In two recent speeches, an acceptance speech to the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce upon receiving the group’s Green Business of the Year Award and a speech at the launch of Accion Colorado, Waste Farmers founder John-Paul Maxfield underscored both the importance and difficulties of cultivating a business in a new economy.

To the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, Maxfield said, “For our company, it begins and ends with the soil, as it does in life. One of the tenants of the great agrarian society that Jefferson envisioned was rooted in the belief that the cultivation of the soil provides direct contact with nature. It is in this re-connection where we see hope for the future. It is here where we are reacquainted with the notion that we are part of the natural system and not removed from it; where we seek to learn from nature, rather than find ways to extract from it. This reconnection provides an understanding that in nature, there is no waste. ” Read the full speech here.

To Accion Colorado, he said, “The story of these entrepreneurs is that of the Founding Fathers of the United States. They were a group of passionate entrepreneurs whose vision defined a country, and a spirit of innovation that lives on today. And though what these founders created has grown into an incredible enterprise, capable of securing arguably more debt than necessary, they would have been hard-pressed to find a conventional lender willing to take the risk to get them off the ground. However, this story and that of the founders represent the intangibles that go beyond the balance sheet and financials, the HUMAN SPIRIT. It is this value that Accion truly embraces.” Read the full speech here.