Mission
Our mission is to create a healthy, multi-generational intentional ecovillage community and model sustainability. We will cultivate nurturing, cooperative relationships and treat each other with honesty and respect. We will be home to a profitable, sustainable farm business which will sell food to eating co-ops, members and the "outside world" at farmer's markets and other venues. We will be an economically viable community and allow members to earn a living income through the farm and other various on-site member-owned businessess.
We will model ecological sustainability and self-sufficiency, use and research green technologies and reduce our footprint on the earth. We will be good stewards of our land and, in our small way, the whole earth.
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In other words, our mission is to live cooperatively, sustainably, and self-sufficiently.
Cooperatively: We will actively create community, cultivate nurturing, cooperative relationships and treat each other with honesty and respect. We will share a few meals a week, enjoy both formal and informal activities and gatherings, celebrate with each other, and support each other's emotional and spiritual growth.
Sustainably: We will strive for ecological sustainability through the use of off-grid utilities, permaculture, green construction and natural building materials, organic food production and good resource management practices.
Self-sufficiently: We will strive for ecological and economical self-sufficiency on an individual and community level. We will build a local economy within our community and members will be able to get many of their needs met onsite through member-owned businesses and co-ops. We will be an economically viable community where members can earn a living income through the farm and other various on-site member-owned businessess. We will also try to strengthen the local economy in the larger community where we are located.
We believe that by living this way we will improve our small corner of the world. Part of our mission is also to model our way of living to others and educate them in order to change the world in our own small, but very important, way. We will be contributing to the cultural momentum focused on sustainability.
As the co-creator of the concept of permaculture, David Holmgren, said: The people who are working to implement permaculture (aka sustainable) design solutions "are creating small local changes but ones which are directly and indirectly influencing action in the wider environment... for a more sustainable world." (Permaculture: {Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability, 2002, p. xx). This is "top-down thinking" that leads to "bottom-up action" which we hope will directly and indirectly "influence the large-scale systems in which [we] participate" (p. 15).
Goals
Our goals, to the best of our knowledge at this point, are to:
1. Gather interested individuals and start having regular meetings. This begins the Planning Phase. Accomplished
2. Form the core group which will start to do in-depth planning. Accomplished
3. Continue to grow the core group and plan: i.e., values and goals, community structure and finances, type of legal entity, by-laws, desired population and size of community, etc. Consult and hire tax accountants, lawyers, cohousing developers, green development experts and community/process experts as needed.
4. Form our legal entity; the farm owners will form their legal entity. Acquire loans.
5. Look for land; investigate advantages and limitations of particular counties and particular parcels.
6. Buy the land. Start developing infrastructure. This begins the Development Phase.
7. Our ultimate goal is to completely pay off our loans for the land, the houses and the farm; finish developing all three; increase membership to our desired size; and make an income from our farm and other on-site businesses. At this point we will be a fully economically viable community.
8. Finally, continue living cooperatively and sustainability and keep enjoying and bettering our community.
This is an oversimplified and malleable plan, we we do hope to break ground within five years.
A word about land and location
We plan on buying at least 50 acres of mixed land in Central California, within three hours' drive south, east or north of San Francisco.
SDFE will be semi-rural but ideally within 20 minutes driving distance of a small or medium-sized town - for jobs, a market for our goods and services, educational opportunities, hospitals and so forth.
We would like to find land with natural features such as trees, various micro-climates, and a stream or natural ponds (however, we can construct a pond if necessary). We do need a sizable chunk of flat acreage for grazing animals, growing vegetables, building houses, building ponds and contructing alternative utilities.
We will be good stewards of our land and nourish it as it nourishes us. We will create a serene, peaceful, beautiful environment for living and the enjoyment of all community members.
Next: Community