Elizabeth Stevens, right, picks up her allotment of produce Thursday at the Rolling Prairie distribution site at Local Burger. The fresh produce program distributes food to area residents on Mondays at the Community Mercantile Inc. and Thursdays at Local Burger. At left assisting with the distribution is Stephanie Barrows.

In the mind of Woody Tasch, the derivatives market that propelled the U.S. financial system into a downward spiral holds much in common with genetically modified plants that play an increasing role in our food system.

“They drive the system into riskier behavior in order to create greater yields,” Tasch said. “And, in the end, we are all at greater risk.”

Merging the concerns of where our food comes from and where our money goes, Tasch founded the Slow Money Alliance, an organization whose motto is “learn to invest as if food, farms and fertility mattered.”

The nonprofit takes its cues from the success of the Slow Food movement, which attempts to reconnect people to their food source and counteract the emergence of the fast-food culture.

Tasch — author of “Inquiries Into the Nature of Slow Money” and a former venture capitalist — sees the Slow Food movement’s next evolution as sinking 1 percent to 5 percent of society’s investments into the local food economy. He advocates for investment strategies that are sustainable for the environment and financial system.

Catching on

As retirement and savings plans have crashed on Wall Street, it’s a concept that others are taking stock in.

Among them are Scott Allegrucci and his wife, Hilary Brown, owner of Lawrence’s Local Burger. With the stock market’s decline, Allegrucci believes, people are seeking investment alternatives.

“We don’t pay that much attention to our investments. We make them dutifully if we can and then we sort of go about our business. And, I think what has happened in the last year or two … is kind of a wake-up call,” Allegrucci said.

“We have this huge mess on our hands. It is a trillion-dollar fix, if not more. (And you think) maybe I should be, want to be, a little more conscious of where my money goes.”

Local Burger, 714 Vt., was among two dozen businesses invited last month to Santa Fe, N.M., to share their stories, and business plans, at the first national gathering of the Slow Money Alliance. The restaurant, which cooks up local meats and vegetables, was touted as the kind of business Slow Money could help grow.

Finding financing through traditional banking sources, not to mention a way to franchise a restaurant whose business model is based around not being a franchise, can be difficult.

“It is a challenge to find capital in the current climate,” Allegrucci said. “What is not a challenge is finding interest in the concept or the demand.”

Investing in food

Last Thursday, customers of Rolling Prairie Alliance swung through Local Burger to pick up their weekly bag of produce. Despite being well into October, the produce subscription service’s offerings included raspberries, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and green beans.

A place like Lawrence, where consumers have already embraced the idea of buying local, is ready for a concept such as Slow Money, Allegrucci said.

In fact, a local investment strategy already has been introduced to the community.

This spring, Will Katz, regional director of the Kansas University Small Business Development Center, attempted to connect local entrepreneurs with local investors.

Katz said the program, which was dubbed Last Tuesdays because that’s when the meetings were held, didn’t attract as much interest as he had hoped. But, it is a concept that has seen a degree of success in Manhattan and Topeka.

Next spring, Katz plans to relaunch the meetups, which are for any local business, not just those based in agriculture.

“Just figure what gets shuttled off to Wall Street from 401(k)s,” Katz said. “If you took control of 25 percent of that and invested it locally, that would create an awful lot of opportunities.”

For those who question how Slow Money compares with the profits and risks found on Wall Street, Tasch asks how 401(k)s performed in the last few years.

“To take some of your money out of that system and put it into something as tangible as improving and increasing the production of local, available, organic, healthy food, I would say that is the new definition of fiscal prudence,” Tasch said.

As of now, the Slow Money Alliance is seeking donations for seed money to help launch regional networks of local investors that will pump money into local agricultural economies.

But Tasch said he hopes communities such as Lawrence will figure out a way for investors to connect with farmers before the alliance does.

“If someone really wants to do this right now, they will find something to do,” Tasch said. “There are farms that need help, there are farmers’ markets … there are local businesses like Local Burger. So people don’t have to wait for us — and I hope they won’t.”