Investing in Local Food and Organic Farms
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
Select the video to see this month’s Slow Money Minute by Elizabeth Ü, the founder and executive director of Finance for Food and author of “Raising Dough: The Complete Guide to Financing a Socially Responsible Food Business” (Chelsea Green, June 2013). Then tell us what “bringing money back down to earth” means to you. Please send us your own Slow Money Minute, a video approximately one minute in length, sharing how what you do in the world dovetails with the Slow Money principles and vision.
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.
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.
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.
