Take the 10 Percent Challenge by Shawn Dell Joyce on Creators.com

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Take the 10 Percent Challenge

If everyone in America spent just 10 percent of their disposable incomes on locally produced goods and services, it would generate millions of dollars for local economies, in spite of the recession. Lowcountry Local First, a South Carolina business association, tried the 10 percent shift as a local stimulus plan. The organization asked all citizens, local businesses, government agencies and nonprofits to spend 10 percent of their annual budgets at local independent businesses.

Lowcountry Local First estimates that if everyone in the region does the 10 percent shift, it could generate $140 million in new economic activity, which includes $50 million in new wages and more than 1,000 new jobs. Imagine what that kind of money could do in your community.

Making the shift requires planning your spending so that 1 in 10 stores you visit is a "small-mart," a term coined by author Michael Shuman in his book "The Small-Mart Revolution." Shuman suggests:

—Walk or bicycle rather than drive, grow your own food, avoid impulse purchasing and you reduce the strain on the environment. Can you fix that TV at the local repair shop instead of buying a new one? Always ask yourself whether you are paying the true cost of an item or it is heavily subsidized by tax dollars. Skip things like tobacco, for example, because the real cost is hidden, in terms of health care, quality of life and subsidies paid to big corporations with tax dollars.

—Buy from locally owned stores, preferably selling locally made goods using locally found inputs.

For example, buy pies from a farm stand at which they grow the apples that go in the pies rather than from a chain store at which you're not sure where the apples came from. For buying locally to really impact the community, the dollars need to flow through other local businesses, in the form of suppliers, banks, advertising, employees, etc.

—If you can't shop locally, try to buy regionally. If you can't buy fruit from a local farm, buy fruit grown in your state instead. It is far better for you than fruit grown overseas and shipped here.

—If you really want alpaca wool and can't find it locally, ask your knitting friends to form a buyer's club and purchase in bulk from a small producer in Canada or Peru. That alpaca farmer would get four times more money than he normally would, yet you would pay about half the retail price you normally would.

—The global equivalent to buying locally is buying fairly traded. A fair-trade seal means the workers who produced the item were paid living wages in humane conditions. Some items to look for are coffee, cocoa and clothing.

Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning columnist and founder of the Wallkill River School in Orange County, N.Y. You can contact her at Shawn@ShawnDellJoyce.com. To find out more about Shawn Dell Joyce and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.