At Slow Farm, we're committed to local and regional economies, right-sized businesses, and re-investment of any profits for collective socioecological outcomes.
Our business model has the potential to provide a wide range of local jobs. Many of these combined low entry-level skills with worker autonomy, with the potential for multiple independent contractors, entry-level employment, cooperative social enterprise, and a consistent emphasis on the dignity, intelligence, and creativity of each person in the network. Some of the income-earning opportunities in our model include:
Slow Farm sees our own part in this enterprise as selling a service. We are not seeking proprietary rights and we hope that what we develop in our region will be replicable for economic, social, and ecological benefit throughout New Zealand and internationally.
We're currently up against a challenge: field trials and commercialisation of biochar in New Zealand are presently hampered by a chicken/egg problem: Insufficient supply exists to serve potential trial applications at scale, and demand is low due to the novelty. This makes capital investment in higher volumes of production risky. We're currently using informal social networks to discuss cooperative approaches to creating win-win solutions for all involved.