Photo by Jan Doerler

A dramatically different investment idea—called Slow Money—flies in the face of cultural pressure to constantly make ever greater amounts of money. Computerized global trading has so widened and sped up trading, that the financial world has come unfastened from the real world and real commodities. Trading in world markets has increased by 1,000-fold the past 50 years, but the world's resources cannot expand at anywhere near that rate.

The speculator's game forces money to move faster, without regard for damage to the natural world and its people. It's a game most are losing. But if the extractive practices of 20th century capitalism are no longer sustainable in the 21st century, what can replace them? For a growing group of investors, a healthy food system seems the real bottom line.

In September 2009, at the Farmers Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico, investors initiated a response to the dangers of too-hasty speculation and a fast-food nation busy depleting its soil with unsustainable food systems. Slow Money convened to test drive an idea that holds great promise for Vermont's farmers and working landscape. And that link is perhaps the reason the second meeting of the Slow Money movement was held here in Vermont, at Shelburne Farms in June 2010.

Slow Money, now a national non-profit with several "investor clubs," helps investors channel their funds into supporting sustainable food systems by funding organic farms and small food enterprises. They say a million investors investing 1 percent of their capital into local food systems would make a huge difference. The rate of return is much slower and possibly less profitable than standard venture capitalism, but Slow Money investing is not selfless.

Investors are still likely to realize substantial interest on their investments. In addition, they are specifically choosing to put their money where their beliefs are and where they believe a better future lies.

In just two years, Slow Money has drawn more than $22 million in investments in 185 small food enterprises around the United States.

J.D. and Cheryl DeVos pitch in along with their workers at The Kimball Brook Farm Creamery in Hinesburg. Photo: Jan Doerler

Meanwhile, Back on the Farm

While this new investment strategy was gaining national support, an all-too familiar local story was playing out on an organic dairy farm in North Ferrisburgh, Vermont. For several years, the current generation of farmers on family-owned Kimball Brook Farm had been doing well enough—until the national recession hit. Then, like dairy farmers all over Vermont, the DeVos family found itself struggling to save its farm and way of life.

That all changed in June 2010, when Cheryl and J.D. DeVos heard about Slow Money, and when the investors at the Shelburne Slow Money Conference first heard about Kimball Brook Farm. Together, they began creating an exciting success story for the DeVoses, for investors and for Vermont.

The Kimball Brook Farm had been in J.D. DeVos's family for generations before J.D. and Cheryl's farming story began in earnest. In 1999, the couple purchased the farm from J.D.'s parents, who had been part-time farmers, supporting themselves mainly with a trucking business. Cheryl and J.D. decided to do it differently: They would become full-time farmers.

With no idea of what a roller coaster ride they were signing up for, they jumped in enthusiastically, growing the herd from 80 to 200 cows. They own a mixture of Holsteins and Jerseys and a cross between those two breeds.
"We were one of those dairy farmers, always struggling in Vermont," said Cheryl in a recent interview with Vermont Woman. But they were young—both in their mid-30s—and determined to find a way to make things work. One of those ways showed up in 2003, when Cheryl attended a Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) workshop in Middlebury.

She came home fired-up, ready to turn Kimball Brook into an organic dairy operation. She convinced both her husband and their bankers that this was a sound business decision. And so it was, at least for the first four years. But then came the recession of 2008. The organic milk market flattened. Prices dropped. Cheryl said, "Everything came crashing down around us."

Fortunately, their determination led them to seek out new resources. They turned to the Vermont Farm Viability Program. Funded by the Vt. Housing and Conservation Board in collaboration with the Vermont Department of Agriculture and the USDA, the program helps farmers plan for and study the feasibility of creating value-added products. In 2008 Cheryl and J.C. landed a small grant, and used the money to hire Rose Wilson, a specialist in helping agricultural businesses develop new business plans. They set to work on a plan to bottle their own milk.

"We thought we would be bottling milk in about six months," Cheryl laughed, remembering. Her timetable was wildly off-base. It took two years just to figure out that they didn't have enough equity in the farm to fund their transition to having a creamery. After spending all that time and money on the creamery plan, the DeVos couple found themselves in a very frustrating situation.

Then, in May 2010, Cheryl found out about the Slow Money gathering scheduled to take place in Shelburne the very next month. "I'm not one to say, 'Oh, I'm a little late,'" said Cheryl. Instead, she successfully "begged" the organizers to let her be one of the 25 entrepreneurs asking for investment funds—and the Kimball Brook Farm and Slow Money stories intersected.

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Slow Money convened to test drive an idea that holds
great promise for Vermont's farmers and working landscape.

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The Slow Money Story

The Slow Money movement has its roots in The Investor's Circle, a national nonprofit network of angel investors and venture capitalists. Its webpage calls it "the oldest, largest and most successful early-stage impact investing network. Together with hundreds of angels, venture capitalists, foundations and family offices, we have propelled $168 million plus $4 billion in follow-on investment into 269 enterprises, dedicated to improving the environment, education, health and community."

These are investors who want to put their money to work in a living ecosystem, and a notable percentage of them are women. The Investor's Circle actively sought women investors and also invested in women-owned enterprises.
Four years ago Investor's Circle chair, Woody Tasch, published the book, Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing As If Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered. His economic ideas echo those of Marilyn Waring, who had published Economics As If Women Counted in 1988. Like Tasch, Waring drew attention to our national accounting system that nowhere values unpaid family work or nature's ecosystems.

Two years ago, Tasch founded, and then became chair of, Slow Money. Following the inaugural gathering in Santa Fe, the investment idea blossomed nationally and internationally, perhaps because its way forward combines realism and optimism. Two quotes from Slow Money's website (www.slowmoney.org) illustrate the kind of buzz this movement has garnered: Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, declares that "Slow Money is one of the keys to a healthy future." Michael Kanter, owner of Cambridge Naturals, and one of Slow Money's founding members says, "Slow Money is one of the few things that gives me hope. I've been involved in many movements over the years. I can't tell you how happy I am to be a part of this one. It has a chance to make a real difference."

Several Vermonters are among this new movement's advisors and founders. The website lists: Tom Stearns of High Mowing Organic Seeds in Wolcott; Gail Holmes, who lives in a cohousing community in Hartland focused on sustainable living; Hinda Miller, a former state senator from Chittenden County and co-founder of Jogbra; and Janice St. Onge, deputy director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund in Montpelier.

Nationally, according to the Slow Money website, "Seventeen local Slow Money chapters and six investment clubs have formed. Slow Money events have attracted thousands of people from 36 states and nine countries. More than 24,000 people have signed the Slow Money Principles."

Slow Money's goals for the 21st century are: "to enhance food security, food safety and food access; improve nutrition and health; promote cultural, ecological and economic diversity; and accelerate the transition from an economy based on extraction and consumption to an economy based on preservation and restoration."

To get there, Slow Money asks investors to sign onto its six principles: First, "We must bring money back down to earth."
Second, "There is such a thing as money that is too fast, companies that are too big, finance that is too complex. Therefore, we must slow our money down."

Slow Money calls the 20th century "the era of buy low/sell high and wealth now/philanthropy later." It wants the 21st century to be marked by "nurture capital, built around principles of carrying capacity, care of the commons, sense of place and non-violence."

It seeks to "connect investors to the places where they live, creating vital relationships and new sources of capital for small food enterprises. It anticipates "a new generation of entrepreneurs, consumers and investors who are showing the way from making a killing, to making a living."

And it wants to be "a little like the farmer who puts back into the soil what he takes out." It invites investors to ask themselves, what would the world be like if we invested 50 percent of our assets within 50 miles of where we live? What if a new generation of companies gave away 50 percent of its profits? What if there were 50 percent more organic matter in our soil 50 years from now?

Slow Money in Vermont

So what do these lofty ideals mean at the ground level—literally—here in Vermont?

For Cheryl and J.D. DeVos, they mean hope for saving their farm, starting with Cheryl's three-minute sales pitch in front of 600 potential Slow Money investors at the June 2010 Shelburne gathering. There, shaking with fear, Cheryl gave her first-ever PowerPoint presentation. Not only was this a new and intimidating experience, but the future of her family's way of life was on the line.

She must have done a good job, because investors began coming on board. "I knew one of the investors who was there that day, and gathered him in," Cheryl said. "After that, it felt like dominoes. Once you have one person, you get others. Investors come from friends of investors."

Eventually, 18 individuals signed up to invest between $10,000 and $200,000 each to fund the Kimball Brook Farm Organic Milk start-up. These investors included people from Hinesburg, where a 2009 fire at the Saputo Cheese factory had left a gaping hole. The Hinesburg investors in particular fit the Slow Money vision of supporting "an economy based on preservation and restoration," since the DeVos operation eventually moved into the old cheese factory.

Another potential investor got a tour of the farm, and met the family before sitting down at the DeVos kitchen table, and writing a check for $25,000. Cheryl recalls this investor saying, "I may never get this money back, but this is a really worthwhile investment."

Assuming the creamery is successful—and all signs are pointing that way—what can investors expect to get in return? According to Cheryl, for five years the creamery has full use of the investors' money with no need to repay anything. During those five years, interest is accruing at six percent. That is a much, much lower rate than the 20-25 percent return angel investors typically expect. At the end of the five years, investors may choose to become share-holders in the creamery, or to be repaid in full.

And why does Cheryl think the investors are helping her family? She cites four ways Kimball Brook Farm Organic Milk meets Slow Money goals. It is supporting a vital Vermont economy, contributing to a healthy food system, creating local jobs and maintaining Vermont's working landscape.

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Their business has grown so fast that in the near future Kimball Brook
Creamery will begin buying organic milk from other Vermont farms.

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Still Much to Do

Even with Slow Money's enthusiasm, raising the funds needed to start the creamery was not easy. Cheryl spent much of her time on the project. She also had to learn how to navigate a whole new world of such legalese and jargon as, "private placement memorandum" and "convertible debt offering." She worked closely with a lawyer, the same one who had helped High Mowing Seeds founder Tom Stearns with his start-up. Stearns, who is based in Wolcott, has continued to help as an advisor.

Meanwhile, the DeVos family had a 200-head dairy farm to run--no easy task. Despite its immersion in fundraising, the farm was named the 2011 Vermont Dairy Farm of the Year by the University of Vermont and the Vermont Dairy Industry Association.

By early 2011, Cheryl and J.D. finally knew they had the investment funds needed to go forward. They began bottling their own milk products in May of 2012. For Cheryl, one of the advantages of the long investment process is that it gave her the experience she needed to be successful with the business end of running the creamery. "It definitely opened my eyes to how important the sales side would be to the creamery's success," she said.

She must have learned that lesson well: Kimball Brook Organic Milk started with ten stores agreeing to carry its products; by March of 2013 it had accounts in 90 stores and restaurants in Vermont, plus additional outlets in other New England states and in New York.

Their creamery has grown so fast, in fact, that in the near future Kimball Brook Milk will begin buying organic milk from other Vermont farms. Because the creamery is not a national brand, they will have to pay a premium to other Vermont farmers [WHY?]. So the Slow Money investment in their project is rippling out, as intended, to help other producers in a healthier Vermont food system.

The endeavor is still very fresh and new for Cheryl, who acknowledges that their situation "feels good," but is also "still scary." Nor has the need for investors gone away: "The faster you grow, the more working capital you need," she observed. Thus, it was time for another "private placement memorandum." Again, it's a lot of work—very necessary work. Cheryl said, "You have to grow fast because you need to reach a certain level to be profitable."

The creamery is not yet profitable.The continued flow of investment is necessary in large part because, as Cheryl noted, the farm and creamery are labor intensive. Labor is costly, but it is a vital part of sales. Cheryl and her employees go to many events, demos and store tastings where they pass out free samples of their products.

"Once people taste our milk products, the milk sells itself," Cheryl observed. However, without the tastings, she has found that "people are so used to buying the same milk, they don't even notice a new milk product." At least half their labor force is in sales.

At this point, the farm is propping up the creamery, rather than the other way around, but they are close, Cheryl confided. She and J.D. are optimistic that profitability will come soon. "It's a ton of work," Cheryl said. "No days off at all. Period." But they are nonetheless very glad to have gone the creamery route, which they could not have done without Slow Money. She encourages other farmers to look at value-added product options. Slow Money may be able to help them achieve their goals.

"They really believe in Vermont, Vermont farmers and the products we produce," said Cheryl. "I can't thank them enough!"

To find out more, go to www.slowmoney.org