Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
world circulates too fast and is too centralized, in the sense that money saved in
local bank branches goes to national centres and is often invested in securities that
are barely understood and in distant areas, resulting in a disconnection from people
and place. Although this pattern is unlikely to disappear, the SM approach wants to
slow at least part of this process down, and redirect the money flows. The second is
the need re-develop more sustainable local food systems by connecting investors to
places where they live, providing an alternative to the large industrial farming prac-
tices that are too environmentally exploitive, and depend on artificial inputs, such
as fertilizers to the soil and antibiotics to animals. The aim is to connect investors
and donors to small, local food systems, especially organic farms, thereby provid-
ing new sources of capital for local small food enterprises which will enhance food
security and safety, increase local connectivity between customers and producing
units in an area, and claims also to improve nutrition and health. This Slow Money
approach is not only designed to slow down and redirect at least part of the financial
flows to local activities, but also seeks to promote local ecological, economic diver-
sity and the improvement of soil fertility by building up organic matter in the soil.
Like many types of ecological and community approaches—especially the Transi-
tion Town concept—it is based on a recognition of the urgency to start the transition
to a different future, as can be seen in one of the objectives within the Slow Money
Principles, namely to
accelerate the transition from an economy based on extraction and consumption to an econ-
omy based on preservation and restoration (SMP).
The pioneer of the movement is Woody Tasch (
2010
), whose ideas are described in
his topic,
Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money
. In 2008 a non-profit organiza-
tion called Slow Money (SM) was founded in Boulder (Colorado) and held the first
of its now regular national meeting in Sante F￩. Its aim is mobilize both investors
and farm system enterprises through the Slow Money website, publishing ventures,
workshops, lectures and annual meetings. So far there has been a steady growth,
for the movement claims that from 2010 to 2013 a total of at least $ 30 million has
been invested in 221 small food outlets, while 17 local chapters have been founded
and affiliated to the national organization, all but one in the USA (SM). Other more
localized Slow Money organizations are also being created in cities well as in rural
areas. The hope is that the enterprises that benefit from the loans will put half their
profits back into the community, in order to develop a cumulatively growing source
of local capital for additional enterprises. There is little doubt that investors in the
movement do not seek large speculative capital gains, for they see merit in returns
that are reasonable and based on the ethical principle of building more sustainable
local practices through what is described as creating 'nurture capital'. In many ways
this parallels the origin of the Building Society movement in Britain, which raised
and loaned money locally or at least regionally, although these organizations were
restricted to lending money for homes. The idea of nurture capital is based on con-
necting investors to their local area and learning to invest because as their slogan
emphasizes: 'Food, Farms and Fertility do matter'. In 2013 the organization devel-
oped the Soil Trust whose objective is to get a million members to join the move-
ment in future years, in which they will pledge to invest 1 % of their assets in local
