Communitarianism

This is a good article I found on the Times's website. Give it a read. I think Phillip Blond's essays echo many of my own feelings.

Planning with Intent: Planning my Intentional Community

So planning for a long term intentional community might seem like a big and scary task. Something that might easily overwhelm any person who was to take on such a venture, but for as complicated as it is, to plan such a community isn't insurmountable. I have been kicking around ideas to plan, build, and make profitable a intentional community aimed towards self sustainability, agricultural education, and a farm stand/store. Below is my starting five year plan.

The Compound....(Yea I know its kind of intimidating but we haven't figured a name yet)

• Year 0
• Membership:
• 4-8 central starting members
• Likely to be divided between major financial contributors and major labor contributors.
• Planning will be equally shared and voted on, so a odd number of people would be best.
• Full-time, live in staff responsible for labor, building, and management.
• Part-time, non-live/seasonal live-in in staff responsible for finance, legal, PT-labor.
• Central members set goals and a overarching vision for group/project.
• Plans that set guidelines and expectations for years 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, etc.
• Combine initial investments and incorporate as a group.
• Search for a suitable land investment:
• 150-200acres
• Good water, (lake, ponds, streams, rivers, quality ground water)
• Good initial soil and slope for farming
• Reasonable timber resources for building and sustainable timber operation
• Proximity to local municipalities
• Proximity to major towns and/or cities
• Access to local grid (phone, power, network)
• Standing structures are a bonus
• Previously farmed land is a bonus
• Set final plan for farming and long term expansion of farming efforts
• Viable crops, cash crops, subsistence
• Crop rotation
• Agricultural style (organic, no-till, etc)
• Make initial contacts with Timber management company
• Early income potential
• Begin initial equipment investments
• Basic tools
• Tractor and attachments
• Portable Sawmill? (would be excellent for structure building)
• Power generation equipment (solar or small scale wind)
• Water storage
• Power tools
• Year 1
• Establish residency.
• Initially part time
• Rehab of standing structures and construction of small scale residences 
• Initial structure building prep
• Season timber for building (why we would use/need a sawmill)
• Establish structures for farm facilitation and equipment storage
• Clear/prep land for farming.
• Establish green manure/composting/soil building program at this time to effectively recycle cleared materials.
• Soil tests for pH and mineral contents to plan amendments and initial cover crops
• Cut and dry firewood for future
• Establish water and waste systems 
• water conservation and protection
• water acquisition
• if a well is needed have it dug
• water storage (cistern or catchment system)
• waste water recycling. (earthships model)
• waste recycling (composting)
• Establish subsistence farm
• provide food to residence
• provide crop effectiveness feedback
• Plan and establish initial animal husbandry
• chickens are easiest!
• plan for sheep, pigs, horses, cows, or whatever animals are desired for draft and food purposes.
• Begin contacting schools for initial internship possibilities and planning
• cheap labor
• agricultural education is positive for the community
• get kids out of the cities and off the streets for the summers
• provide skills, training, and food for good, honest labor on the farm
• Years 2-3
• Establish living quarters for full time residents and a bunkhouse for visitors.
• Living spaces would be best if shared initially via a large common farmhouse or lodge.
• Built from harvested timber for year before, and built with recycled or locally sources materials. Strawbale would be best, in my opinion.
• Expand farm to commercial scale. 
• Expand residential food garden too support a local farm stand and farmers market stand. Possibility would exist to create a CSA out of farm should that be desired at the time.
• Cut and clear more land, expand crop variety.
• Management of farm must be efficient if venture is to succeed
• Begin implementation of internship program to staff farm through the summer months
• This would also be a good time to begin looking for people to "buy in" 
• Expand animal husbandry and seek a facility to process animals locally or on site if possible.
• These years will be critical to success of venture because of initial dependence on the success of the farm and related commercial ventures. If revenue from farm is substantial enough to see a profit then profit should be reinvested into the farm in order to expand and streamline production. Larger farm=larger return.
• Begin development of processed foods such as syrup, honey, cheeses, preserves, pickled vegetable etc as an expansion of agricultural market.
• Years 4-5
• If things with farm are on an even keel this would be time to begin planning of other investments on site. 
• Suggestions include: meeting spaces, artists retreats, artistic facilities and work spaces, bed and breakfast, restaurant etc.
• These must be viable businesses that stand alone from farm financially. Financial interdependence could be a dangerous web should one venture or another fail.
• Lodge and surrounding full time residences should be complete along with workshop spaces, equipment sheds, water storage and processing, bunk houses, part time residences etc. These should have power and facilities independent of one-another.
• Development of a CSA group to better facilitate farm growth.

So this is where my ideas begin to stretch and get foggy. However, this is just because I have been more preoccupied with the details of the initial buildup that I haven't developed a solid plan that extends further than five years. So here is where I want your input and suggestions. What can be developed further? What can be added? What should be changed? What risks do you see? What could potentially make for a more sound idea? Anything you wish to contribute would be appreciated! Thank you!

Communes, Intentional Communities, and Ecovillages; different spins on society that can sustain humanity into the future.

When someone tells you they want to live on a commune they immediately have visions of free-loving hippies and psychedelic drug use, the traditional view of anyone counter to the common ideas of how a society should be structured. This, at times, may have been a understandable outlook, the 60's had their ups and downs, but modern intentional communities are paving the way for people to live sustainable into the future.

So what are all these concepts anyway? Communes? Intentional Communities? Ecovillages?

The idea of a commune is nothing new, we are all familiar with the communes of the 60's in America, but they go much further back into history than that. In America there were many political, religious, or social communes that date back into the 1800's. Believe it or not the Oneida silverware company, in Oneida, New York, began as a commune! Abroad there are histories of communes in Europe, in countries like Germany and Russia. In the Middle East was home to communes in the past. All over the world there are Abbey's and Monasteries that are communes and some of these date back hundreds of years, if not more!

What a commune is differs greatly from place to place but most are a community of people who unite over social, political, or religious causes, common interests of goals, and many other things. Typically material possessions and land are shared along with income and resources. These are a type of "intentional community" or planned community. Basically a residential community that places a high emphasis on team work and the common good, and which works towards a better way of life for its residents. Many commune-type communities are ruled democratically or by majority vote of its founding members. However some have a more hierarchical form of rule. It would seem that one common thread is a disdain for bureaucracy and unfairness.

What is an interesting concept within a commune is the idea of shared property and possessions. Foreign to most Americans is the concept that a group can own a piece of property, live and work on that property, and be successful as a society. Even more unusual is the idea that a group of people would pool their individual incomes together in order to serve the interests of the group as a whole. By bringing all their income together into one common purse the group can achieve much more than the individual and in achieving more as a group they raise the standard of living for the whole commune.

I personally think that in a time of global economic hardship the idea that a group could come together like this. In a way it is a very human thing to do. Those in the group without an income could find a way to be beneficial the group through the growing of food and livestock or doing the work and chores around the property, and maintaining the various systems needed for life. Meanwhile those who have an income can bring that into the group and benefit the group as a whole while being supported by other members of the group. This sort of symbiosis, I feel, is lost on many Americans today. Perhaps only in stories and the memories of the very old can we find functioning examples of this in out society.

So then comes the concept of the ecovillage. At it roots a combination of a intentional community and a sustainable habitat for humans. Most ecovillages place special importance on being eco-friendly to the extreme. Green or eco-friendly infrastructure and capital, small ecological footprint, systems of sustainable agriculture such as permaculture, and renewable energy are just some of the pillars that an ecovillage stands on.

Most within ecovillags place a value on being agents of change for the greater society. Setting the example of how people can live without harming the environment. Self-sufficiency is also sometimes a goal but can lead in ways to isolation that may not be desirable. Most ecovillages look down on immoral or objectionable spending from an ecological or socially just point of view. So leave your SUV's at the gate. This mindset of eco-friendliness combined with a goal of making life equally agreeable makes for a very attractive deal.

For more information on ecovillages I encourage you to visit The Ecovillage at Ithaca's website. EVI is a ecovillage made up of two distinct communities with a third on the way in Ithaca, New York. Their village spans a 175 acre parcel of land a large chunk of which is dedicated "green space" that will not be developed. Theirs is a very good inspiration for what a ecovillage looks like.

So how can these examples help our society in the coming decades? It may not be what these communities themselves do within themselves but the example they leave and the skills they teach others that will be of greatest importance to society as a whole. In the face of the converging problems of climate change, peak oil, overpopulation, food scarcity, water shortages, etc, etc, an ecovillage is a small utopia within the greater picture. Expand that Utopian lens to the size of a small town or city and we are talking about a method of living that could possibly sustain society.

A large part of what these ecovillages would do is bring infrastructure, production, agriculture, and all the basics of life back into the local community. Imagine a town of average size where the local economy wasn't a problem because everything that the town needed was made within its own borders. Now the concepts of property and income sharing might not be for all but imagine if your town made its own clothing and you were able to buy that clothing at 80% of what it would cost you to get it from a foreign supplier because by purchasing that piece of clothing you were not only supporting your local textile industry but also your own livelihood. Of course this might not work for places as big as New York City but there are parts of the greater message that might be applicable such as raising your own food, or even just a portion. Within a small town like the many that dot New York State there are surely people who would benefit from the de-specialization of labor, shared property, working within the community, for the community as a community member, growth of local industry, self sufficient lifestyles.

Realistically a group of friends or like minded individuals who were to start such a community would only need to be able to purchase, collectively, a piece of land to suit their group size, maybe 50 acres. From there they would need within their group, individuals with the skills and the means to build homes, farm the land, design green small scale water and water treatment facilities, build a internal power infrastructure, raise livestock. Skills that not many have but that many might be able to learn. Initially such a venture might be costly for those fronting the cash within the group or for all the members of the group equally, but after a few years of hard work and determination they would be able to put together a sustainable habitat for those who lived there. Such a goal is hard met but noble in its intent, and truly any group who deems such a cause worthy is deserving of such a haven. With luck, in time, there may be more such villages in the world. With greater luck perhaps the world will pay attention and set some similar goals of its own.