Life After Conventional Finance
I am a refugee from conventional finance. It all started in the most innocent and promising way: a graduate student in math and economics.
Jan 23, 2017
Investment: Boulted Bread
When Sam Kirkpatrick and Fulton Forde got together to open their bakery, Boulted Bread, in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, they had an ambitious goal. They wanted to use fresh-milled, locally sourced grain.
Dec 21, 2016
Investment: Central Grazing Company
I have been a sheep farmer for 15 years. It is my life calling. Quite an unexpected path for me, since I didn’t grow up in farming and my knowledge of sheep was very limited.
Dec 21, 2016
Separating the Tweet from the Chaff
There are Tweets and there is chaff and the two need to be separated. Isn’t this clearer than the hair on you know who’s head? We’ve got too many Tweets and way too much chaff these days.
Dec 20, 2016
Investment: Two Roots Farm
Christian and I fell in love with farming not too long after falling in love with each other. Before graduating from the University of Montana, we had our first farming experiences at PEAS farm, the university farm near campus.
Dec 15, 2016
Grow a Farmer Fund: Nearly $100,000 Raised for Low-interest Loans to Farmers
My grandparents were berry farmers in western Pennsylvania. Visiting their farm was a highlight of my childhood and part of the reason I do the work I do.
Nov 30, 2016
A Photo Recap Of Our First Decelerator
It is our pleasure to share with you a few photos from our first Decelerator at Lone Hawk Farm. These photos capture a beautiful day of sharing and learning and vital public conversation.
Nov 14, 2016
A Conversation with RSF Social Finance CEO Don Shaffer
Don has served as President & CEO of RSF Social Finance since 2007. He has been a social entrepreneur for many years, growing an education business, a software company, and a sporting goods manufacturer, in addition to the nonprofit Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. Don and the team at RSF are constantly asking the question, “How can we model financial transactions that are direct, transparent, personal, and based on long-term relationships?” Under Don’s leadership, RSF’s total assets have grown to over $160 million.
Oct 03, 2016
Changing the Culture and Changing Ourselves
In the late 1990s, after eight years working at Microsoft, my wife and I found ourselves on the receiving end of a financial windfall that freed us of the burden of nine-to-five jobs. Over time, our interests coalesced around the twin themes of food and community. We came to the realization that our contemporary food system has failed us at almost every level and that we need to work together with our community to imagine a new culture of food that is both abundant and resilient.
Jul 28, 2016
I Trust Cows More Than I Trust Chemists: A Conversation With Joan Gussow
How is it in this country we are so willing to look at technology and say that it will solve all of our problems? We always rush right in, let “progress” take over, and never imagine that it may have a negative effect on the overall society. I’m not sure why, but I felt this even in the very early days of the internet, when the excitement was so high.
Jun 28, 2016