ECONOMIC GARDENING

Jessica LeVeen Farr, a senior regional community development manager in the Atlanta Fed's Nashville branch, points out that many, particularly small rural, communities are abandoning business recruitment, retention and expansion approaches to economic development in favor of "economic gardening," an approach designed to "grow your own" jobs through entrepreneurial activity within the community. Why? Because of mounting questions about traditional strategies, including the use of incentives and the "growing body of research that suggests small and local businesses are important drivers of economic growth in communities." For more information, go to http://www.frbatlanta.org/invoke.cfm?objectid=4AA2C253-5056-9F12-12D9273D84A914EB&method=display_body.
from Southern Compass