Re: [lofo List] Author promotes investing in sustainable local food sources

[Keith & Monica Neu <km.neu@sasktel.net>]

this is exactly what I'm proposing for us
instead of all you city folk investing in big business , invest some money
in your food production and then you will have true food security
k
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Daryl Hepting" <hepting@cs.uregina.ca>
To: "Local Food Directory Project" <lofo@cs.uregina.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 10:56 PM
Subject: [lofo List] Author promotes investing in sustainable local food
sources


http://77square.com/food/features/story_459749

Author promotes investing in sustainable local food sources
Susan Troller
July 27, 2009
A big new idea is a little like a seed; it needs fertile soil and a
nurturing environment to flourish.

That’s why author, entrepreneur and venture capitalist Woody Tasch is
in Madison, explaining and promoting his thoughts on Slow Money. It’s
a bold perspective on financial investing focusing on getting local
sources of money to support local businesses, especially those that
have to do with the production of food.

Tasch, who has been part of a financial network that raised over $133
million since 1992 for about 200 ventures promoting sustainability,
intends for Slow Money to become a national financial movement.

Judging by the enthusiastic response of a crowd of about 100 at Mills
Hall on the University of Wisconsin campus Sunday evening, he may be
onto something big.

Today Tasch is the featured speaker at a series of private workshops
with food entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, financial experts, investors,
policy directors and researchers.

“The current economic system is broken,” Tasch said flatly Sunday
night. As evidence, he held up this week’s cover of The Economist,
showing a textbook titled “Modern Economic Theory.” The book is melting.

“Money and investing must come back down to earth,” he added, as he
argued for sustainability and responsibility in investing. Tasch
believes this is an historic economic moment as we bump up against
limits to growth.

What Tasch calls a restorative economy is at the heart of his new
book,  “Inquiries Into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food,
Farms and Fertility Mattered.”

Slow Money takes its inspiration from the Slow Food movement which has
encouraged consumers to think about the origins of their food, and
which has grown from a handful of chefs, farmers and food policy
advocates to an international organization in over 40 countries over
the last two decades.

Tasch’s book, published earlier this year, provokes thought as it
poses questions like:

Could there ever be an alternative stock exchange dedicated to small
and local enterprises?

Could a million Americans families get their food through CSAs
(community supported agriculture)?

What if investors had to invest 50 percent of their assets within 50
miles of where they lived?

In addition to his appearances in Madison, Tasch has been talking
about Slow Money and his book in several other cities where there is a
strong interest in regional food markets and sustainable farming,
including Santa Barbara, Calif., Burlington, Vt., and Boulder, Colo.

But Tasch is not simply on a book tour, although copies of his book
were for sale at Mills Hall Sunday night. Instead, he is going across
the country, drumming up interest in creating a national movement
dedicated to building local investment clubs that would help get
financial support to local food-related businesses.

In September, there will be an inaugural national gathering of the
Slow Money movement in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For more information, go
toslowmoneyalliance.org.

Monday’s workshops are taking place at the Pyle Center. Tasch was also
featured over the weekend at the Kickapoo Country Fair sponsored by
Organic Valley in Vernon County.

--

Daryl H. Hepting, Ph.D.
Associate Professor  * Computer Science Department * CW 308.22
University of Regina * Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4S 0A2
dhh@cs.uregina.ca    * http://www.cs.uregina.ca/~hepting
tel: (306) 585-5210  * fax: (306) 585-4745 * cell: (306) 596-6312

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