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Show Me the (Slow) Money!

Posted in Twin Cities, Sustainable, Specialty Food, Organic Food, Midwest, Local Food on Wed, 11/11/2009 - 12:52pm by Shari Danielson -

Slow Money: The book that started the movementSlow Money: The book that started the movement

What would the world be like if we invested 50% of our assets within 50 miles of where we live?

What if there were a new generation of companies that gave away 50% of their profits?

What if there were 50% more organic matter in our soil 50 years from now?

These are the questions being asked by Slow Money, a non-profit organization dedicated to building the “nurture capital industry,” or, in other words, “a new financial sector supporting the emergence of a restorative economy.” Started by Woody Tasch, the author of the book with the same name, Slow Money has launched a national campaign to collect one million signatures to six Slow Money Principles, including my personal favorite, Principle number 4:

“We must learn to live as if food, farms and fertility mattered. We must connect investors to the places where they live, creating vital relationships and new sources of capital for small food enterprises.”

Slow Money receives “seed money and strategic support” from a select group of founding members, most of whom are luminaries in the fields of “sustainable agriculture, organic food, social investing and philanthropy.”

One of them is the Twin Cities’ own Matt Sanford, author, yoga teacher, and founder of Mind-Body Solutions.

Slow Money founding member, the Twin Cities' own Matthew SanfordSlow Money founding member, the Twin Cities' own Matthew Sanford“I believe our relationship to money is a fundamental issue that threatens our survival,” he wrote in an e-mail reply to my question asking why he chose to get involved with this movement. He continued, “No longer can our planet and its natural resources sustain an extractive form of capitalism that cares only about maximizing financial return at any cost. As investors, this means that some of our capital must become more patient, and that it should be invested closer to home, with an eye toward sustaining local communities and ecosystems -- even if the financial returns are not the same.”

You can join Sanford in supporting the Slow Money movement by (1) adding your signature to the list of principles, and/or (2) becoming a member. For as little as $25, you can join other “savvy, like-minded people,” as Sanford wrote, “who can see beyond the powerful grip of materialism and are trying to do something about it.”

His words remind me of my second favorite Slow Money Principle, number 5: "Let us celebrate the new generation of entrepreneurs, consumers and investors who are showing the way from Making A Killing to Making a Living."

Simple, Good, and Tasty Offers Fair-Trade Ugandan Peaberry Coffee

Posted in Sustainable, Organic Food on Tue, 11/10/2009 - 12:46pm by lee -

I'm super excited to let you know that, for a limited time, Simple, Good, and Tasty is offering our own fair trade coffee through our partnership with Peace Coffee. This coffee is one of my absolute favorites, organic Ugandan peaberry. The gorgeous label, shown above, was designed by my friend Stuart Flake of What Agency Inc., who also designed the Simple, Good, and Tasty logo.

We're currently selling our whole bean coffee for $11.00 per pound (plus shipping). To buy it, email us at info@simplegoodandtasty.com or click here to use PayPal's secure service.





Cooking is an Activity Too

Posted in Sustainable, Organic Food, Local Food, Activities on Mon, 11/09/2009 - 12:44pm by lee -

Image Credit: Kate SommersImage Credit: Kate SommersThe issue of time - specifically, how long it takes to cook and eat fresh, local, and organic food and how little time most people have - comes up again and again in my discussions with parents and friends who are considering making a change in their eating habits. (Not surprisingly, the other topic that comes up again and again is the cost of good food. Much has been compellingly written about the true cost of cheap food, and I encourage you to check it out.)

I think a lot about the choices we make when it comes to our schedules and the things we're willing to schedule and spend time on. Time and time again, people tell me that they just don't have the time that preparing and eating good food requires - shopping, cooking, sitting down to eat, and doing the dishes (nevermind growing the food) just take too dang long. And I agree - being mindful about our food choices does take time.

But let's take just a minute to consider what we choose to do with our time instead. So many of us race from activity to activity every day, from soccer practice to play practice to book club to the gym to whatever. These are all worthwhile activites - every single one of them. I don't want to give them up either. But what I realized was that, no matter how hard we try, we will never have enough time for all of the things we want to do. And I find this incredibly freeing.

I find it freeing because it reminds me that we are constantly choosing priorities, and that we're always giving something up. Here's an exercise I'd love to see more people do: when you create your family calendar, schedule dinner like it's an activity, even a priority. Give it 2 whole hours. Schedule whatever you want before or after - hockey, gymnastics, chess club, blog writing - but give dinner its due.

When I consider what I most value in my life, the things that are most important to me, my family is always at the top. Not playing my guitar, going to the movies, riding my bicycle, traveling - not even sustainable food. It turns out that, when dinner is an activity, the probability that my whole family will be involved is pretty high. We pick potatoes from the garden together. We wash and peel carrots together. We sometimes cook together. We eat together.

All right, I'll admit to overstating my case to make a point. There are nights when my wife and I put the kids in front of the TV while we make dinner, and others when one of us works late and the other serves up hot dogs. But we eat together as often as we can, and we make it a point to consider dinner a family activity, even if it means having to skip something else.

How about you? Do you consider dinner an activity worth making time for, or is it something you do on the way to something else that's more important?

 

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