Andreas and Mary Ellen had been looking into a concept called "Slow Money".
"The Grueneberg’s had signed the Slow Money Principles in 2009 and were excited to attend a lecture given by Woody Tasch in March of 2011 in Calgary and decided that if Slow Money was going to come to Alberta they had to make it happen.
They worked over the spring and summer of that year to form a group of committed individuals with skills to offer, launched a Facebook group and later a website. They sought the help of securities and investment experts and finalized an investment vehicle that could deliver investors to qualifying farms."
CBC Interview with Andreas and Mary Ellen
Slow Money is all about sustainability. If we invest all of the money that we would spend on food locally, that helps support the local economy, but it is more than that. If we take all of that money and spend it on a single farm, it helps that farm have a steady income. That steady income helps support the growth of that farm and the products that they produce. That support helps the farm maintain the health of the animals and the soil. Healthier soil and healthier animals means better food. Sustainability in this Alberta climate also means being able to produce all year. This means heated greenhouses and barns. All of the money invested in the farm goes back to producing more food and providing the people working on the farm with a decent living.
A sustainable food system is a collaborative network that integrates several components in order to enhance a community’s environmental, economic and social well-being. It is built on principles that further the ecological, social and economic values of a community and region. Characteristics of a sustainable food system are outline below (based on Pothukuchi and Jufman, 1999):
• is secure, and therefore reliable and resilient to change (including climate change, rising energy prices, etc) and accessible and affordable to all members of society:
• is energy efficient’
• is an economic generator for farmers, whole communities and regions’
• is healthy and safe;
• is environmentally beneficial or benign’
• uses creative water reclamation and conservation strategies for agricultural irrigation;
• balances food imports with local capacity’
• adopts regionally-appropriate agricultural practices and crop choices’
• works towards organic farming;
• contributes to both community and ecological health;
• builds soil quality and farmland through the recycling of organic waste;
• supports multiple forms of urban as well as rural food production’
• ensures that food processing facilities are available to farmers and processors;
• is celebrated through community events, markets, restaurants, etc;
• preserves biodiversity in agro-ecosystems as well as in the crop selection;
• has a strong educational focus to create awareness of food and agricultural issues, and
• is fairly traded by providing a fair wage to producers and processors locally and abroad.
So when you invest in a single farm, you invest in the greater good. When you eat out, support a restaurant that buys from that local farmer. No matter where you eat then, you are still investing in your community.