THE SLOW MONEY ALLIANCE.
Principles:

In order to preserve and restore local food systems and local economies; in order to reconnect food producers and consumers and reconnect investors to that in which they are investing and to the places in which they live; in order to promote the transition from an economy based on extraction and consumption to an economy based on preservation and restoration; we do hereby affirm the following Principles.

I. We must bring money back down to earth.

II. We must bring our money home.  We must put money back into local economies and carbon back into the soil.

III. We must invest as if food, farms and fertility mattered.

IV. We must invest as if carrying capacity, diversity and non-violence mattered; as if aquifers mattered; as if childhood nutrition and food deserts and obesity side-by-side with hunger all mattered.

V. There is such a thing as money that is too fast, companies that are too big, finance that is too complex.  Therefore, we must slow our money down — not all of it, of course, but enough to matter.

VI.  Organic seed companies, organic farmers, manufacturers of organic agricultural inputs, slow food restauranteurs, niche organic brands, local food processors, producer and consumer coops, neighborhood retailers, CSAs, farmers markets, urban gardens, edible schoolyards — without them, there can be no durable economic health or quality of life, no durable food safety or food security.

VII.  We must build the nurture capital industry.

VIII. We must give investors and philanthropists the tools they need to facilitate dramatic increases in support for small food enterprises — Slow Munis, new philanthropic charters that steer foundation assets in support of mission, funds dedicated to CSAs and organic farmland, and collaborative structures for local investors.

IX.  There is something beautiful about a diversified organic farm.  There is something beautiful about a CSA.   There is something beautiful about Terra Madre.  There is nothing beautiful about bovine growth hormone or Red Dye #4 or high fructose corn syrup.  We must invest as if beauty mattered.

X.  We must dare to imagine that after the Age of Industrial Finance and Industrial Agriculture comes the Age of Earthworm Economics.  Let us recognize the words of one of its first proponents, who said: “I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer who puts back into the soil what he takes out.” (Paul Newman)

XI. We must ask:

–What would the world be like if we invested 50% of our assets within 50 miles of where we live?

–What if there were a new generation of companies that gave away 50% of their profits?

–What if there were 50% more organic matter in our soil 50 years from now?

XII.   We need slow money. . .quickly.

http://www.slowmoneyalliance.org/principles.html

SLOW MONEY – INAUGURAL NATIONAL GATHERING  – FROM THE GROUND UP.

SEPTEMBER 9-11, 2009

SANTA FE RAILYARD

Slow Money. It’s a new economic vision. It’s an emerging network of investors, donors, entrepreneurs, farmers, and activists committed to building local food systems and local economies. It’s about the soil of the economy. It’s the beginning of the “nurture capital” industry.

Come to Santa Fe. Meet thought leaders and change agents from around the country. Let’s build new capital markets that support preservation and restoration. Let’s fix America’s economy… from the ground up.

Speakers:

William Brinton, founder, Woods End Research Lab
Paolo di Croce, executive director, Slow Food International
Anthony Flaccavento, exevutive director, Appalachian Sustainable Development
Joan Gussow, author, This Organic Life
Peter Kinder, President, KLD Research and Analytics
Fred Kirschenmann, director, Leopold Center
Kristin Martinez, entrepreneur in residence, New Mexico Community Capital
Kathleen Merrigan, deputy secretary, USDA (invited)
David Orr, professor, Oberlin College
Simran Sethi, founding host, Sundance Channel’s The Green
George Siemon, ceo, Organic Valley
Greg Steltenpohl, founder, Odwalla
Woody Tasch, chairman and president, Slow Money
Judy Wicks, founder, White Dog Cafe

Event Highlights Include:

Music by Eliza Gilkyson and Robert Mirabal
Screening of “Food Fight” and “Dirt The Movie”
A Friday night farm table feast

Presenting Entrepreneurs: Local Burger, Straus Family Creamery, SPUD!, Terrain, Davenport Producers, La Montanita Co-op,  Milk Thistle Farm, New Soil Security, Peak Spirits, Vermont Smoke and Cure, FoodHub, Indigenous Designs, Mary’s Gone Crackers, Nest Collective, Sky Vegetables, National Cooperative Grocers Association,  Let’s Be Frank, Lotus Foods, and others to be announced.

Partnering Organizations: Green Money Journal, Edible Santa Fe, La Montanita Coop, Bioneers, Santa Fe Alliance, 1% for the Planet, Blue Moon Fund, Organic Valley, RSF Social Finance, Slow Food, McCune Charitable Foundation,
Edible Communities Publications, BALLE, Ethical Markets Media, Capulin Cooperative Alliance, Haymarket Peoples Fund,
The Organic Center, Crop to Cuisine.