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150 Locavesting<br />
One Percent for Local Food<br />
Slow Money’s vision is to create a new type <strong>of</strong> entrepreneurial<br />
fi nance, one that respects the land and the farmer, connects<br />
investors to their local economies, and enlarges our defi nition <strong>of</strong><br />
fi duciary responsibility. The message is as simple as it is urgent:<br />
To replenish the soil that our local foodsheds depend upon—and<br />
indeed our future health and security depend upon—we must<br />
invest in small- scale, sustainable food and agricultural enterprises.<br />
Slow Money has facilitated $4 million in investments so far<br />
in a dozen enterprises, such as Hometown Farms, which creates<br />
urban vertical farms; Greenling, an online store that delivers<br />
local, sustainably grown produce to households in central Texas;<br />
and Gather, a locavore restaurant in Berkeley, California.<br />
Foodshed<br />
Similar to a watershed—a geographical area’s life- sustaining source<br />
and fl ow <strong>of</strong> water—a foodshed refers to a region’s food production<br />
and distribution system. It encompasses the farm, the table, and<br />
everything in between. Like watersheds, foodsheds are vital to the<br />
health and security <strong>of</strong> a region.<br />
As chief instigator, Tasch’s job is to rally the troops. To<br />
date, more than 12,000 people have signed the Slow Money<br />
Principles, a fi ve- point affi rmation that starts with “We must<br />
bring money back down to earth,” and ends with a quote from<br />
Paul Newman (“I just happen to think that in life we need to be<br />
a little like the farmer who puts back into the soil what he takes<br />
out.”) The goal is to get a million people to sign, and eventually<br />
commit 1 percent <strong>of</strong> their assets to local food systems.<br />
He hopes Slow Money will spur innovative solutions. “Could<br />
there be a local stock exchange? Could there be municipal bonds<br />
devoted to local food systems? Could there be funds dedicated to<br />
CSAs or buying organic farmland? The answer is yes, there could<br />
be all those things,” says Tasch. “But it will take serious intellectual<br />
and fi nancial horsepower.”