"The question before us is how we will plant the seeds of a peaceable economy. There is no more fundamental place to start than with how we grow food, how we feed ourselves and one another, how we relate to and care for the land."
Woody Tasch, Founder, Slow Money Institute and Beetcoin
Thank you for attending “Pathways to Engagement: Funding a Resilient Regional Foodshed", the last of Greenwich Food System Forum 2022. We appreciate your
participation, and we are grateful to the panelists for generously giving their time.
~ Highlights ~
* What if 1% of every organic purchase went towards helping the next farmer switch the next acre to organic? What is missing is the mechanism of finance to transition into organic and regenerative. The future is not about a new product, it is about getting the solution internalized into the economy at large. Let's get 99% of the land to be regenerative, let's team up with local farmers and ranchers and finance their transition. Let's do it one penny at a time. - Anthony Myint, Zero Foodprint
* Food Systems is not the whole thing, it is nested in even larger things like connecting to one another. Underlying all of this is the impulse to do less harm. The spirit of Beetcoin is $1 flow of capital, that is 100% mission related, where all decisions are local and next to local dollars. - Woody Tasch, Slow Money Institute + Beetcoin
* The future of the food system is rooted in community groups and frontline organizers. What if we were to focus on the proliferation of work that is happening across the US and globally, and allocate funding dollars towards grassroots organizations? How about we resource urban land into green spaces, rural collective farms, urban farms, community gardens and fund collective, community based solutions to bring them to scale? - Sarah Huang, Grassroots Fund
*What if we looked at a regional food system as a network, a web, of community organizations and brought that network to scale in a way that works for all stakeholders? Pool regional capital that is managed and implemented by local community members and leaders doing the work by and for their community. They could still drive their own values and solutions. - Kyle Philipp, Regenerative Food Network
* It is vital that community controlled capital is based in frontline communities fostering their own political influence. They are the leaders, holding power and fostering their own political leadership. When talking about a ‘just transition’, we need to ask the folks doing the work where can we intervene, for they are the true leaders. And do it in a way that makes sense for them, as they are the practitioners. - Esperanza Pallana, Food and Farm Communications Fund
Coalition + Collaboration + Relationship Building is everything!
Fostering a values aligned ecosystem of supportive networks is essential.
