Permaculture:
Shared Produce to Income
Where Vegetable, Fruit and Nut Tree items; from each village are shared,
between the 100 villages, & the overflow produce is sold for an income.
While each village; has 1 or more other products they either raise, make or create for profit,
and those independent products are sold, through the larger 100 village collective organization.
Design of The Cobb Building Cycle; of housing to income.
For benefits of necessity; this is a Vegetarian* business design,
which is more sustainable for the planet and persons therein.
*not including meat or fish, while including eggs and cheese in the diet.
Number of Villages: 100
Number of Persons per Village: 50
Number of Persons in all Villages: 5000
Approx. Land per Village: 25 acres
Approx. Land per 100 Villages: 2500 acres
Min for Gardening: 625 acres (6.25 each)
Min for Parks: 250 acres (2.5 each)
Basic Cost* Per Person: $5,000
Basic Cost includes the house and shared services, and food cost for 1 year.
After that time all future income is derived from the village itself.
Therefore, no other money should ever be required.
Being Basic, the design is limited to many shared resources from the main community house (kitchen center).
Village Design:
It's wiser for designers to plan for only a single lane road leading to the main community center and garden, while the houses flank the center, a simple clock formation, where 11 - 1 contains the road out toward the cities, and 7-5 could be used for park or additional farmland. In the center, showers & kitchen, etc, are then easily walked-to,
or bicycled-to by the members.
xlsx: costs sheets
100 EcoVillage Version: 22 MB, xlsx;
20 EcoVillage Version: 8.8 MBs
Each small house includes land, around 1/3 an acre, if in the country, (used in the example).
However, as shown in the image on the right, the plan can be used for any smaller land-based communities.
-Cost
Additional points to this plan is the non-necessity of home purchase, aside from the low initiation fee* (ie. $5,000 per house; or the $5000.00 is loaned by the Eco-Cooperative itself (garnered through a bank).).
Reason being such a low house price cost, is that the construction materials, and manual labor are provided by the residents as they are the builders and farmers.
Each Ecovillage
A) Includes invited persons who stomp and build the cobb houses.
After a few house stomps (min. 3), 1 of the builders gets a house*.*1 small house.
Meaning, out of the group of cobb stompers,
1 of them can claim a finished house, as their newly built house.
From that point on, that person then helps "farm**", an item or two for the main coop.
Selling rules:
later on, the house can be, either traded within the community, for another,
or it could be sold to outsiders who prefer to only be farmers.
Proceeds from the property value sale, are divided,
based upon the persons who built the house,
by their final time commitments and its elaboration values.
Meaning; 10 stompers and roof builders, and 1 elaborator (who became the owner).
The value is split, based upon the properties price and amount of labor involved.
Income from the Sold Property Price: 50,000 house,
Labor 1) 10,000 to the elaborator-owner, (who tiled, etc)
Labor 2) 3,500 to each of the stompers and roof builders.
A Community fee) 5,000, A small 10%, goes to the eco-community, towards its loans, etc.
B) The Eco Village Coop Truck,
picks up the items
then redistributes (with or without a warehouse), to supermarkets.
ie., lettuce, beets, honey, herbs, flowers, eggs, grapes,etc.
C) The original problem of the person without income to pay for food or housing is solved,
as the income from the coop pays for food and property taxes, etc.
D) Optional* A nominal business loan; for The Eco Village Cooperative, could assist the business start-up, while insuring the land is paid and the persons of each eco-village are fed
The loan would last a couple of years,
until the small garden farms are productive.
When new eco-villages are added into the cooperative,
another tiny loan would be included, to accommodate the new cobb "stompers".
This simple concept, similar to a croft system, houses many people,
while supporting a larger ecological business.
**Farm or Farming; for the process of this discussion is the business model, however other items could be the main business income of a single ecovillage. ie, one village focuses on hand-spun yarns and wool items. (where the original wool un-spun & un-dyed, was sent from another village in the community, another eco-village that raises sheep and makes sheep cheese.)
Determining Number of Sold Items from the Farm:
1 main Individual Item per small ecovillage; Small Cooperative
The idea of one main production item per small town (village), has worked in areas of Europe for many years,
so the above idea has a history of of being successful.
(a rare goat cheese from a small region in the Pyrennees).
Conversely; 1 item 100 eco-villages; Large Cooperative
Larger cooperatives though, such as grapes to wine,
where one item is mass produced on separate farms is effective economically,
by keeping up with the competition of larger companies on a world-scale.
Although the larger firms, (sometimes government syndicates; safer.fr ie),
do have a tendency to ask for and receive subsidies from the government from time to time,
whereas the main product from small goat cheese town, is not be on the subsidy list.
The balance of comfort is a bit of both,
where the larger 100 ecovillage cooperative has a substantial group of workers, that bring in a variety of basic items, with a few unique items thrown in.
In this way, regarding income enhancements to the business,
banks and governments will be more tolerant of your efforts.
However, an independent ecovillage business,
away from the banking system and government help, is obviously possible.
Yet, In the situation of persons starting from a meagar income beginnings,
the grouped ecovillages will more than likely, "be treated",
as a successful upstart by being a larger coop.
If using a Loan: Determining any Loan Values, Homes and persons per village::
The final value of the loan is based upon,
the finished property value of the tiny homes.
# of persons per village: 50
# of houses per village: 50 small cobb or earth-bag houses
finished home value of 50,000 each
finished property value per village $2,500,000
finished property value per 100 villages: $250,000,000
Land purchase:
# of Villages: 100
Each village: 25 acres or more per eco village.
Cost per acre: $5,000 per acre
Land Cost per Village:$125,000
Land Cost per 100 Villages:$12,500,000
Determining Business and Land size per person
Number of Acres per village: 25 acres
Farming Business Acres: 25%, 6.25 business acres per village
Residential Land per village: 18.25 acres
Per Person: .375 acres each.
100 Villages
# of Persons: 5000
Land Cost: $12,500,000
Building supplies and Infrastructure Costs, plus several years of property taxes and food supplies: $12,500,000
Acres: 2500
Loan: $25,000,000
Cost per person without a loan: $5,000
However, as the final completed property value is to be $250,000,000
plus the value of the business, it could be a higher loan.
My advice is to negotiate loan payments to begin after 1 yr.
Where certain basics such as vegetables to market, begin paying it off.
If the Cost per person is initially afforded by members of the group, then no loan would be required.
The final result is: Homes & a Business for 5000 people.
1 Village Only
If deciding to only create 1 eco-village, with 1 business. The numbers are simply reduced by 100%.
# of Persons: 50
Land Cost: $125,000
Building supplies and Infrastructure Costs, plus several years of property taxes and food supplies: $125,000
Acres: 25
Loan: $250,000
Cost per person: $5,000
If the Cost per person is initially afforded by members of the group, then no loan would be required.
Factors:
Grouping compatible persons.
Village Cost Chart
