Add Impact to your inbox.

Stay connected

Update Beetcoin is live! See how we're funding a new family of 0% loan groups

Slow Money

Investing in Local Food and Organic Farms

December 2012 Slow Money Index

Slow Money Staff
Slow Money Institute is a non-profit organization catalyzing the flow of capital to local food systems, connecting investors to the places where they live and promoting new principles of fiduciary responsibility that “bring money back down to earth.”
Dec 02, 2012

Annual global production of natural vanillin: 2,000 tons

Annual global production of synthetic vanillin: 10,000 tons

Number of flavor-enhancing compounds, in addition to vanillin, found in natural vanilla: Approx. 250

Number of days during its life cycle that the vanilla flower opens and can be hand pollinated: 1

Percentage of Polysorbate 60 allowed in cake mix by FDA: 0.61

Pounds of Polysorbate 60 sold annually: 25 million

Estimated amount of Polysorbate 60 in a Twinkie: Less than 0.01 ounce

Twinkies shelf life according to urban legend: 5 years or more

Twinkies shelf life according to Hostess Brands: 26 days

Twinkies sales in 2011: $68 million

U.S. retail sales of packaged snacks in 2010: $64 billion

U.S. certified organic growers’ sales in 2011: $3.5 billion

Hostess Brands’ losses in 2011: $341 million

Percentage of U.S. consumers who snack for enjoyment, rather than to satisfy hunger: 60

Number of novels whose first sentence contains the word “beet”: At least 1

Number of novels whose first sentence contains the word “Twinkie”: Unknown

1

Never miss a story from Slow Money, when you sign up for updates.

Real Billions and Real Trillions

While I was searching for images of life in the soil, I came upon the following on Sweet Bay Farm’s website (see above). They’re working to restore soils depleted by decades of monoculture—the continual cultivation of a single crop, in this case tobacco—so this picture of several earthworm tunnels in a clod does not yet suggest anything teeming.

A Conversation With Jeff Moyer

Jeff, before we begin, I want to thank you for the images of the jars of water, one with soil rich in organic matter and one with the dissolved murkiness of soil that is deficient in carbon. Ever since you showed those images during a public talk a decade or so ago, the comparison has stuck with me.

Colorado Soil Systems Receives 0% Loan

In 2016, Colorado Soil Systems received a $15,000 zero-percent loan from the 2Forks Club. This loan allowed us to establish a fruit-tree rootstock nursery to preserve indigenous trees that grow in the valley; purchase irrigation supplies, fencing, and soil amendments; and embark on a vegetable- and flower- production operation.

Reader Interactions

Responses

  1. Marc says

    I like the index, but would find it more useful if you included where you found these numbers. Sometimes I like to go see the source for myself, as additional interesting information might be found there. In addition, having a list of sources gives the index a lot more credibility.

    Here’s some more fun with Twinkies and beets, the Google Books Ngram tool, which graphs the popularity of those two words in all books in the Google Books collection between 1930 (the year of Twinkie’s invention) and 2012. See the graph at Ngram. (If link doesn’t work, go to http://books.google.com/ngrams/ and type in the search terms and shift the time boundaries.)

    Reply

Leave a response

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Never miss an update from Slow Money, when you sign up for monthly emails. No thanks
Get updates
Never miss an update from Slow Money.

Join 28,383 others and get monthly updates delivered straight to your inbox.