"Funding small, diversified, organic farms and local food systems is as important as going to Mars."
-- Woody Tasch, Founder, Slow Money
Since 2010, the slow money movement has been connecting thousands of folks around the country who are “bringing some of our money back down to earth”-- investing in things that we understand, near where we live, starting with food. More than $100 million in low interest and 0% loans has gone to over 1000 small organic farms and local food enterprises, via volunteer-led activities in dozens of communities. Tens of thousands have attended national and local Slow Money events.
Over the last few years, a new slow money funding system has been launched. Local SOIL groups (“Slow Opportunities for Investing Locally”) make 0% loans, using donated capital and making their loans by majority vote of member/donors—one person, one vote, no matter the size of the donation. These are non-institutional, participatory, downright neighborly pools of capital that recirculate in perpetuity, growing slowly. To date, five SOIL groups in the U.S.—four in Colorado and one in Virginia--have made 175 loans totaling almost $5 million. In June, a newly formed SOIL group in Israel made its first loan. Another is in formation in Amsterdam.
Last year we launched Beetcoin—a way for folks who don’t live in a community that has a SOIL group to chip in. We call it “the world’s first non-crypto, non-currency.” For real. Check it out at beetcoin.org.
How many SOIL groups could there be a generation from now? Fifty years ago, land trusts were counted in the dozens; today, there are more than 1,500. In 1986, the first community supported agriculture (CSA) was formed; today, more than half a million Americans belong to more than 6,000 CSAs.
ON NOVEMBER 13 - 14, THIS CONVERSATION COMES
TO PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.
Please join us for A CALL TO FARMS –
a public conversation about food, money, community and peace. The event will feature a number of slow money friends from around the country as well as farmers, food entrepreneurs and other food system stakeholders here in Providence.
Contact woody@slowmoney.org with questions,
or register below.
“This is the path to an alternative future.”
– Zoe Bradbury, Valley Flora Farm
“A Call To Farms is a moral compass for our complex, highly-polarized and violent times -- helping us chart a course away from ideology and towards healthy communities, healthy soil and an economy that does less harm.”
– Marco Vangelisti, Fulbright Scholar in Economics
“The social and environmental crises of our time call for radically new economic vision. Who knew that poetry could seed it? Now we know.”
– Leslie Christian, NorthStar Asset Management
“This beautiful, small volume is a treasure of insight and inspiration, providing us with the vision we all desperately need to go forward!”
– Frederick Kirschenmann, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture
Want to learn more about the slow money movement?
And what the heck is Beetcoin? (No, it ain't no Crytpo.)
