Our industrial system of agriculture and an integrated global marketplace has created an abundance of available food for those in wealthy nations. Cheaply priced produce and meat shows up in our supermarkets and restaurants with rarely any concern. Values of efficiency and synchronized just-in-time deliveries have been served by a philosophy of capital-intensive financing for food. A monoculture has been created that is now threatened by droughts of water and credit. Are there less complex ways of growing food that can reduce dependencies on large-scale finance?

Extraenvironmentalist #84 is the first of our three part series from the 2014 Slow Money Gathering. We’ve taken more than 22 hours of our live broadcast footage from the leading thinkers on sustainable sustainable food systems, editing their thoughts and speeches down to the best parts for our podcast audience. We first hear from Woody Tasch, author of Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered, Marco Vangelisti of Essential Knowledge for Transition and Mary Berry of The Berry Center. Then, Joel Salatin outlines a vision for building a truthful farming system that can dramatically reduce the capital intensity of farming while building living systems.

//Segments on Soundcloud

// Links and News Items

Joel Salatin Keynote video

Marco Vangelisti video

Woody Tasch – Opening Keynote Video

Mary Berry – Keynote Video

Dead malls: Half of America’s shopping centres predicted to close by 2030

‘Not Mayberry anymore’: Oil patch cops scramble to keep up

// Books

Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered by Woody Tasch

Folks, This Ain’t Normal: A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World by Joel Salatin

// Extended Clips (in order of appearance)

[Break]

Slow Money 2014 Highlight Video

[End]

Christine Lagarde on facing strong headwinds in the global economy

// Music (in order of appearance)

Caribou – Back Home (umami edit) via Soundcloud

Hayasua – Farewell Blues via IndieShuffle

Daniel Martin Moore – Live from the Slow Money 2014 Gathering

Huon Kind – Feel Like This via The 405

Shakarchi & Stran̩us РHissmusik (HNNY Edit) via Soundcloud

// Production Credits and Notes

Our correspondent and editor Kevin via Sustainable Guidance Youtube Channel

Episode #84 was supported by donations from the following generous listeners:

Ekaterina in Canada

Pete from North Carolina

Eric from Massachusetts