Project for a collaborative, educational micro-farm cooperative in France.

Land

  • Minimum size of 5 hectares for private spaces, common spaces, and gardens
  • Larger flat area preferred for easier gardening
  • River/water source, forest/greenery, and lake access desired
  • Good road access, especially if close to major transport road for lower transport costs
  • Decent soil preferred, with a few bigger trees, good quality land for crops
  • Safe from worst of climate change (flooding, drought, storms)
  • Land that can be built on and used for agriculture, with autonomy to decide on use (few regulations preferred)
  • Constructible area large enough for a community space and personal spaces

Region

  • Strong local ties a plus
  • Regions with existing community a plus
  • Close proximity to larger city (500,000+) for sales and quick travel
  • Decent size village/town within biking distance for cultural life, local ties, and shops
  • Supportive neighborhood for mutual aid, exchange of knowledge and practices, services, people, goods, and vegetables
  • In a politically left-wing region with no risk of totalitarian political system

Country

  • Live with a few close people invested in the project and with similar mindsets on living together
  • Place to live, develop, strive for autonomy in terms of inputs, and achieve financial sustainability
  • Art and education meet
  • Live in peace and show the world alternative ways of living

General community idea

  • Max 10-15 people on the land, depending on size
  • Smaller group initially, max 6, min 3-4
  • Highly committed people with diverse skills, willing to commit for a few years setting up the place
  • People known well by founders
  • Nomadic living allowed as long as commitment to project remains, tasks are handed over fairly, and enough people remain on site
  • Space for a limited number of volunteers, not exceeding number of people living on site
  • Willingness to create integrative governance system
  • Awareness of potential conflicts and willingness to address them
  • Recognition that human factors can cause collective breakdowns and importance of human aspect in community
  • Use of tools such as sharing circle, affective mutual aid, and non-violent communication
  • Ongoing research into human management tools and willingness to adapt or abandon them as needed
  • Cross-competence with core group having a variety of skills, including:
  • Manual skills: construction, woodworking, carpentry, joinery, bioclimatic insulation, earthwork, permaculture, market gardening, electricity, plumbing
  • Intellectual skills: knowledge of law for financial arrangements, management of human relationships, shared governance

People

  • Max 10-15 people on the land, depending on size
  • Smaller group initially, max 6, min 3-4
  • Highly committed people with diverse skills, willing to commit for a few years setting up the place
  • People known well by founders
  • Nomadic living allowed as long as commitment to project remains, tasks are handed over fairly, and enough people remain on site
  • Space for a limited number of volunteers, not exceeding number of people living on site
  • Values: non-profit goal (reinject value creation into community activities), degrowth, feminism, inclusiveness, link to the living, relational ontological relationship, intergenerational, being able to make links with other alternative places

Living areas

  • Tiny homes spaced out over the land for privacy
  • Social contact is abundant but intentional, allowing for choice to socialize or be alone
  • Individual freedom to choose living accommodations
  • Each household has at least 400 m2
  • Individual households choose their own home facilities

Common spaces

  • Spacious and inviting common spaces central in the community
  • Common spaces serve as social and functional spaces, such as kitchens, toilets, tool sheds, clothes washing, and offices
  • Reduces need for individual households to construct these facilities

Management

  • Holocracy or non-hierarchical system for permanent residents
  • Volunteers and visitors can share opinions and ideas but not part of decision-making process
  • Decisions made with collective intelligence, respect for domain of work, and emotional/communicational maturity

Finance

  • Diverse income sources for greater resilience
  • Microgreens sold in nearby cities
  • Long-term expansion to regular permaculture crops and mushrooms
  • Education and courses on permaculture and natural building, supplemented with tours, memberships, ecotourism, and art events/courses
  • EU partnerships through youth exchanges or ESC volunteers
  • Individuals can have their own jobs as long as commitment to project is maintained and fairly distributed among inhabitants
  • Financial set-up through scop, cooperative, or scip
  • System for resaleable shares in the event of community leaving, to make financial and human contributions worthwhile
  • Ability to re-establish themselves in other places, with importance placed on maintaining links with other alternative places

Education & Art

  • Place to live simply and in peace, with individual freedom to live as desired
  • Education and connection to outside world through art activities
  • Permaculture design courses
  • Permaculture garden tours
  • Farm to table dining events
  • Permaculture day/weekend courses
  • Creative writing/poetry events
  • Open-mics
  • Photography/DIY/natural dying
  • Art building for activities such as painting, drawing, woodwork, and pottery

Garden

  • Common garden with annual vegetable plots, perennials, fruit and nut trees, and berry bushes
  • Maintained by community members, with a few overseers
  • Food is shared equitably
  • Features straight growing beds, greenhouses, seed nursery, raised beds, herb spirals, ponds, polycultures, and food forests with tree guilds
  • Wild and local flowers/plants included
  • Permaculture/syntropic farming principles followed
  • Individual households can create their own gardens on their plot of land and are responsible for them