doompadee doo

the market is still on the rise, with 10,000 points square in its cross hairs, but the economy's downfall has posed a question worth at least considering: have we become too sloppy in how we invest? globalization is a nice word, and it seems to fit the natural human ambition, which is to dream big, doesn't it? as silly as it might seem, take charlie and the chocolate factory for example.

here's a story that exemplifies globalization, with wonka's golden ticket promotion gripping the people of the world from end to end. the obsession and greed that follow are what feed the story's satire, which as a whole serves to antagonize our beloved hero: sweet and innocent charlie bucket. in the end, greed is shown the boot by pint-sized orange men who sing, and it's the innocence and selflessness of the hero who savors the day. somehow, despite the truths in such a simple story, i have a hard time believing that many of the parallels in charlie bucket, despite the prophetic tendencies of the rest of roald dahl's story, will cross to our current predicament, and its outcome.

but why not? for all i feature on local foods and small farms and taking a step back to do things the old, and sometimes anicent, fashioned way, how many people are actually following suit? michael pollan is scheduled to speak at the university of wisconsin tomorrow evening, no doubt to capacity attendance, the sentiment of which is echoed in the linked article above. but despite the call for solidarity and support for pollan by the state's farmers, for how many people will his words be nothing more than a thought provoking tickle? a gentle humph at such brilliant and simple ideas that mount so great against the ease and cost-friendly ways of corporations and supermarkets and mass-produced commodities. it's nice that we have people like michael pollan who think so progressively, because the world does need its great thinkers after all, but isn't that the extent of their worth these days? a tickle?

well, not everyone is content to settle for just a stimulating tickle. and apparently, inspiration is not yet extinct. meet the slow money alliance:



relatively speaking, this is a toddler of an organization. it's only just barely hit the ground and though its press coverage has reached a national and widespread scale (time, wsj, la times), its legs have not yet been found, moving at a crawl—though rapid—on its hands and knees, its first step still yet to be taken—which is said not to be critical, but rather with a heart heavy of hope.

the slow money alliance, which piggy backs in many ways off the much entrenched slow food usa, is a non-profit organization of investors, for investors, who fear capitalism has gone too far. but membership and participation require a thing that rebukes all things capitalistic: the return on your investment comes to you not in dollars and cents, but in the restructuring of our food systems and economies. a charlie bucket of an idea, if you will. it's a charity of sorts, aimed not at a specific demographic or targeted area, but rather the prospective future we all face. and it's groundbreaking.

founding members and advisers stretch a wide and necessary spectrum of backgrounds and expertise. there's richard rominger (former deputy secretary at the department of agriculture); jack acree (co-founder terra potato chips); neil chrisman (former managing director at jp morgan); paul dolan (winemaker, fetzer vineyards and mendocino wine company); and wade green (former editor of newsweek, ny times magazine, the saturday review), to name a few.

but i fear grassroots operations like the slow money alliance, which is based out of my old hood in brookline, mass, won't receive the type of support needed to combat corporate dollars and current infrastructure. the as-of-now goal is to gain one million signatures in accordance with the group's principles, one of which draws from paul newman once saying, "i just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer who puts back into the soil what he takes out." paul newman of course returned profits of his newman's own line to charity, a total that stands at over $270 million to date. but is that enough? seriously, will that even make a dent?

unfortunately, the power of persuasion lies in the hands of the media. people do as they are told. sure, free thought and interpretation exist, and there are those who definitely utilize that free enterprise, but for change to happen, there is no doubt that people will have to be persuaded. and not modestly, but overwhelmingly. convincingly. and hopefully before it reaches the point of too late, when there's no other choice, and persuasion becomes synonymous with necessity.

and it's going to take a lot more than michael pollan appearances at universities and farmers dressed in green and grass root organizations based out of boston.

it wasn't so long ago that a person didn't travel more than ten miles from his or her home over the span of their lifetime. absolutely, there's no going back to those times, but shouldn't we at least explore the advantages to the bubbles that spawn from locally sustained and supported agro-economies? maybe, just maybe, there's something to this slow money idea, and starting small will have a much larger impact.