Local Living Economies - Protecting What We Love

Judy Wicks’ love of place has made widening ripples on a global scale. She’s the founder of BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies), a national network of sustainable, small businesses. After moving onto a quaint street in Philadelphia, she learned it was slated to be torn down. Organizing her community, she saved the block as a walkable community. She opened White Dog Cafe coffee shop on the first floor of her home, which grew to a large restaurant proudly serving food from local farmers.

Reading John Robbins’ Diet for a New America about the cruel treatment of factory farm animals, she located small family farmers and created a cruelty-free menu. Rather than hoard this proprietary information, she founded a local sustainable business network based on cooperation between businesses, and later the national organization BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies). (www.livingeconomies.org, www.whitedog.com)