Putting the Brakes on Fast Money

An Interview with Woody Tasch

by Carl Frankel and illustrations by Jason Cring, April 27, 2009

We need to build a culture that stands as a radiant counterpoint to our dominant hurry-up culture. We need to bring our culture down to earth—and I mean this literally. We need to replenish the soil; we need to remember our connection to the soil; we need to support our local food system; we need to participate in and celebrate the authentic local culture that emerges from these many connections and awarenesses; and we also need to build the financial infrastructure that will enable all this to thrive.

At a founding retreat of the Slow Money Alliance, Peter Kinder, one of the pioneers of the socially responsible investing movement, used the term “deracinated.” It’s a great word that means cut off from our roots. Slow food and slow money are concepts that, together, help us find our roots again.

“Slow money” is an intriguing term.
In my book, I define it as “patient capital on the opposite of steroids.”

And then there’s “slow business”—
That’s an important piece of the puzzle too. The entrepreneurs are the real heroes. While the focus of the Slow Money Alliance is on businesses that are part of the local food system, there’s a growing parallel movement that focuses on supporting businesses that are rooted in place, value quality, and are mission-driven.

This is about changes in organizational structure as well as values. New organizational forms such as social enterprises and so-called B Corporations, which combine for-profit and nonprofit purposes, are emerging.

We’re experimenting with new enterprise structures on the financing side, too. In Santa Fe, for example, there are efforts underway to develop what’s being called a Sustainable Business Investment Cooperative. They want to use the co-op model as a new way to aggregate capital, which would then be deployed locally.

The core wound we’re trying to heal is the bifurcation of finance and social purpose. For a century or more, the two have been totally separated. At the end of the day, this is a design challenge. We need to design new types of corporations and shareholder arrangements that integrate finance and social purpose. We need to design new forms of financial intermediation that allow investors to direct dollars to slow businesses.

What are some of the more interesting slow money structures that you see emerging?
One possibility we’re looking at is “slow munis.” Why not invent a new kind of municipal bond that would let people invest in local and regional food systems? We’re in exploratory discussions with a municipality about this.

And how about a fund that was dedicated to expanding community-supported agriculture [CSA] in the US? Currently, about 100,000 Americans get their food from CSAs. In Copenhagen alone, about 55,000 people do so. Talk about a huge opportunity!

We’d also like to see the creation of regional slow money funds that would support everything from small organic farms to local food processors to slow food restaurants. We’re currently conducting workshops in various regions around the country to identify what a truly healthy food system would look like and what is needed, including capital requirements, to make it a reality.