Mission Markets, a member of the Slow Money alliance, operates a unique private exchange for the social and environmental capital markets. The Mission Markets platform provides socially and environmentally responsible companies, organizations, and projects with cost effective access to mission aligned capital. We provide impact investors with an efficient way to evaluate, invest in and monitor sustainable investment opportunities.

Mission Markets aims to be the go-to platform for Slow Money members. Companies in the Slow Money alliance seeking to raise capital can sign up and list their company and their financial offering on the Mission Markets platform. Slow Money accredited investors can sign up as well, and search through these listed offerings to pursue due diligence and make an investment. Slow Money members Greenling Inc. and Farmland LP have been the first to hop on. Come join them! We charge no membership or listing fees.

Visit Mission Markets at www.missionmarkets.com, and register as a member at https://secure.missionmarkets.com/register. Please contact the Mission Markets team for more information, a demo of the platform, or for help signing up. Email olivia@missionmarkets.com, or call 646 837 6877. We look forward to hearing from you!

McDonalds, my former love
by Sarah Peck

When I was a kid, there was nothing I liked more than a McDonald’s happy meal. Give me a six-pack of Chicken McNuggets, their nondescript meat-like products in that wonderful nugget shape — alongside a small fry, and the omnipresent Coke — and man, I was in heaven.

Now, I don’t tell you this because I’m proud. I tell you this, because today, after years of eating happy meals and chugging down gallons of that sweet syrupy soda, I’ve slowly been going through a personal, albeit slow, food revolution.

And here is the thing — I wish I ate better. Or, more to the point, I wish I had started my food revolution sooner, or was able to shift faster. But, a bit like Slow Money, I’m a work in progress.

My roommate, the product of a legitimate New Hampshire family farm, cooks every weekend — she bakes glorious muffins made with barley and oats, the smell wafting through the apartment. She makes quinoa with farm-fresh kale, adding in ingredients that she herself has grown. But then, it comes natural to her. Unlike most Americans today, including myself, she is a microcosm of what we have lost — of a generation of people that knew where their food came from.

I think about this today, because even though I’m a product of fast food nation, I see the deep wounds this type of lifestyle is inflicting — Not just on me personally, but on our communities, on our health, on our fragile and damaged ecosystem. We aren’t just eating poorly, as a country — we are literally destroying the fabric of what makes communities healthy, sustainable, and thriving.

When I first discovered Slow Money, I felt that I had happened upon a quiet revolution. And, the more I learn about it, the more I think, in fact, that this is exactly what I’ve found. Because, the thing is, over the last 50 years, American food culture has gone from lax to practically nonexistent. People wolf down Go-Gurt, Yoplait’s “on-the-go” Yogurt, because they don’t think they have the time to sit down and enjoy it. Fast food-like products, like KFC’s Double Down, a cheese and bacon sandwich encased by two fried chicken breasts, get cult-like followings. Eating bad never felt so good.

I fall into this pattern too. Not the KFC Double Down per se, but faster, easier food than that which I could produce at home. I use the traditional excuses – long commute, long work hours, no time too cook or prepare — but I recognize that I’m falling short. A food revolution is upon us – I see it in my neighborhood, in my workplace. The coffee shop five floors below me has a CSA delivered weekly. My neighbor is growing tomatoes in the concrete parking space he was allotted…instead, he built raised farm beds and planters.

Lets face it. I’m not the best spokesperson for Slow Food. Or, in fact, Slow Money — because I don’t have much. But what I am is a typical American eater – one that has slowly caught wind of the fact that one of the biggest problems facing us today is one that is deeply close to home — our food. I recognize that my personal food choices impact things far beyond my own state of being. I recognize that by choosing to eat, and invest, in my community, my impact quickly becomes far larger than myself – I remove one layer of oil dependence. I support someone’s job on a farm nearby. I infinitesimally decrease the need for expensive health insurance.

And, more than that…I feel much, much better than if I had wolfed down 1000 non-calories in the form of what Michael Pollan would have called food-like products, or food that my grandmother, in fact, would not have been able to identify.

My own food consciousness has been growing for years, shifting as I’m more and more dedicated to making legitimate shifts in my lifestyle. But, as more and more people catch wind, the demand for those things that are fast — like my once beloved Chicken McNuggets — they will fade. And, I hope, food culture will once again be food culture. Just as it took us a number of generations to get to our current state of food culture, it might take us a few to get back to a simpler, and healthier, way of approaching food.

But, I’m realizing — Slow Food, Slow Money – it makes sense that they are slow. Most good things are.

Slow Money Maine held its third meeting in June, with a mix of about 35 new and familiar participants and a different format for our three-hour gathering. We heard updates from several group members about the Slow Money national gathering, about new investment opportunities and ongoing technical support for producers from CEI, and hints of the recent Sustainable Agricultural Funders Network Conference in Philadelphia.

Marada and Leah Cook, owners and managers of Crown O’ Maine Organic Cooperative, presented funding needs related to a small sampling of 60 vendors who use their trucking distribution system. They spoke of the demands for product that cannot be met due to financial restrictions related to such things as purchase of jars, storage facilities and efficient equipment rather than the result of limited product or market. Often, in fact, Crown O’ Maine has had to “unsell” hoped-for-product due to these restrictions. Opportunities for direct microloans to producers were described, primarily in the $1500-$5000 range, with individuals involved setting their own terms and creating mutually acceptable agreements. Our discussion included challenging aspects of managing microloans as more people get involved.

Other updates, not presented at the meeting, relate to non-profit organizitons’ choices to invest in agricultural endeavors. One of our participants brought this idea to the Finance Committee of his local Land Trust with the likely outcome of some investments shifting to Slow Money options. Some members of our group have also been engaged in presenting Slow Money themes on public radio programs and in local community venues.

Lively exchanges took place during networking time at the beginning and end of our gathering and during presentations as well. Next steps for us include a newly-formed subcommittee to define a structure to guide our intentions and actions, given the diversity of our group and varied issues for focused energies. We’ve continued to experience growing interest from individuals and groups statewide and are exploring connections for effective and satisfying collaborations.

Contributed by: Bonnie Rukin

Read the conference review from Glynwood President, Judith LaBelle.

http://glynwoodblogs.org/blog/2010/06/slow-money-the-soil-trust-and-a-tomato-seed/

At the National Gathering 2, Bill McKibben acknowledged that his carbon footprint, from flying around the world despite the offsets he purchased, was extremely high. And he leads an organization whose sole purpose is to reduce carbon in the atmosphere. Isn’t an “international grass-roots movement,” as his organization describes itself, an oxymoron? Certainly it’s a paradox. Slow Money faces the same paradox as 350.org, and Slow Food—national (or global) organizations whose purpose is to support local initiatives. Don’t local initiatives have to start themselves? Certainly they know the terrain better. It seems a fair question to ask how much of an organization’s—and the environment’s—resources should be spent on flying its leadership around the country in order to invest in the local. Michael Bartner, Slow Money VP, rides his bike to work year around. Ari Derfel, the new executive director of Slow Money, announced at the gathering that he sees his role, following in the carbon steps of Woody Tasch, as one of flying around the country meeting with local groups. Maybe we need a careful accounting of the costs and benefits of air travel to food, farms, and fertility.

The setting was an American Versailles—Olmsted-designed rolling hills and clumps of trees interspersed with agricultural fields and farm mansions that look across Lake Champlain to the Adirondack Mountains. I can now say that Shelburne Farms is an even more spectacularly beautiful working landscape than its photos suggest, even in the rain. A non-profit with an educational mission to promote a conservation ethic, it provided a dramatic pastoral setting for the Slow Money big tent, an event more than once described as a revival. Most of the people who attended were of two generations—either they came of age in the late sixties and were feeling the déjà vu rush of a movement or they were feeling the momentum while coming of age now.

The line-up of speakers was nearly as dramatic as the setting. Bill McKibben’s keynote address was not nearly as dark as I had expected; in fact, despite the grey forecast he saw the local food movement growing farms, sequestering carbon, and repairing the social deficit. Nevertheless, he wasn’t shy about the urgent necessity of staunching the flow of carbon into the atmosphere of Eaarth. One method of doing this, placing a stiff price on fossil fuel, would help to slow fast money. He attacks the problem through 350.org, work that will culminate this year with a Global Work Day on 10/10/10. He concluded with the idea of physics and chemistry vs. humans—the certainty through which the laws of science will act in the face of climate change versus the uncertainty of how quickly humans can change.

Joel Salatin, owner of Polyface Farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley featured in Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, spoke with energy and pride about the four generations of his family that are the improvising stewards of their farm. The farm now services more than 3,000 families, 10 retail outlets, and 50 restaurants through on-farm sales and buying clubs. For “scaling up without selling your soul” he advises against brand marketing. Rather, he talked about relationship marketing. That’s having a good product and depending upon word-of-mouth. Ironically, Ari Derfel, the new Executive Director of Slow Money, spoke just before him of his primary goal being to “solidify the Slow Money brand.”

Gary Hirshberg, CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farms, began in the early 80s with 7 cows at a farming school in NH that taught sustainable agricultural practices and didn’t turn a profit for 9 years. Hirshberg’s intelligence and ethics came through loud and clear—not through slogans or mantras—but through specific examples of profitable business practices that reduce potential damage to our bodies and our world. The list is long but a recent example is of carbon reduction in transportation that saved $7.6 million. It’s refreshing to know that it is possible to make profits and do good work. Hirshberg’s interest in organic food seems to stem from his suspicion, as a young alchemist, that no one really knew what the outcome would be of using chemicals in new ways. He cited recent evidence such as toxins in babies and increasing cancer rates that confirm earlier fears. Hirshberg closed by saying that 90% of their products were sold to 1% of U.S. households. This suggests that organic food has a long way to go to become equitably distributed.

Will Raap is a leading entrepreneur of an employee-owned company who said that “our ecosystem is subordinate to our economy and this must be reversed.” He is an environmental activist who believes we have released twice as much carbon from bad soil practices than from burning fossil fuels. He has led environmental initiatives from Vermont to Costa Rica.

Tom Stearns is founder of High Mowing Organic Seeds in Hardwick, Vermont. The audience was really taken with his discussion of the relationships between agricultural entrepreneurs in his local area, meeting once monthly, and developing relationships lasting years. His response was to invite people from the conference to Hardwick to tour seven of the local businesses.

Farmer and author, Eliot Coleman is a rare example of someone who succeeded in going back to the land in the 70s. He talked about the process of becoming a four-season commercial market gardener. He has written three books and many articles about what he has learned, experience he noted is often lacking in books about farming.

All of that, and much more, took place on Thursday. On Friday, the focus was on entrepreneurs and investors. Michael Bartner, Slow Money VP, introduced 26 entrepreneurs who each spoke about their business and the nature of their need for investment. It was exhilarating. These were young people with good ideas who were taking risks, and established people who were expanding companies that were already successful. They ranged from beer, beef, apples, granola, and milk to agricultural consulting and investing, biological management, and nonprofit services. At lunch, the entrepreneurs were available to talk. I looked a farmer in the eye and decided to invest. Soon I will visit the farm. This transaction sure beats Bank of America.

Woody Tasch and Michael Bartner organized this Slow Money event by bringing together terrific speakers, investors, and entrepreneurs. Shelburne Farms provided not only a gracious landscape but also delicious, local food to a very sophisticated crowd of nearly 600 people. Every time I sat down next to strangers to share a meal, I found the most interesting people to talk with. In every conversation—in the tent, over coffee, or wherever I met them—the people who attended this conference were warm, passionate, smart and engaged. Just the type to help change the world for the better.

Greenling is a website-driven organic food delivery service out of Austin, Texas. They are dedicated to local agriculture and sustainable farming. Ordering online is the most environmentally friendly grocery shopping possible. Greenling will present their business at the gathering.

David Boyle, a historian of money and a fellow at the New Economics Foundation in London, has written an updated Wizard of Oz for the age of derivatives trading and Goldman Sachs. His novel, The Wizard: A whole new kind of Oz for our times, is illustrated by Karin Dahlbacka. I never realized, as Boyle points out in his blog, that Oz is the abbreviation for ounces and the Wizard the personification of the gold standard who was finally revealed as a fraud. Frank Baum may have been writing about the economic collapse of the 1890s but we still walk around, like the people in the Emerald City, wearing green-tinted glasses recognizing value only in what Wall Street (or the City of London) says is important. We find that financial services are so profitable that almost every other economic activity—and especially Aunt Em’s farming—is threatened. Meanwhile, the great corporations are striving to become banks themselves. They are shedding the real work until they are shells that just do financial services. Money, at least as we conceive it, is driving out life.  We feel the hurricane of $3 trillion a day blowing through the world and we must turn it into a light local rain that will fertilize the soil.

In the early 1980s, one man who was a farmer, teacher, and agricultural consultant met up with a farmer with military organizational experience who got together with two businessmen with experience in agricultural marketing and advocacy. Midwestern Bio-Ag was founded. They now bring our services to more than 3,500 farms in nine states through a network of people with knowledge of veterinary medicine, animal nutrition, soil management, cropping systems, soil organisms, and biological farming systems. They are dedicated to an agriculture that is safer, healthier, and more sustainable for future generations and believe that the principles of biological farming are providing the basis for a revitalization of agriculture and rural communities. They will present their business at the gathering.