“The economics of today’s food system are, sadly, broken beyond repair. Its so-called ‘hidden costs’ are harming our health and degrading our planet, while also worsening global inequalities. Changing the ways we produce and consume food will be critical to tackling climate change, protecting biodiversity, and building a better future. It is time for radical change.” (Sir Nicholas Stern, the chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics)

Event Summary

Food Connect Foundation is proud to present “Money, Markets and Meaning: Regenerating Business and Investment” with Christopher Houghton Budd.

4pm-7pm, Sunday, 4 May - Presentation & Canapes - The Story of Capital
9am-5pm, Monday, 5 May - Workshop 1- True Trading (40 places only)
6pm, Monday, 5 May - Food Connect Foundation Fundraising Dinner and Stories of Possibility: Special Guest, Dr Amanda Cahill in conversation with Rebecca Gorman
9am-5pm, Tuesday, 6 May - Workshop 2 - True Investing (40 placed only)

This series of events and workshops will be a rare opportunity to hear from one of the world's most critical thinkers and writers in finance, economics and investment, Christopher Houghton Budd. These workshops will consider practical, non-abstract approaches to business and investing that gives economics an unexpected vitality, fires the imagination and quickens the soul. With this approach, economics could, after all, lose its reputation as ‘the dismal science’ and provide a foundation for cultural renewal.

What’s the Problem

Today's world is increasingly uncertain, with geopolitical disruptions and "cozzie livs" causing businesses major headaches. Markets have not served us well, with major corporations caught out profiteering while using inflation as the decoy. Business stands at the epicentre of a potential solution but is restrained on all sides by abstract finance, social arrangements that suppress its potency.

Triple bottom line accounting standards and a plethora of new approaches (BCorp, impact investment, social enterprise, regenerative farming) are searching for a way through the malaise but struggle against the momentum of an old system intent on kicking the can down the road.

For the most part, the drivers of how we all do business are at the mercy of a system that perpetuates the problems we are valiantly trying to solve, and in fact, works directly against our best endeavours. Corpuses with 95% of funds invested in the old model are a massive impediment despite “impact” funds increasing their corpus allocation. However, they are wedded to a risk adjusted return formula detached from the true essence of economic life, and the unrealised potential of what our deepest humanity can unfold in service of community.

What these workshops offer

Along with gaining a meta perspective of the current economic ‘situation’, you will learn the concept of Associative Economics, the principles of true pricing, the untapped spirit of double entry bookkeeping, and how you can take control of your own economic circumstances and become both free and responsible.

You will gain insights on how to divorce yourself from market forces, how to price goods and services without making a gain at someone else's expense, and how to invest truly in unfulfilled initiatives attempting to create a safe and just world for all. As John Maynard Keynes alluded to in his essay “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren”, we don't have a problem with producing what everyone needs, we just have a problem with sharing.

Why you should attend

If you are a farmer, food business, social entrepreneur, impact investor, philanthropist, financial and business intermediary, accountant, family office, fund manager, banker, economist, treasurer, or financier, you'll know how urgently we need to address wicked challenges that this 'decade that matters' presents to us. What can we do in the next five years to transform our economy to work for people and planet? A huge transformation in the human mindset will be necessary and the profound insights gained from these workshops will provide a pathway forward.

Food Connect Foundation is offering five youth (16-30) bursaries for the whole series for young social entrepreneurs from 16-30. Please email us to find out more.
We would also like to provide five discounted workshop series tickets for food based or farming businesses to attend. For anyone who wants to contribute to the above bursaries please email or call Robert Pekin on 0404 777 491.

Event Details

4pm, Sunday, 4 May 2025

An evening with Christopher Houghton Budd: The Circulation of Capital: 20 Years and Counting

Referencing 20 years of Food Connect, this will be a performative presentation on the history of money and banking, and why we're still in a mess post-GFC. This presentation will run for one hour, with time for Q&A, followed by delicious canapés.

Cost: $50 - drinks can be purchased at the bar

9.30am, Monday, 5 May 2025

Workshop 1: True Trading: The Heart of Economic Life with Christopher Houghton Budd

This is for entrepreneurs and business owners. Discover how 'true cost' should be determined in a real-world economy. Topics covered include:

Business at the heart of economic life
Legal structures and ‘governance’
True price formula as a condition of sustainability
Use of profits
Three kinds of money
Money as bookkeeping and bookkeeping as money

Cost: $350 - this is a whole-day workshop and includes morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea. There are only 40 places available for this workshop.

6pm, Monday, 5 May 2025

Food Connect Foundation Fundraising Dinner, in conversation with Dr Amanda Cahill, The Next Economy

Join us for a delicious, regeneratively sourced dinner with guest speaker, Dr Amanda Cahill from The Next Economy who will be in conversation with Rebecca Gorman (see bios below). They'll tease out the stories of communities all around the country who are doing economics differently. This dinner is for investors, philanthropists and Food Connect Careholders interested in funding the transformation of our food system.

Cost: $120 - drinks can be purchased at the bar

9.30am, Tuesday, 6 May 2025

Workshop 2: True Investing - Unsuppressing capital for a vital economy with Christopher Houghton Budd

This is for funders, investors and philanthropists. Learn how investing in an economy that is associative can achieve an equitable and prosperous future for all. Topics covered include:

Enjoying uncertainty
Supporting the imagination and autonomy of the entrepreneur
Associative accounting
The corporation as a thing of beauty
The emancipation of capital
Equity and imagination
New money from the future vs abstract passive income
Land, leasing and liquidity
Succession - Enabling the next generation

Cost: $500 - this is a whole-day workshop and includes morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea. There are only 40 places available for this workshop.

See ticket page for EARLY BIRD OFFERS UNTIL 18 APRIL

About Christopher Houghton Budd

Christopher is an economic and monetary historian with a doctorate in banking and international finance (Cass Business School, London).

He has been freelance all his life with experience including property development, housing, school management, organic farming and finance. He has written over 30 books on business and the economy, spanning a career both academic and entrepreneurial globally. His work ranges from teaching finance to young people to advisory work with the Bank of England.

Houghton Budd writes frequently on economic affairs and has published a number of books including Prelude in Economics (1979), Of Wheat and Gold (1988), The Metamorphosis of Capitalism (2003), Rare Albion: A Monetary Allegory (2005), and His seminal work - Finance at the Threshold (Rethinking the Real and Financial Economies) written post GFC is more prescient than ever.

About Dr Amanda Cahill

Amanda is the CEO of The Next Economy, where she works to support regional communities across Australia to manage the transition to net zero in a way that builds more equitable and regenerative economies. Her work draws on 30 years’ experience working with changemakers across the world to address economic and health inequalities, environmental degradation, women’s rights and climate justice. Amanda is a Churchill Fellow and has a PhD from ANU. She is also a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne and Industry Fellow at the University of Sydney. She is co-author of the book, Regional Energy Transitions in Australia: From Impossible to Possible (2025).