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Slow Money

Investing in Local Food and Organic Farms

February 2013: 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.”
Feb 19, 2013

Number of feet of fungi in a teaspoon of tilled agricultural soil:  30

Number of feet of fungi in a teaspoon of coniferous forest soil:  52,800

Increase in range over which a plant can absorb nutrients
by partnering with symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi:  400x

Multiplication of microbes during compost tea brewing process:  50,000x

Number of flocculation-inducing cations present
in Jerry Cunningham’s fields:  Unknown

2012 worldwide assets invested in mutual funds:  $23.8 trillion

2012 U.S. retail investors’ holdings of alternative investments:  $712 billion

2012 U.S. venture capital assets under management:  $200 billion

2012 market value of farmland in Iowa:  $310 billion

2012 farmland acreage in Iowa:  30.8 million

2012 organic farmland acreage in Iowa:  81,634

Estimated total earthworm population on conventional farmland in Iowa:  583 billion 

Estimated total earthworm population on organic farmland in Iowa: 123 billion

2011 venture capital investments in Iowa:  $28.4 million

2011 venture capital investments in Iowa per earthworm:  $0.00004

 

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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.

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