Permaculture-inspired Farming Community

Mission: Live by the Golden Rule

From www.ic.org/directory/future-egalitarian-community/:

Do you want to live in an intergenerational, farm-based Community?

Seeking people to form an agricultural, resource sharing, crowd-funded intentional community in New England

What’s your 5 year plan? What’s your 20 year plan? Whats your “retirement” plan? What are you going to do when your parents or the elders in your life can no longer take care of themselves? Do you want to enjoy the honest and healthy work of farm life while not having to stress about the financial burden of owning your own farm? Do you want to be able to spend quality time with your friends and family but have doubts about doing so in the dominant socio-economic paradigm? Do you want to collaborate with other farmers, permaculture practitioners, eco-entrepreneurs, justice seekers, land healers … and share a community with them too? If these questions excite you, then keep on reading!

We can’t keep waiting for the community of our dreams to just appear. WE need to build it ourselves. There is no template for how this will work. There is no cookie cutter community startup process. This is something new. Lets think big. We have epic farm-topian dreams of living together, taking care of our young and old, growing the best food possible, and creating sustainable, economically viable, mutually beneficial micro-businesses that have positive impacts outside the community as well as inside.

So, what’s different about this proposed community startup? Here’s three major factors that make it unique: 1) Transparency, 2) Crowdfunding, 3) Income Generation 4) Long-Term Vision

Transparency: We will go to great lengths to hash out any/all important details of the future community. We will make it as transparent as humanly possible. It begins with a core group of people who truly trust each other and are committed to cooperation and open communication (this could be from 5-15 people… we’ll know when it feels right). Through due diligence, we will create bullet-proof, transparent founding documents/by-laws based on our shared mission. These by-laws will of course be flexible and fluid, but they will also form the processes for how we will make decisions moving forward. In this phase we aim to address such topics as: location (where? zoning laws can greatly influence this consideration), acreage, choice of property (wooded forest, degraded farmland, existing infrastructure?) housing, common/shared land, shared facilities, decision making processes (consensus? majority rule? 90% majority?, councils? subgroups? mandatory or non-mandatory meetings?), conflict resolution processes, membership processes, finances (partial income sharing? a hybrid of income sharing and financial autonomy?), suggested and/or mandatory labor contribution to community (20 hrs a week? 30 hrs a week?), how do we deal with oppressive behavior?, How do we incorporate our elders into the community? (especially when they might have different values than us young, idealistic, radical folks), visitor processes, how do we allocate money for community infrastructure? (common agriculture space, grazing land, commercial kitchen, dining hall, hospice infrastructure for when elders need extra care, educational programs, etc), whats our policy on tiny/mobile homes? (this would largely have to do with zoning), population capacity (would depend on size of property we acquire), what type of labor counts towards community labor-hours (cleaning your room vs. working the field), what about when people are too old or sick to work? These questions and many more will be addressed in the initial phases with the core group to the best of our ability so that we will have a clear process for addressing future issues as they arise in real life. We may also choose to form a non-profit in this phase as well. Having non-profit status is a great advantage for a community.

Crowdfunding. Many people are now familiar with Crowfunding platforms such as Kickstarter, Go Fund Me, Indiegogo, We The Trees (a cool new permaculture-based platform), Barnraiser, etc… What not many people know is that through these different Crowdfunding platforms, in the year 2014 alone, an estimated $65 BILLION dollars was raised for various projects around the world. Yes, you heard that right: $65 BILLION dollars. Folks, this is a significant game changer. Let’s dream big. Lets dream bigger than big. Lets envision the world we know is possible, and lets not stop till we get there. The key with successful crowdfunding campaigns is: a good idea that solves a problem, a clear and powerful mission, a solid team of enthusiastic and trust-worthy solicitors, well-produced media and videos, and ample lead-up time before the launch date so that the project can be sufficiently hyped and go viral. This is really where the transparency piece comes in huge. Also, this is our chance to show the world why this is needed; what problems it solves, how it benefits the world outside of the community itself, and how this could be a replicable model for other groups to employ. If we really work hard on all the fine details (some of them mentioned in the transparency phase, above), and create a bullet-proof, nay-sayer-proof, crowdfunding campaign, there is absolutely no doubt that this is not only possible, but it HAS TO HAPPEN!

Income Generation. If we be economically viable as a community, we aren’t going to last very long. As briefly mentioned above, filing the community as a non-profit will be important. This can help for tax reasons, accepting donations, limiting our liability, and adding to the resiliency of our transparent structure. In other words, it will help prevent power-grab dynamics. The idea that the executive director could be fired by the board of directors keeps things in check and keeps hierarchies of power at a minimum. But just because its called a non-profit doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to make money! Its just that all the profits go back into the community. It is very exciting to think of all the possible income generating opportunities we will have when we pool our resources and work together. For instance, we could really scale-up our farming operations so that they are not only profitable, but feed more mouths than just the ones in our community. Farming is hard work. But as anybody who’s worked in the fields will tell you, it can make all the difference to work alongside other like-minded individuals. This turns chore work into fun work! Nowadays we can look to many great examples from books and farmers demonstrating that farming can actually be profitable… and ecologically beneficial! We don’t have to re-invent the wheel here. Here are just some examples of income generating agricultural enterprises that we can employ: Pick your own, Farmstand, Farm Store, CSA (or a twist on the CSA model that doesn't restrict lower-income people), value added products! (since we will have a commercial kitchen, we won’t have to fear the board of health!… jams, jellies, skincare products, herbal products, tinctures, fermented foods, ready to cook semi-prepared foods, snacks, cider, beer, wine, the list goes on and on), Edible Landscaping services, Farm Camp (educational farm stays for all ages), other forms of Agritoursim like Air B&B, Educational programs (permaculture design courses, farming workshops, etc.), Nursery business, online store (selling books, seeds, tools, etc), this list could go on and on as well. One other thing worth mentioning in the area of income generation is that we want people to feel encouraged to be entrepreneurial. As long as people meet their quota of community-labor-hours (whatever the community decides that is), what you do with the rest of your time is up to you. So if you want to have an outside job, thats fine. Or if you want to start your own business here at the community, all the power to you, so long as you aren’t hindering or getting in the way of the community. One great example to look to in terms of labor is the Federation of Egalitarian Communities (FEC). Each community in the FEC has their own policies regarding labor, income, etc. But in general, at each community, each member is expected to do X amount of labor hours for the community each week. And all hours of labor are valued equally (an hour cooking is the same as an hour doing carpentry, etc) Once you meet your quota, then whatever you do with the rest of your time is up to you. So if you have an outside job, thats fine. Lets say our community decides that each member will do 30 hours a week of community labor. Lets say theres a person who wants to work 20 hours a week in the community and then 30 hours a week at a cushy outside job where they make $30/hr. They could then pay the community the difference in amount of hours times the minimum wage. So in this case, they would only owe the community 10 labor hours of minimum wage (roughly $80-$90), and then they'd be able to keep the rest of what they made at their outside job. This way, people’s autonomy is not compromised and they are also free to be entrepreneurial if they so desire, as long as they meet the minimum community-labor hours.

Long Term Vision. This seems like a no-brainer. But when we really think about it, many communities haven’t figured this part out yet. What carries a community through the long term? We would say that its the ability to be intergenerational. This means having entire families involved: kids, parents, grandparents, etc. This is extremely important. We need to have the infrastructure and the capability of taking our elders in when their time comes. Otherwise, what else will happen? Either they will go to a nursing home (the average cost of a nursing home is $80,000 a year), or you will be forced to leave the community to take care of them, thus compromising the community and your own sanity. We know there is another way. Twin Oaks Community (in Virginia, also a member of the FEC, mentioned above), has done a fantastic job at addressing this issue. As their average age is increasing, so is the need for a handicap-accessible hospice facility. So, they have built just that: an entire wing off a building that’s looks and acts like a nursing home. Its so important to not overlook this aspect. We all will get old some day. What’s your retirement plan? Do you want to be old and alone while your kids are too busy to care for you? Or do you want to live out your last days with family, friends and a sense of purpose? Long Term Vision also includes how we lay out our community. No need to re-invent the wheel here either. Its been demonstrated that through permaculture/key line/regenerative design principles, we can design our farms and communities to be productive, long lasting and aesthetically beautiful. Lets plant thousands and thousands of trees! If not for us then for the generations to come! This is what the long term vision is about.

A service of the Data Commons Co-op. The project has been supported by Equal Exchange, the Cooperative Charitable Trust, the USDA, and many others - thank you! Tech volunteers over the years include: Benjamin Bradley with support from GAIA Host. Ben Mauer with support from Quilted. Paul Fitzpatrick. Ronin Tech Collective, Brattleboro Tech Collective, Sligo Computer Services. Jason Lemieux. Default map tiles courtesy of MapQuest. Default map data (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA.