A Call to Farms

Over the last few years, a new slow money funding system has been launched. Local SOIL groups (“Slow Opportunities for Investing Locally”) make 0% loans, using donated capital and making their loans by majority vote of member/donors—one person, one vote, no matter the size of the donation. These are non-institutional, participatory, downright neighborly pools of capital that recirculate in perpetuity, growing slowly. To date, five SOIL groups in the U.S.—four in Colorado and one in Virginia–have made 175 loans totaling almost $5 million. In June, a newly formed SOIL group in Israel made its first loan. Another is in formation in Amsterdam.
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Last year we launched Beetcoin—a way for folks who don’t live in a community that has a SOIL group to chip in. We call it “the world’s first non-crypto, non-currency.” For real. Check it out at beetcoin.org.

How many SOIL groups could there be a generation from now? Fifty years ago, land trusts were counted in the dozens; today, there are more than 1,500. In 1986, the first community supported agriculture (CSA) was formed; today, more than half a million Americans belong to more than 6,000 CSAs.

ON NOVEMBER 13 – 14, THIS CONVERSATION COMES TO PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

Please join us for A CALL TO FARMS – a public conversation about food, money, community and peace. The event will feature a number of slow money friends from around the country as well as farmers, food entrepreneurs and other food system stakeholders here in Providence.