Capitalism serves as a catalyst for positive change.
This is something I’ve been saying for decades. It’s a statement that has appeared on books, been quoted in the media and has even followed me to conferences where I’ve heard others repeat those very words.
There is no doubt in my mind that the recipe for peace, liberty and a healthy environment is a real free market, free from government intervention.
So when I first discovered the Slow Money movement, I was convinced I discovered a group of well-intentioned and like-minded individuals.
Solutions
Slow Money serves as an investment philosophy and framework that helps facilitate investment in local economies through farming, food processing, food distribution and nutrition. Basically, things most of us need to survive.
It does not seek to run quick trades on heavily-subsidized industries nor does it look to fund the too-big-to-fail banking cartel with investment dollars. Instead, it seeks to invest in solutions to problems that I would argue are the result of a broken economic system and government violence.
Woody Tasch, founder of the Slow Money movement hit the nail on the head when he wrote …
In response to the violence and institutional dysfunction and ecological degradation and uncertainty and fear of the day, we have only two choices, if we boil it all down:
1.) We can blame, bomb, drone, attack, argue, vilify, deny, lobby, scare, tax, legislate, regulate, investigate, prosecute and protest; or,
2.) We can invest.
This statement is a perfect example of libertarian philosophy.
Of course, I’m not saying Tasch or all of the folks who work within the Slow Money movement are libertarians. But one can’t deny that much of what Slow Money is working towards aligns with libertarian philosophy.
Property Rights
Find me a libertarian who doesn’t believe in strong property rights and I’ll show you an impostor.
There are few things more valuable to freedom, liberty and personal sovereignty than property rights. And this is an area where I see a lot of devoted Slow Money investors ponying up.
Last week, I attended the Slow Money conference in Louisville, KY and discovered a number of investors that were looking to make land purchases for responsible farmers, thereby keeping it out of the hands of heavily-subsidized, mono-cropping agribusinesses that have collected billions of dollars in government welfare.
Instead of writing letters to their elected officials or protesting in front of some sterile-looking government building, they’re using their capital to secure property rights. This will enable both investment opportunities for investors and growth opportunities for small farmers who profit by providing quality products to consumers in the absence of government welfare.
These farmers are honorable. They are righteous, and they are penalized by the government because they don’t fall in line with the state-approved industrial farming practices that pilfer tax payers, distort the market and wreak havoc on the environment.
Investing in these folks, who are using property rights instead of government welfare to generate revenue and feed Americans is something Slow Money investors champion.
Food Sovereignty
Food sovereignty is best defined as the right of individuals – not governments or government-funded corporations – to determine their own food and agriculture policies.
If you want to find a supporter of food sovereignty, you need to look no further than a Slow Money investor.
The truth is, it is the lack of food sovereignty in today’s world that has served as a catalyst for the Slow Money movement.
The food system in place today is one that has been built on the backs of taxpayers. It is one where government institutions like the USDA and FDA decide which type of food you should eat. It is one where the president of the United States has hired biotech and industrial agriculture lobbyists to oversee food safety. It is one where onerous and unethical regulatory controls punish small farmers. It is one where government policies have resulted in fat profits for Big Ag and fat bellies for more than one-third of the U.S. population.
While I certainly believe that even in the presence of government intervention, individuals must take responsibility for what they put in their bodies, to deny that the government has tilted the market in favor of unhealthy food would be naïve.
Corn syrups, GMO soy, meat sourced from concentrated animal feedlots where animals are fed a steady diet of pharmaceuticals, steroids and antibiotic cocktails. This is all stuff that results in “cheaper” food because it’s been heavily subsidized.
To counter this broken food system, where government plays much too big of a role, Slow Money investors seek to financially back local farmers and distributors that don’t receive big welfare checks from the government, but offer nutritionally-superior food with the added benefit of food security.
To invest in these entrepreneurs is to invest in food sovereignty.
Personal Responsibility
One of the things that initially brought me into the world of libertarianism was its strong foundation of personal responsibility.
Slow Money works to promote and empower those who embrace personal responsibility.
Farmers, food processors, and distributors looking to increase local food security and help grow local economies are probably some of the hardest-working people you’ll ever meet.
These aren’t the types of people who wait around for handouts from the government. In fact, these are the folks who work their asses off, knowing full well that the big trough of tax dollars in DC is not something from which they can wet their beaks.
These are folks who embrace hard work and responsibility. They aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty and they take pride in feeding families, not the bottom lines of state-funded agribusinesses.
All in all, I find the Slow Money movement to be a small, but important one. As a libertarian, I fully support devoting some portion of my portfolio to Slow Money investment opportunities. The monetary returns may not be as lucrative as you might find in the public markets (typically around 5% or lower), but the returns on freedom and liberty are stellar, and worth every penny.
