New England Town Prints Up Its Own Currency

[underpants]

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Business/story?id=2903049&page=1

SOUTHERN BERKSHIRE, Mass., Feb. 25, 2007 — Susan Witt is an unassuming middle-aged woman who drives a Volvo around her quaint Rockwell-esque town and has somehow managed to foment a small revolution.

She is not a counterfeiter. She is the founder of Berkshares, a local currency that was introduced last fall in Southern Berkshire, Mass. (where Normal Rockwell lived out his later years).

"The Berkshares are pretty simple to operate," she said. "You walk into a local bank, put down $90 federal and get 100 Berkshares, and then those Berkshares are spent at full value at regional stores."

Several communities across the U.S., Canada and Europe have developed similar programs, but only Berkshares are fully-backed by the U.S. dollar. Several banks in Southern Berkshire have agreed to exchange Berkshares for dollars.

[SpiralHawk]

1. That's one of the towns where CSA got started, too -

If you want Clean Food for yourself and your family, you might well want to pay attention to CSA...NOW

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) offers a way for every human being to be directly involved in the care and healing of the earth, while also ensuring a supply of clean, healthy food for their families and their neighbors.

http://www.chiron-communications.com/farms.html

[slackmaster]

3. The acronym CSA has a sordid history

[POAS]

2. That's a wonderful idea to

support local merchants and agriculture.

But what a wonderful Freudian-typo this is: "where Normal Rockwell lived out his later years".