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Slow Money

Investing in Local Food and Organic Farms

March 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.”
Mar 20, 2013

Dow Jones industrial average, 1945: 200

Nikkei stock average, 1945: 40

Dow Jones industrial average, 1989: 2,753

Nikkei record high, 1989: 38,916

Nikkei, 2013: 11,900

Number of companies listed in the DJIA: 30

Smallest DJIA company: Alcoa

Alcoa annual revenues, 2012: $23.7 billion

Number of aluminum cans made per year in the U.S.: 131 billion

Number of aluminum cans recycled per year at Alcoa, Tenn., recycling plant,
the largest in the world: “Billions”

Percent of all aluminum produced since 1888 still in use today: 75

Average water consumption per ton of aluminum manufactured:
Data not available from Global Aluminum Industry Sustainability Scorecard 

Predator drone components made with aluminum:
Rib work, sensor housing and wheels 

Weight of a predator drone (without fuel or weapons payload): 1,130 pounds

Earthworm castings per acre of organic farmland, per annum: 20 million tons

Earthworm population of Iowa: 600 billion

Record sales price per acre of farmland in Sioux County, Iowa (2012): $21,000

 

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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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