VOA标准英语2010年-Connecting Investors Directly to the D

Investment professional aims to finance a healthy food distribution system, community-by-community

Jan Sluizer | San Francisco, California 01 June 2010
 

Woody Tasch hopes to help finance a healthy food distribution system, community-by-community, throughout the United States.

Related Links
Slow Money Alliance
Investors¹ Circle

After nearly 30 years as an investment professional, Edward "Woody" Tasch turned his energy toward launching what he calls the "Slow Money Movement."

The goal is to finance a healthy food distribution system, community-by-community, throughout the United States.

Early influences

Woody Tasch grew up in New York City, the child of Russian immigrants who ran a successful family business in Manhattan's Garment District.

A child of the 60s, Tasch was heavily influenced by proponents² of social responsibility and by writings such as Fritz Schumacher's "Small is Beautiful." Tasch still considers this collection of essays on ecological³ economics one of his guiding lights.

Slow Money Alliance
Edward "Woody" Tasch

Tasch graduated from college in 1973 as an English teacher but, after just one year in the classroom, he moved to the boardroom, where he managed investments instead of students.

Among his positions in the world of finance was chairman of Investor's Circle, a nonprofit that funds fledgling social enterprises, especially those dedicated⁴ to environmental sustainability.

Connecting investors to the soil

Tasch believes it was the Slow Money Movement that brought all his talents into focus.

"Everything I've done has led here, through foundations and starting non-profits and doing venture capital investing, and whatnot. But I never felt like it was all going in a direction," he says. "It was always going against the grain of the other things. And now with Slow Money, we have a way of putting it all together, so it's moving in a specific way."

Tasch describes the Slow Money Movement as a new way of thinking about the relationship between money and the soil, connecting investors directly to the dirt.

Like the Slow Food, Slow Cities, and Slow Design movements that have taken off in recent years, Tasch's nonprofit is a response to the belief that many of the infrastructures⁵ of the modern world are simply too fast and too big.

He says the Slow Money Movement targets an industrial agriculture that too often destroys soil fertility and a Wall Street-driven capitalist economy that is out of control. "The reason it's out of control," he says, "is that the money is going so fast and in such large quantities that no one actually understands how to control it anymore."

 

Woody Tasch talks about the slow money movement at a meeting of specialty⁶ food entrepreneurs.

"Nuture capital" from one million Americans

To counter this uncontrolled profiteering, Woody Tasch promotes an investment strategy that he calls 'nurture⁷ capital.' It deploys⁸ the power of finance to build socially and environmentally friendly enterprises.

He says that the notion of blending philanthropy and investment to help strengthen communities is still alien to Wall Street, where profit is king. But he believes the concept is attractive to many investors concerned with social responsibility.

"I think it's realistic to actually say millions of people will have the 'ah-ha moment' and will realize that it actually makes them feel better to start moving in a different direction. So our job is to make it as easy as possible to do that as soon as possible."

Tasch launched his Slow Money Movement at the first national gathering⁹ of the Slow Money Alliance in September, 2009 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. About 450 investors and food enterprise entrepreneurs came together to brainstorm¹⁰ ways to implement¹¹ their goal on a practical level.

Tasch says there is one main focus. "We want a million Americans investing one percent of their assets directly into local food systems in a decade. To do that, and actually have it happening on a regular basis, would represent a kind of small revolution in finance because it is connecting people directly to where they live and to the land in a way that has never been done."

Tasch's vision of bringing money back to earth is laid out in his new book, 'Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered.'

Investing in food, farms, and fertility

Tasch's vision of bringing money back to earth is laid out in his new book, ''Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered."

Tasch says he has no doubt that the Slow Money Movement will catch on. The second national meeting of the Slow Money Alliance is scheduled to take place in Shelburne Farms, Vermont, from June 9 to 11. Tasch expects it to draw three times the number of investors and local food entrepreneurs as the first gathering.

He says addressing the way capital flows from investors to investments is one of the biggest challenges facing Americans today.

"If we're actually going to make a difference for the next generation, we have to come up with some design that, if it works, will actually be able to have billions of dollars moving in a different direction within 10 or 20 years. And I just can't think of anything more important than trying to figure out that design," says Tasch. "It hasn't happened yet. I don't know exactly how it's going to happen. I don't know exactly when it's going to happen. But now I can add that I've been talking about this for a year and a half all over the country and it is going to happen."

Although the distribution network is still taking shape, Tasch predicts that by the end of next year, a handful of communities could have Slow Money funds at their disposal.

And when those investments start flowing, he believes it will show that Americans do believe that food, farms, and fertility matter.
 

1 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

2 proponents   

n.（某事业、理论等的）支持者，拥护者( proponent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Reviewing courts were among the most active proponents of hybrid rulemaking procedures. 复审法院是最积极的混合型规则制定程序的建议者。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• Proponents of such opinions were arrested as 'traitors. ' 提倡这种主张的人马上作为“卖国贼”逮捕起来。 来自辞典例句

3 ecological   

adj.生态的，生态学的

参考例句：

• The region has been declared an ecological disaster zone.这个地区已经宣布为生态灾难区。
• Each animal has its ecological niche.每种动物都有自己的生态位.

4 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

5 infrastructures   

n.基础设施( infrastructure的名词复数 )；基础结构；行政机构；秘密机构

参考例句：

• Public transportation termini and depots are important infrastructures for a city. 公交场站设施是城市重要的基础设施。 来自互联网
• The increasingly fast urbanization process requires more and more infrastructures. 我国城市化进程不断加快，对城市基础设施的需求也越来越大。 来自互联网

6 specialty   

n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长

参考例句：

• Shell carvings are a specialty of the town.贝雕是该城的特产。
• His specialty is English literature.他的专业是英国文学。

7 nurture   

n.养育，照顾，教育；滋养，营养品；vt.养育，给与营养物，教养，扶持

参考例句：

• The tree grows well in his nurture.在他的培育下这棵树长得很好。
• The two sisters had received very different nurture.这俩个姊妹接受过极不同的教育。

8 deploys   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的第三人称单数 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• It then deploys "decoy" programs designed to attract the virus. 然后，它释放“诱饵”去吸引病毒。
• But when that doesn't work, he deploys his secret defense mechanism. 但没有效果，它要施展绝密自卫武器了。

9 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

10 brainstorm   

vi.动脑筋，出主意，想办法，献计，献策

参考例句：

• The women meet twice a month to brainstorm and set business goals for each other.她们每个月聚会两次，在一起出谋献策，为各自制定生意目标。
• We can brainstorm a list of the most influential individuals in the company.我们可以集体讨论，列出该公司中最有影响的人员的名单。

11 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。