The Slow Money Alliance is a new movement with a different take on capitalism—slowing money down so there is meaning attached to its creation and investment. Like water and wind, there is an appropriate velocity for the movement of money, says the SMA. The disruption in the global economy of late is the natural outgrowth of money moving faster than it should; of money becoming disconnected from how it was earned, spent, and invested.
The Slow Money Alliance plans to become a non-profit seed fund to support small, sustainable food production enterprises of all sorts. But their vision goes far beyond that simple statement. You can read more at their web site. I confess to not understanding a couple of things I read—especially the non-profit part. I wondered a few years back why there was no VC (venture capital) industry (or even a single fund) supporting the start-up and success of sustainable agriculture and lifestyle companies. VC funds by definition are "for profit," and agriculture should be profitable as well. Indeed, the very idea of planting one seed and getting hundreds in return makes "profit" the heart of agriculture. So I'm not clear on the non-profit aspect of the Slow Money Alliance—but am impressed enough with what I've read to recommend learning more about it.
The SMA is new, having held its first organizational conference this past September in Santa Fe. So this is a grass-roots effort, but it has attracted the support of a lot of leaders in the sustainable agriculture movement (listed on their web site).
Here's an intriguing short video of Woody Tasch, chairman and CEO of the Slow Money Alliance:
The above clip is from a longer interview (29 minutes) where Woody Tasch fleshes out the thinking behind the Slow Money Alliance. This longer discussion is terrific—very insightful about the BIG PICTURE of how our "growth for the sake of growth" economic system is unsustainable, the food supply being the prime example:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment