Gratitude Gourmet (tm)
  • Home
  • Health
  • Blog
  • About
  • Store
  • Delivery
  • Directory
Interview with Woody Tasch: Finance and Agriculture Innovator: Author of 'Slow Money' 04/06/2009
0 Comments
 

You may have heard that 'water' is being discussed as the new 'gold'. After I finished reading Woody Tasch's new book and talked with him, perhaps 'Soil' should also be the new 'gold'.
Woody Tasch is author of Inquiries Into the Nature of Slow Money:Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered.  Per Tasch, several years of agricultural industrialization and financial policies have contributed to the degradation of our soils. “It takes roughly a millennium to build an inch or two of soil; it takes less than forty years, on average, to strip an inch of soil by farming in ways that are more focused on current yield than on sustaining fertility.  A third of America's topsoil has eroded since 1776. About a third of China's 130 million hectares of farmland is seriously eroded, and Chinese crop yields fell by more than 10 percent from 1999 to 2003, despite increasing application of synthetic fertilizers.”
His premise (of Slow Money) is: “The problems we face with respect to soil, fertility, biodiversity, food quality, and local economies are not primarily problems with technology.  They are problems of finance.  In a financial system organized to optimize the efficient use of capital, we should not be surprised to end up with cheapened food, millions of acres of GMO corn, billions of food miles, dying Main Streets, kids who think food comes from supermarkets, and obesity epidemics side by side with persistent hunger.”
Tasch is Chairman of Investors' Circle, a U.S group funding socially responsible companies, where $130 million has been placed in 200 businesses, i.e. ZipCar.
He is currently raising money for the Slow Money venture fund dedicated to investing in local, sustainable agriculture ventures. He also wants to help build a marketplace where farmers and financiers can find each other. He says: “Social Investors are starting to invest in entrepreneurs, and people are eager to discuss fundamental alternatives.” He is planning to include more attention on a grassroots investment strategy: a structure that will allow smaller investors to be involved, and the details are currently being worked.
I asked how the news of the UN Climate Change report stating that animal agriculture causes more greenhouse gases than transportation and Bon Appetit, a food service provider, cutting meat to cut carbon is impacting the Slow Money investment philosophy? He says the issue is scale and industrial farming is causing the problems. Sustainable farms are important.
Gratitude Gourmet would suggest that investing in plant-based companies be the goal.
Slow Money has already made its first investment in Vermont-based High Mowing Seeds, which supplies seeds to 75 percent of the organic farmers in the country, according to founder and CEO Tom Stearns. Investors will earn 6 percent interest on their money over the next five years, paid in a balloon payment in the fifth year, at which point they can opt to leave their money in and let it grow or term out the debt at ten years, according to Stearns. High Mowing Seeds currently has $1 million in sales, and Stearns projects $3 million in sales over the next two years.
The Slow Money Alliance was also established to run Slow Money Institutes, publish books and white papers, and members include food entrepreneurs, farmers, investors, and philanthropists.  It is looking to expand Alliance membership.


 


Comments




Leave a Reply

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Healthy Food Delivery
    Picture

    Enter your email address for weekly e-newsletters:

    Picture
    Picture
    California Luxury Jewelry
    FREE Shipping on Orders of $25+ at CHEFS

    Categories

    All
    America
    Annie Chun
    Australia
    Award
    Bellini
    Bill Clinton
    Brassica
    Bread
    Broccoli
    California
    Cancer
    Celery
    Challenge
    Chef
    Chef Michael Tuohy
    Chocolate
    Cindy Pawlcyn
    Class
    Cleveland Clinic
    Climate
    Competitiveness
    Contest
    Cornell
    Crunchies
    Dean And Deluca
    Dip
    Disease
    Dna
    Dolma
    Dr Roizen
    Drinks
    Eating
    Economics
    Economy
    Eggplant
    Eric Schmidt
    Facebook
    Food
    Food Box
    Garden
    Garlic
    Genes
    Gift
    Gluten Free
    Google
    Government
    Gratitude Gourmet
    Growing Green Awards
    Harvard
    Harvest
    Health
    Healthy
    Heart
    High Blood Pressure
    Holiday
    Hot
    Humphries
    Knife
    Lake Tahoe
    Lentil
    Medical
    Mediterranean
    Methylation
    Michael Pollan
    Mollie Katzen
    Mooswood Restaurant
    Mushrooms
    Myrosinase
    Nachos
    Napa
    New
    Nrdc
    Orchard
    Organic
    Pad Thai
    Peppers
    Pilates
    Plate
    Pomegranate
    Prosecco
    Public
    Pudding
    Recipe
    Reversal
    Salad
    Samplers
    San Francisco
    Snack
    Snacks
    Social Impact
    Spread
    Stanford
    Stories
    Study
    Sulforaphane
    Summer
    Sweet
    Techcrunch
    Todd
    Tour
    Trefethen
    Turkish
    Twitter
    Us
    Valentines Day
    Vegan
    Vegetables
    Vegetarian
    Video
    Videos
    Walnut
    Walnuts
    Wasabi
    Wine
    Winery
    Workout
    Zinfandel

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    October 2008
    September 2008
    August 2008
    June 2008

    qrcode

    Archives

    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    October 2008
    September 2008
    August 2008
    June 2008

    Copyright 2008-2012  
    All Rights Reserved


Create a free website with Weebly