January 2012
(Continued from Page 4)
Dear EarthTalk: I’ve heard of the
slow food movement, but what is
“slow money” all about?
– Phil Nimkoff, New York, NY
“Slow Money” is the name for a
movement started by socially con-
scious investing pioneer and author,
Woody Tasch, who essentially bor-
rowed the conceptual framework of
“Slow Food”—whereby participants
eschew convenience-oriented “fast”
foods, instead filling up their plates
with traditional, unprocessed and,
ideally, locally produced foods—and
applied it to personal finance and
investing.
As such, Slow Money is dedicated to
connecting investors to their local econo-
mies by marshaling financial resources to
invest in small food enterprises and local
food systems.
Tasch’s vision for Slow Money, now
not just a concept but also a non-profit
organization, seeks nothing less than a
complete overhaul of the way we think
about and spend our money, channeling
much more of it into producing healthy
local food, strengthening local communi-
ties instead of multinational corporations,
and restoring our flagging economy in
the process.
Instead of venture capital bankroll-
ing far flung high tech start-ups, Tasch
hopes to see “nurture capital” funding
local merchants and producers who,
in turn, plug half of their profits back
into their communities.
This ensures one small local virtu-
ous circle that values soil fertility, car-
rying capacity, a sense of place, care of
FEATURES
the commons, diversity, nonviolence,
and cultural, ecological and economic
health as much as financial return.
Tasch hopes to get there by persuad-
ing a million Americans to invest at
least one percent of their assets in local
food systems by 2020.
Tasch started Slow Money in No-
vember 2008 after the publication of
his book, Inquiries into the Nature of
Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms
and Fertility Mattered.
Hitting the road to promote the book
and the nascent movement in 2009, he
was able to attract 450 intrigued inves-
tors, farmers and other entrepreneurs
to Santa Fe, New Mexico to trade ideas
at a three-day gathering.
“We just wanted to see who would
show up, but four of the small food
enterprises that presented raised an
aggregate of $260,000,” says Tasch.
Tasch then organized another event
for some 600 attendees the following
June in Shelburne, Vermont. Investors
there poured $4.2 million into 12 more
producers, and that’s when Tasch
knew he was really on to something.
More than 1,000 people converged
in San Francisco for the third event
in October 2011, and Tasch expects
untold amounts of “slow capital” to
be changing hands for the better as
a result.
Whether or not you have money
to invest in Slow Money’s virtuous
circles, you can show your support
by visiting the group’s website and
electronically signing the organiza-
tion’s Principles, a list of six core
beliefs shared by the Slow Money
community.
Or if you have just $25, you could
park it with the organization’s Soil
Trust, which will seed small food en-
terprises that promote soil fertility in
locales from coast to coast. Tasch sees
the Soil Trust as key to opening up the
Slow Money concept to all of us and
achieving the group’s goal of getting
a million Americans involved in the
movement over the next decade.
Another key to achieving Tasch’s
goal is growth of leadership at the lo-
The Southwest Portland Post • 5
cal level. To that end, a dozen autono-
mous local chapters have sprung up
nationwide, with more sure to come as
word gets out. The local groups have
already gifted or lent hundreds of
thousands of dollars to entities work-
ing to improve their own community
“foodsheds.” Now we all have a way
to truly put our money where our
mouths are.
CONTACTS: Slow Money, www.
slowmoney.org.
EarthTalk® is written and edited by
Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a
registered trademark of E - The Envi-
ronmental Magazine (www.emagazine.
com). Send questions to: earthtalk@
emagazine.com.
Woody Tasch, socially conscious in-
vesting pioneer and founder of the
Slow Money movement. (Photo by
Tammy Green, courtesy Flickr)
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