Slow Money Offers Investing Alternative to Wall Street Protests

San Francisco Gathering October 12-14 Bolsters Small Business and Connection to the Land

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Hundreds of food entrepreneurs from across the country. Hundreds of investors. Hundreds of regular folks who want to know where their food comes from and where their money goes.  From 35 states and five foreign countries all are convening in San Francisco October 12-14 at the Slow Money National Gathering. (www.slowmoney.org/national-gathering/).

Part venture fair, part farm to table celebration, part forum on the state of the economy, Slow Money is bringing together everyone from socially conscious hedge fund managers to family farmers.  Their common task?  Moving beyond protest against the bankers who almost brought down our financial system and getting to work investing in the entrepreneurs who are beginning to fix the economy, quite literally, from the ground up.

San Francisco's historic Fort Mason will be the site of Slow Money's third annual event, named a "top five investing trend for 2011" by Entrepreneur.com.  Speakers include not only nationally recognized environmentalists like Wes Jackson of The Land Institute, but top level financial entrepreneurs such as Tom Steyer, Managing Director of San Francisco's Hellman and Friedman and a signer of the Buffett-Gates Giving Pledge; Matt Flannery, co-founder of Kiva.org; Leslie Christian, CEO of Portfolio 21; and Chris Martenson, creator of The Crash Course, along with 75 other money managers and social entrepreneurs.

"Protesting is one thing, investing another. That's why we're coming together to take a little of our money out of Wall Street and put it to work investing in the future we want to see," says Slow Money founder and former venture capitalist Woody Tasch. "In a world that is speeding up and heating up, losing its soil and its sense of common purpose, local, organic food businesses are a great antidote to global finance run amok."  

Thirty food businesses from around the country, including a grass fed beef company, an organic home delivery service and a developer of sustainable agricultural inputs will be part of Thursday's Entrepreneur Showcase.  

"It's time for us to begin investing in things that we understand, near where we live, things that bring immediate value to our communities and our families," says Marco Vangelisti, who formerly worked for international money manager Grantham, Mayo & Van Otterloo.  "I'm so happy to see Slow Money's mission spreading across the country.  It is connecting a lot of us who know in our hearts that something is fundamentally broken in our financial system."

Over the past year, more than a dozen Slow Money chapters have emerged across the United States and more than 20,000 people have signed the Slow Money Principles based on Tasch's book, Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms and Fertility Mattered.  

"I prefer investing to protesting," observes Arno Hesse, a former banker who co-leads Slow Money Northern California.  "It is hard to overstate the feeling of productivity and hope that you get when you are sitting in the kitchen of an organic poultry farmer, crafting a $40,000 loan.  Better yet: interest payments in eggs."

By popular demand, one day passes have recently been added for purchase both online and at the door along with the full 3 day package.  One day passes are $295 for emerging investors, $495 for professional investors, and $195 for farmers and students.  Full conference cost is $595 for individuals, non-profits and entrepreneurs, $895 for professional money managers and philanthropists, and $325 for students and farmers.   For more information or to register online visit http://www.slowmoney.org/national-gathering/.  

Media Contact: Joan Simon
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SOURCE Slow Money