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Second Best Way to Support Local Food

We all know the best way - buy local food! Well, the second best way is to help Slow Money raise capital to invest in local farms. Last night I attended the Slow Food Slow Session, where Shades of Green shared their experiences raising some of the best chicken in chickenland (look for these gourmet, certified organic, birds on the Greenling site soon). She also shared her frustration with financing her operation - without big returns or lots of assets, she can't get good terms and must contend with mountains of debt. That's what Slow Money wants to change. And this Tuesday they'll be attempting a 'crowdsourcing' fund-raiser. Their goal is to get 200,000 people to donate $5 and raise $1,000,000 for local food systems. The concept is similar to micro-loans where repayment is fully expected, just not huge additional interest or capital gains expectations. Let's help them get there. Donate here.

Also I'm very excited to be a part of a team creating Slow Money Austin, a non-profit that will raise capital to invest in farmers & food producers here in Central Texas. We are collaborating with the Slow Money Alliance to bring national funds to Austin & have events planned to raise local funds. Stay Tuned.

masonarnold's picture
Submitted by masonarnold on Fri, 10/02/2009 - 9:36am

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Slow money; crowdsourcing

Submitted by jnazak on Sat, 10/03/2009 - 12:40pm.

What a great idea. I've heard Woody Tasch of Slow Money Alliance speak, and really liked what he had to say. And I would love to extend this model (crowdsourcing finance) to other socially beneficial, local concerns. I do have one question: When the money is repaid, who will it be repaid to? Logically, I would think it would be repaid to each of those 200,000 people who put $5 into the kitty, but that might be a bit unwieldy from an administrative standpoint. How will it work?

crowdsourceing

Submitted by masonarnold on Sun, 10/04/2009 - 12:28pm.

Thanks for the question! The crowdsourcing effort would not be repaid to the contributors. It would be repaid to Slow Money Alliance, who would re-invest the capital in other ventures. The effort is to help Slow Money Alliance get off the ground. If you're interested in making direct investments that would be repaid to you, please join Slow Money Austin and keep up with that group. We'll have opportunities in 2010 to directly support local food systems here.