b'account. Its going to seem difficult at the start. . .hold on. How many of you are farming because its easy? A much stronger wave of laughter.Who told you investing was supposed to be easy? We have the results of easy investing all around us. Strip malls and smokestacks in China and climate change. Were giving our money to people we dont know very well so they can invest in things they dont understand very well in places most of us will never visit. Thats easy investing. The kind of investing we need, investing that connects us to one another and the places where we live, wont be easy at first. But the rewards of farming dont come fast or easy. Its all about those rewards.In the decade since Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms and Fertility Mattered came out, farmers, financiers, entre-preneurs, activists, angel investors, donors and neighbors have been coming together to reconsider where their food comes from and where their money goes. Weve been engaging in a public conversation about food, money, soil, culture. Bringing some of our money back down to earth.In the financial scheme of things, $75 million invested in 750 organic farms and local food enterprises over a decade, via volunteer-led activities in a dozen or so communities, in amounts ranging from a few thousand to a few million dollars, is both a lot and a little. Its little compared to a single round of a single venture capital deal. Its less little in the context of philanthropy, where funding for local 31'