices. Foster writes, “…the more broad guiding principals of the document are not driven by short-term concerns.”
The idea of “industry clusters” is a focus of the plan that stimulates local economy by encouraging local sustainability through coordination and cooperation of interdependent businesses. Industry clustering is beneficial for open space conservation as well as reducing extensive transportation needs. The current political mood’s potential affect on our country’s international economy makes moving closer to self-sufficiency very timely. Humboldt County has many resources to offer itself as well as other areas. Industry clusters promote local economy by limiting reliance on imports and exports. This theme is evident in the Prosperity strategy in its emphasis on developing local businesses instead of attracting large corporate chains or corporate export industries. Georgianna Wood from the Arcata Economic Development Corporation noted that large corporations with head offices elsewhere would simply be extracting money from the local economy of this region.
The Prosperity Report identifies and analyzes industry profiles for nine major business areas in Humboldt County: lumber and wood, dairy and dairy processing, education and research, manufacturing, tourism, arts and culture, fisheries processing and aquaculture, information and technology, specialty agriculture and horticulture. This is important because to fully understand the economy of an area, one must have a clear picture of the industries of the area.
The culmination of twelve independent groups implementing the plan assured increased unity in a greater area both geographically and within the communities. Three different groups work to collect data and process feedback helping to alleviate the chance of the Prosperity plan becoming stagnant. Including a wide variety of participation during several phases of the plan allows for multiples levels of checks and balances. Wood mentioned the benefit of having network meetings opened, rather than closed functions. Community involvement is made readily available through the Internet. More information, calendars of scheduled meetings, and the opportunity to be placed on a mailing list is truly just a click away.
Community value of the natural beauty of this region was accounted for in the report. This is a key issue for Humboldt County because of the monetary and non-monetary value of the beauty of this area. Another strength of the Prosperity strategy is the value placed on community atmosphere and an ecologically minded population. The focus on people in the community value section of the report was encouraging because it focused on reducing poverty by promoting jobs that fit existing skills of community members.
Foster writes of the Prosperity Report and its effect, “In its wake, there has been a great deal of cooperation between the various agencies that provide services here. We are much more effective and efficient now then we were five years ago.”
(ii).
Weaknesses of the Prosperity Strategy
Technology and information are pointed out as some of the most promising areas for economic growth in the North Coast region. Reliance on technology as a sustainable form of economic activity is myopic. The Prosperity plan was created before the 2000 crash of the dot-com industry in Silicon Valley. Now, looking back, we can learn from our mistakes in depending too much on technological economic activity.
Emphasis on export-based industry, even though an attempt is made to focus on locally produced goods, is perhaps moving into a gray area of sustainability. While the idea of producing local goods to replace imports is very smart, producing local goods to be shipped overseas or very long distances over land requires the use of abundant quantities of fossil fuels—an activity that is clearly not sustainable.
Missing from the Prosperity plan was a forward-looking emphasis on sustainable modes of transportation. More emphasis needs to be placed on human-powered/ bicycle powered transport. The Arcata Bike Library is an awesome example of human capital/ social capital and donated human-produced capital (bikes) that are advancing progress towards sustainability.
Prosperity fails to identify an entire economy at work outside the conventional money-based economy. The non-monetary based economy depends on volunteering, trust, cooperation, resourcefulness, and sharing of excess goods. The bike library, the Bicycle Learning Center, the Arcata Educational Farm, CCAT, the Endeavor, and food recovery projects are great examples of a non-monetarily based economy at work. Social capital is tremendously encouraged by a non-monetarily based economy. More attention should be given to enhancing these activities.
Living in turbulent times, economic crises are always a threat, the Prosperity plan does not have contingency plans for the collapse of the economy or certain economic activities.
A fruitful activity lacking is the promotion of dialogue and understanding of ecological sustainability among the different members of industry clusters.
Gregg Foster of the Redwood Region Economic Development Corporation says too much time and energy were spent on outreach. True, abundant effort was spent in 1998 and 1999 gathering together all stakeholders to provide input. Georgianna Wood of the Arcata Economic Development Corporation felt that a weakness of Prosperity has been a lack of a steady feedback loop to maintain community involvement. Many individuals within a cluster do no even know they are in an industry cluster.
Has the plan been presented for public input in any location besides the internet? Has the plan been translated into Spanish and presented to members of the increasing Latino population of the Humboldt area? What kind of discrimination issue do these questions raise? Class, education, language, ethnicity, and others. It is important that the community as a whole is involved.
Gregg Foster of the RREDC noted as a weakness that the Prosperity Strategy lacks focus. Too many activities are listed under the strategy, and as a result there is a lack of in depth study of major activities. This lack of emphasis on larger scale initiatives makes it more difficult to measure the success of the plan and the activities it mentioned.
Increasing cooperation and collaboration between the educational institutions and local industry has been a goal of the prosperity strategy, but it has not gone far enough.
(ii).
Opportunities of Prosperity: The North
Coast Strategy
Humboldt County has several gifts that could be better exploited
to improve the local economy. For the population size, there are a large number
of highly educated people in Humboldt County. This is in large part due to the
presence of Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods. Even greater
cooperation between the educational institutions and local industry and
stronger partnerships could be very beneficial.
Humboldt County is blessed with incredible scenic beauty, many
recreational opportunities, and an interesting history. While the remote
location of Humboldt County makes transportation expensive for exporting local
products, it also makes the area more attractive to vacationers. Tourism is an
economic cluster that should be pursued more aggressively. Current
tourism/hospitality training on local history and attractions is a good start,
but more could be done to better accommodate tourists and more effectively
market local attractions. The “Humboldt County Convention and Visitors Bureau”
website does not go into much detail on fishing opportunities for example.
Recognizing that many of the visitors that come here are young, low-income, and
ecologically minded, more effort could be put into creating a hostel. Properly managed tourism could provide a
substantial income for the area that is much more sustainable than timber
harvest.
There are opportunities for increased community involvement and
the establishment of a feedback loop between Prosperity members, community
members, local businesses, and members of educational institutions. The open
exchange of ideas and concerns encourages the development of innovative
solutions to concerns of the community.
Feedback loops and updates to the report allow for flexibility and
growth.
The
website with many links and abundant info is a good start on exploring this
opportunity.
Prosperity identifies opportunities in the areas of small goods/
value-added small manufacturing and in technological and information based
economic activity. There are
opportunities in finding new markets outside community…but not too far! More
coordination and dialogue to increase understanding of the concept of
sustainability among members of different industry clusters would help to move
us closer to a local sustainable economy.
Development of alternative transportation is another area where
opportunities for sustainable economic activity can be enhanced.
Opportunities are wide open for the agriculture industry. The local farmers’ market is an excellent
way to involve the whole community in nutrition awareness, food safety, food
sources, recipes, and the risks associated with conventional agriculture. The farmers’ market also is a huge avenue
for developing social capital. The
small farms of Humboldt County also greatly benefit from the opportunity to
sell without outrageous over-head costs.
Dairies in this area are
great assets to the community. The
greatest opportunity for this part of the economy would be to further stimulate
the dairies and process most of the products right in this county. Marketing of the finished products could
then be focused mostly in the area, but also a bit outside of the immediate
area. Local processing would lower fuel
costs, pollution, and oil dependency.
The dairy industry is rich in history and culture and may also act as a
component of the proposed stepping up of the tourism industry in Humboldt
County.
And lastly, an opportunity for ensuring responsible uses of local resources lies in increasing the local consciousness of the inherent value of our local environment. As a result, the motive of business will not so easily trump the motive of preserving and conserving the natural world we are a part of.
(iv) Current and Future Threats to the Local Economy
With the Prosperity Strategy’s emphasis placed on technological based economic activity, it is important to acknowledge the threats posed by the unstable characteristics of technological based economic activities.
Invasion of large corporate “Big Box” stores and out of state corporate resource extractors drains resources and money from local economy. For example, the introduction of a Target store in Eureka could further cause economic difficulties for small local businesses with similar products to sell. Another example is MAXXAM’s hostile takeover of Pacific Lumber. With this formerly locally- owned company now being owned by Texas tycoons, money is being drained from the local economy.
Rising rents and costs of living are a threat to economic viability. As part of the process of gentrification, people born in the area are displaced as people from southern California and other parts of the country move here. The process especially has bad effects on locals when all the newcomers are well educated. An over abundance of overqualified people creates increased competition for a few low-wage jobs.
Another threat to the local economy is the extensive ecological damage caused by currently abusive resource-extraction based activities that are focused too much on monetary profit. For example, the Freshwater watershed has experienced extreme erosion, over-sedimentation, and flooding due to too much logging on too steep of slopes.
Economic globalization is a possible threat to local sustainability that we must prevent. For example, an out-of-state firm wants to begin purchasing huge bags of water from the Mad River to be hauled to southern California. There is local concern that if this project were approved locally, there would be no turning back due to regulations of NAFTA and the FTAA.
With so much focus on tourism, there is the possibility that local pristine areas will be overused and become abused. Results might include loss of important wildlife habitat, water pollution, and erosion. Without specific and sustained attention to the effects of tourist economic activities on our environment, the natural beauty of our area may be degraded and worse our stocks of natural capital may become damaged.
Water crises on the Klamath, Trinity, and Eel Rivers threaten the local fishing economy. Unless action is taken to secure enough water to return the rivers to health, the local fishing economy may disappear. Aquaculture economic activities are threatened by degraded water quality and quantity as well. In addition, many aquaculture activities themselves contribute to the degradation of local economies.
Conventional agricultural activities that rely on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, hormones, drugs, and antibiotics pose a threat to our water supply, out health, and our future generations.
1. Arcata Economic Development Corporation. Wood, Georgianna. Interview on 2 April 2003.
2. City of Burbank Economic Development Strategy. http://www. Burbankca.org/redevelopment/cbeds.html
3. City of Pacifica Economic Development Plan and Strategy. http://www.ci.pacifica.ca.us/ECONDEV/plan.html
4. Hackett, Steve. Natural Resource and Environmental Economics.
5. Prosperity-The North Coast Strategy. http://www.northcoastprosperity.com
6. Redwood Region Economic Development Commission. Foster, Gregg. Interview by email. April 2003.