My time in Chile is almost at an end. But, before I go, I want to share with you the present and future plans for transitioning the community here in El Manzano. They are not insignificant.

The second community meeting I attended during my stay was to discuss these plans and solicit community input and participation. It is the end of the agricultural season here, so people are in high spirits and also have a little extra time for contemplative discussion.

But before I jump straight into the meeting it’d be good to get a grip on practicalities of advancement here.

Financials

Funding for transitioning at El Manzano comes primarily from the following three revenue streams:

1) The farm, consisting of 120 hectares of land: 80 ha of Zone 5 (70 ha of primarily pine and some eucalyptus trees and 10 ha of regenerating forest – i.e. re-establishing natives along stream beds and borders to protect the watershed and improve eco-system services, aiming to eventually become 30% of the property), 5 ha of organic blueberries, 30 ha of broadscale horticulture (horses used for cultivation as much as possible), 2 ha of orchards, and 3 in Zone 1 intensive gardening. The farm is entirely chemical-free, implements permaculture principles throughout and is steadily transitioning to increase diversity and reduce dependence. It currently employs seven of the villagers, and others work, as expressed in the last post, on a very appreciative voluntary basis so they can share in the farm’s harvest – essentially bartering labour for food.

2) Eco Escuela: Eco Escuela El Manzano translates to ‘Apple Tree Eco School’. It is the educational business set up by Grifen and Javiera, and includes other family members as business partners and teachers-in-training. The school has trained 145 students, now Permaculture Design Certificate holders, since the school was launched two years ago, and is poised to teach many more (more on that below). In addition two students have completed their two-year Permaculture Diploma here (Eco Escuela is also Gaia University Chile, the only Gaia University node in Latin America), and 33 more are current diploma works-in-progress. Funding through permaculture education is, as regular readers will know, part of our Permaculture Master Plan concept, where sites become financially self-sufficient, and self-replicating, through education – a proven and efficient way to move permaculture forward sustainably.

El Manzano’s outdoor class, when weather conditions invite

3) Grants: Funding is sought from outside individuals or organisations for various endeavours where possible. An example: two years ago the family met with the local community and discussed the need to transition the village to meet future resource constraints caused by energy descent (peak oil) and climate change. They determined to petition the Chilean Ministry of the Environment for funding to help implement initiatives that would reduce the village’s impact on its surrounding whilst increasing their resilience. Jorge and Carolina were subsequently delegated the task of creating the application, and their request was rewarded with support by way of U.S.$16,500. Another example is funding for the house project, a demonstration of sustainable post-quake redevelopment, where U.S.$5,000 was secured via Artists Project Earth, and of course the assistance of the Permaculture Research Institute, and the likes of you!

All of these aspects take time, dedication, persistence and vision. The good news is these traits don’t seem to be in short supply here.

The community discusses a possible budget

Back to the meeting

The main point of the meeting was to look at the financials – how much funding they had, and options for expenditure. Central in this discussion were plans the family and the community had long been brainstorming, which would utilise some of the family’s 120 ha mentioned above to develop new building and land features to benefit both Eco Escuela (the eco school) and the community. It was decided at this meeting that the plans had ripened sufficiently in maturity of evolution and consensus in thought, so that Angel Carrillo, the architect profiled in a previous post, could begin formal designs based on community feedback for this development.

The meeting broke into groups to brainstorm the design concepts

And then the three groups shared their ideas before the entire meeting

Until everyone came to happy agreement, and even applause!

There’s more than can be described within the constraints of this post, but in a nutshell, the new development would fulfil multiple functions:

1. increase the capacity of the villagers to work together in mutually beneficial ways to improve their lives along highly sustainable lines – one example is in converting the Adobe House into a food storage and preserving facility, village bakery, and potentially even an outdoor cafe supplied with farm produce, all providing employment for villagers and healthy food options for the increasing student numbers.
2. utilise some of the land to build an additional classroom that can be utilised by both the existing children’s school and Eco Escuela, and to create additional facilities (kitchen, accommodations, etc.) that can also be utilised by the growing training centre and the villagers.
3. create public spaces and environmental elements – a walkable landscape – that will benefit all of the above.

The goal, and one that seems entirely within reach, is for the community to become a beacon of realism, inspiration and reskilling – making not just the school a source of education, but also making the entire settlement a lesson in appropriate development, and cooperative endeavour. The designs being worked on today, once turned into reality, will essentially see a permaculture university in the midst of the village – with maximum participation and benefits for the villagers themselves.

Reversing the trend

These initiatives for El Manzano have great potential to not only stem the flow of rural migrants into cities, where they become wholly dependent on a collapsing money economy, but to actually reverse it. As the quality of life here improves, and resiliency builds – and the social order elsewhere continues to unravel – sons, daughters, brothers will notice the change during their visits and will inevitably decide to move back home and get involved. This is another motivating factor for the villagers who have up until recently seen their community steadily disintegrate as people head to regional capitals in search of work.

People want to see their families come to life again, and this work is making it happen.

Culture of plants, not careless propagation

One thing that needs to be clear, El Manzano is wholly unlike many ‘alternative communities’ we hear about, or have been involved in, where several well meaning but oft-naive folk decide to converge on a newly purchased property due to their shared, idealistic vision of the lifestyle they want to possess. That eco-village scenario is said to have a ninety percent failure rate. Comparable to plants being mismatched with soil and climate types, throwing westernised individuals together in situations out of their element can be rife with tension, misunderstandings, maladjustments and heartbreak.

Instead, El Manzano is about inspiring an existing community, in situ, to consider their future, and to begin to work together to achieve common goals – goals based on an increasing understanding of current events and a determination to meet them head on. The work here is taking a village and transforming it from within. This is the transition approach – one that arguably has a far higher likelihood of success.

Better to give

One thing I noted during my stay was the feeling of peace oozing from the Carrion family. Rather than cling to land ownership as an inherited ‘right’, or narrowly considering it as merely a means of securing short term gain, they’re gaining great satisfaction from finding ways to use it to create something of far greater value, and in doing so feel a weight is being lifted from their shoulders.

If this attitude were to become infectious, the world’s troubles could dissipate rather fast.

Continue on to read Part X: Eco Escuela El Manzano, a Nice Place to Learn

Contemplating the past, present and future – and land redistribution – in the middle of nowhere somewhere in Chile.

All photos © copyright Craig Mackintosh

He stares back at us from the t-shirts of millions of youths worldwide. Che Guevara’s face has become one of the most recognisable counter-cultural and political symbols ever known. The history books tell us the man was famously sympathetic to the lot of the poor, and that his overriding passion was to fight against inequality, oppression, control. Che comes to my mind as I write this article from South America, because, in his rise to power, one of his driving ambitions, and which became one of his key responsibilities under Castro, was land redistribution – where he sought to break the stranglehold that was keeping the masses impoverished and robbing them of their potential. I bring this topic up, as, when I look at what’s happening in the world, and the radical changes needed to put us onto a sustainable path, the issue keeps coming back to my mind. These two words – land redistribution – strike fear into the hearts of the rich, and feelings of ambition and even violent revolution in those of the poor, yet, if we’re to stake a claim on the future, I feel we must, both rich and poor, come to terms with them.

Those studying how to address our precipitant trends – our dire soil erosion issues, our increasingly desperate water situation, and the complete vulnerability of our having made our entire large scale food system, from seed-sowing to consumption, completely dependent on waning supplies of fossil fuels – will recognise the need to harmonise our culture with the realities of biology, of soil science, and the urgent need to diversify and relocalise our food production, and, indeed, the production of everything we need for human habitation.

Forging a permanent culture, particularly in the era of energy descent we now find ourselves in, necessitates a rapid shift of food production to small scale biodiverse systems – polycultures. A logical flow should cause us to turn to face our current predicament – where millions of farmers over the last fifty years have succumbed to the onslaught of ‘get big or get out’ agricultural policies and have done just that; gotten out. Most of the agricultural land in the ‘developed’ world today is held, and abused, by Big Agri. Indeed, only a handful of companies control the land, seed, fertilisers, pesticides and even distribution and sale of much of what we eat. Unfortunately it is not well recognised that the same can be said for much of the best land in the South as well, which is also largely serving only the needs of the wealthy – inefficiently, as industrial agriculture is – to the detriment of locals who should have the rights to that land (example) but who are exporting their water and their best soils in the produce that feeds the North.

The question of how to rapidly, but peacefully, transition society back to small scale farming systems should be on everyone’s mind, and should be pressed upon politicians at every turn. But, we should be aware that carving up land is never an easy ask. Historically, land redistribution almost never came without bloodshed. Land reforms, whether in the form of a centralised government-enforced collectivisation program or government-enforced redistribution, or whether by bloody grass-roots uprisings, are arguably the biggest cause of radicalisation, revolution and violent unrest within regional social contexts. The reason for this is simple – they are based on the most pressing of human needs: food and water.

But, worse, and this is central thought to this article: despite all the upheaval and unrest, usually these ‘reforms’, by whatever method, fail miserably.

Often, for example, the peasant class who might benefit from land redistribution look upon the situation as a way to ‘get even’ or to take back wealth from their ‘oppressors’. It becomes a class war, rather than a conscious, sober-minded and objective effort to rebuild society for the betterment of all.

Conversely, it is entirely difficult for those with large land titles to objectively appreciate the demands and needs of the landless – particularly when profits are still being made and an entire economy is based on the current paradigm. Just as medieval feudal lords fought to retain their hold on power, our contemporary corporate feudal lords will be just as unwilling to relinquish it.

And, often land reforms come to nothing because of a lack of skills, equipment or capital. People receive land, or take it by force, but then end up failing to accomplish anything with it simply due to their own inability to do so. Or, the rapid change brought about by redistribution rudely interrupts market mechanisms in place, and people fail to build a viable new system to replace it from one day to the next. This inability to plan, to strategically and objectively implement – to transition – has been the cause of some of the world’s worst famines and social implosions.

Why do I talk about these things in the context of this particular series? Well, the community development here at El Manzano is, I believe, better appreciated in the light of its historical context – and from it we may draw some lessons for the social adjustments we need to work towards and press for.

El Manzano history in a nutshell

In 1931, an ex-navy man by the name of Sydney Raby-Matthews (the great great grandfather of Grifen and Javiera’s son Anaru) bought 600 hectares of land right here in El Manzano, converting it to dairy pasture and installing electricity, fencing and roads. In the 1970s his son Lionel took over and continued with the same. El Manzano was highly self-sufficient in food, water, etc. and became a bustling little village with a much greater population than we see today.

This was the time of the Marxist politician Salvador Allende – one of whose defining acts was to expropriate lands from wealthy land holders for redistribution. The abject failure of this move set the stage for the U.S./CIA-backed military coup by Augusto Pinochet, whose regime, despite being highly repressive, happened to favour neo-liberal capitalism during the cold war years and thus endeared it to the U.S., who were, by the way, only too happy to assist him and other South American leaders in a rather muddied and murderous history.

Grifen Hope explains what happened here at El Manzano:

As the story goes, armed young men with training in Cuba came to El Manzano and rallied the villagers to take the land. They held the family at gunpoint for a few weeks in the house. They destroyed buildings and ate all the cows or herded them off. When the siege was over the leaders took everything of value – the machinery, tools and animals, etc., and left the campansinos the land. With nothing to work it they abandoned and sold it. People left and migrated to the cities of Concepcion and Santiago to find work.

Pinochet offered the land back to Lionel but he refused all but 120 hectares.

In 2004 the municipal government zoned El Manzano urban and shared the land with remaining families, giving them all a small plot. They have since constructed half of the promised homes, installed a pump, electrics and septic tank. Half the villagers remain in shacks. Around this time Maureen, the daughter of Lionel received the land and began to repair it. With her husband, Victor, CEO of a mining company, she planted 80 hectares of forest, re-employed seven of the villagers and began to live on the farm again. Her three children, Javiera (now my wife), Jorge and Jose, all with a passion for the farm and a desire to live here, trained as agricultural engineers and rallied to keep the farm in family hands and make it turn a buck.

Heavy influenced by Miguel Alteiri and Agroecology they began a process of transforming the farm to organic and started working with the village to improve quality of life.

Javiera, in a quest for knowledge that saw her visiting several countries, ultimately took a Permaculture Design Certificate course in New Zealand in 2006. One of her instructors, Grifen, quoted above, an accomplished kiwi permaculture practitioner and teacher, took an interest in both Javiera and El Manzano – resulting in Grifen leaving his country, culture and language behind to start anew in a strange land.

Investing in a future for all

Seeing great potential right here in El Manzano, Chile, the combined drive of Javiera and Grifen helped move the family’s plans ahead apace. Together they are seeing the kind of community development I’m endeavouring to share with you all. This development goes well beyond the kind of thinking that normally categorises land-holding elite. As well as seeking to transition the farm to sustainable systems and increasing diversity, some of the ‘oddities’ include:

• Encouraging and facilitating participatory decision-making for the community.
• A half/half system, where the farm supplies land, seeds, fertiliser (compost) and tools, and the villagers supply the labour. Come harvest time the villagers get half the produce. No money changes hands, no taxman, and fresh nutrient-dense food goes to families who do not possess sufficient land, and for very little input in time.
• Victor Carrion, the very supportive patriarch in this picture, is subsiding the farm with capital as it makes its transition.
• Maureen Raby, matriarch, is working with the family to bring to fruition long-studied plans to change the pattern of land ownership in the village. Legalities have yet to be finalised, but portions of land will be leased for token sums for long term use (100 years) by the community – for community facilities and common spaces (more details on this in a subsequent post). Rather than give land allotments to people outright – people who are not yet capable of making the most of it, or who are not fully aware of the crises we face and the need to maximise potential (and who may otherwise sell it or simply try to work independently of the community) – the plan will instead provide strong transition elements that incentise community development for a win-win-win scenario with promise.
• There are several transition initiatives underway (example from just my brief stay here). In fact, El Manzano is the only official transition community in Latin America.
• Assisting in times of difficulty – example.
• Five of the family members are working together as sustainability professionals to develop natural capital in the land, provide employment for villagers, and build an education centre that will increase capacity for the excellent instructional programs run here (Permaculture Design Certificate courses, full Permaculture Diplomas and even Bachelors and Masters degrees via Gaia University).

This scenario is very interesting to me. South America is well known for its massive land aggregation by the wealthy. Here many people are either Dueños (owners) or Campansinos (peasant farmers). Landlords or peasants. The family could easily just defend their ‘rights’ as land barons – and live for their own gain – but, instead, see their energies targeting the needs and development of the community around them. We see a determined effort to not only keep El Manzano alive, but to see it develop along wholly sustainable lines – to create a community that works in mutually beneficial ways, just like the symbiosis and synergism found amongst elements in a permaculture garden. And, more, the ambition is that this community will set an example to the rest of the region, country, continent and world for how people can work to create harmony and all the other elements that, in total, represent true wealth – fertile soils, clean water, sensible housing, and positive social interaction and interdependencies.

For even greater context – although the children of the community here go to school, many of the parents are illiterate. As such, it is harder for these people to progress their skills for land or any other kind of development. The family’s work to educate the community, and to educate in historically appropriate ways to build resilience (given our energy-challenged future) is thus a significant, positive intervention from people with the means to do so. In the context of peak oil and the inevitable social upheaval that will come with it, such community investment ultimately leads to self-preservation as well.

I said above that land redistribution rarely occurs without bloodshed. One exception that comes to mind – an alternative, if you will, to Che Guevara’s armed approach – is Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan movement. Vinoba Bhave was a disciple of Gandhi, and is often regarded as his spiritual successor. The Bhoodan movement was his effort to peacefully redistribute land – he walked from place to place asking the wealthy to voluntarily donate a portion of their land holdings to him, which he then passed on to the poor. In total some 5 million acres of land were redistributed, entirely peacefully, by these means.

But, it needs to be understood that, whether delivered voluntarily or by force of arms, distributing land to our current generation would, for the most part, end in catastrophe either way. Today, with an alarming proportion of mankind a few decades removed from life on the land, we’re now far more adept with our Xboxes and Chevrolets than we are with plants, life cycles and hand tools. With all of our technological smarts, we’re barely more capable at living off the land now as adults than we were the day our umbilicals were severed.

As much as many of us loathe the system we’re held captive in, the reality is if it were pulled down tomorrow, most of us would perish. This, again, screams of the need for transition – for investment in knowledge and commitment to training; for investment in community building.

In this sense, I wonder if there isn’t a place for feudalism, of an ethically motivated kind, where well positioned individuals and corporations – rather than defend their castle walls so they can cling to riches they can’t eat and hoarding their wealth for descendents who can’t possibly defend them from starving masses – consider the real needs of the future and start to use their means and potential to invest in natural capital and the knowledge needed to create and preserve it.

Imagine if the more privileged amongst us gave up the easter island attitude – vying to beat the other guy to take down the very last stand of trees – and instead put their means and energies into rebuilding the future, and in doing so creating sustainability and peace? Imagine land holders in every region coming to terms with reality, and beginning to work with the people around them? Imagine how fast the world could change for the better!

We share this planet with 6.8 billion people – more than half of whom are packed into urban centres. Re-educating the masses in sustainable and highly productive land management, and getting them onto plots they are incentivised to steward, has got to become a priority. I don’t know about you, but I shudder when I consider the alternatives.

Che Guevara took up the struggle by force of arms, living by the sword and dying at the hands of C.I.A.-backed Bolivian forces – summarily executed without trial. Today, I would propose, despite glaring flaws in his personal character, he has become the symbol for what is now a purely conceptual and impotent struggle against oppression and inequality. His face is meant to represent hope for the underdog, and be a warning to the leaders of unbridled capitalism – yet it has become little more than a logo, a brand name to be exploited by capitalism itself; a feel good but ineffectual abstraction to give a little identity to young capitalist drones.

But, as the world’s population rises, and resources deplete, and competition grows, the prospect of renewed and increasing calls for revolution seems likely. Desperate times lead to desperate measures. But, I like to dream of another kind of revolution – one based on foresight, on objectivity, on cooperation and on education. This kind of revolution needs to happen worldwide, but, at the very least, I think I can see these concepts coming to life here at El Manzano.

Continue on to read Part IX: Building Community Around a Permaculture University.

Please consider contributing to this worthy cause – you can do so via donation links on this page!

With the high risk of our seeing hyperinflation hit us sometime in the next 2-3 years, many are wondering what to do with their money before it becomes worthless. This is why serious investors have at least part of their portfolio in tangible assets such as gold or land.

For a long time I wanted to buy some land and do something with it, but where I live the land is stupidly expensive (particularly for small amounts), the prices propped up by grants and other scams. I knew there was affordable land in other parts of the world but I had neither the contacts nor the confidence to do anything. Recently I bought a small piece of land in Morocco to build a school and internet project, based around permaculture. Having gone through the purchasing process, with some good friends over there helping, and having the deeds in my possession, I am in a good position to help others do something good with their money.

Starting from the edges, it is quite possible to turn the desert back into a forest. Your investment would be part of the first stage, using permaculture principles to halt the spread of the desert, bring back fertility and then eventually expand into the sand dunes. Reforest the Sahara and not only keep your capital, but also have a good chance of increasing its value massively. Use your ‘insider knowledge’ of permaculture to invest in the real future.

The land I bought was quite fertile agricultural land, and quite expensive; altogether with legal costs it was about 3000 euros for a hectare or so. There’s marginal land in the area much cheaper because people don’t realize what can be achieved on such land. I was inspired by the whole region – it’s turning to desert but could easily be turned around with a little judicious planting and a respite from the goats. Anyone (or a group of friends) with around 3,000 euros could buy some and make it into a forest. This is the kind of land I’m talking about:

How it Works

We act as an agent:

• for the initial purchase, ensuring that the purchaser has legal title
• to employ local people to do the work
• for any subsequent sale or transfer

The agency would be entirely voluntary, no long term contract or penalty clauses. If you decide to manage your own land, or appoint someone else at any time, you are entirely free to do so.

The fees to cover labour and expenses could be annual or monthly, with no obligatory minimum, and as more land comes into the scheme the labor costs per acre would go down. As the land develops into forest, you will have crops such as nuts, fruit and olives, as well as timber. These can be used to pay the workers maintaining the forest, thus offsetting the ongoing expense altogether. All this can be managed for you by us, or by anyone else you choose to appoint.

Much of the initial work could be done as part of the courses we’ll be running for local people, as well as international students, volunteers and interns, who would benefit from the experience, This would mean you would not need to pay much for the time it should take to become productive enough to cover costs. After the intial earthworks we could pay someone 20 to 25 euros for a full day every now and then, at your discretion. The more work is done, the faster it will develop. This need not be intensive permaculture, more like zone three or four.

We can arrange hospitality and accommodation for you at local rates, so you can visit the project and see your land at any time with minimum cost. The area we are in has stunning scenery and welcoming people, so this could be a low-cost and unique holiday for you too.

Advantages over traditional ‘charity’:

• Totally Ethical (your ethics). Your children’s world will be enhanced by your investment, and no damage is done anywhere
• Land price would increase as the whole area becomes fertile. So your investment starts to grow even just in cash terms very soon
• The investment is under your control completely. You can run it yourself or appoint someone else as an agent at any time
• It’s free from the pitfalls of fiat currency, which affect virtually every other form of investment except things like gold
• None of your money is wasted. Most organizations spend a significant proportion of your donations on administrators, offices, computers etc. We will be using the already existing resources of the School/Permaculture Centre.
• You get to do something useful with your money and still keep it!

Small is Beautiful

By keeping the operation small we can save costs and avoid the burgeoning bureaucracy that plagues many projects.The core operation—the land agency and work co-ordination—can be done by two people, who will use the same resources as all the other projects, and not rely on this as a full-time job. Thus commission and admin fees can be kept to a bare minimum. The vast majority of your money is in the investment itself, and fees are in line with those of banks and other investment agents. The work will be carried out by local people trained on the permaculture design ceritifcate courses at our centre. Thus the communty will see immediate benefits from the project.

You Choose the Kind of Forest

• Food Forest: This is a diverse woodland designed with an overstory of thngs like palm, wth many fruit and nut trees growing beneath it, as well as a thriving support community of plants and animals. It mimics the natural forest system, producing a sturdy and stable ecosystem with abundant food and water. This is the best for our area, as it has a human population and we need to convince the locals of the benefits of permaculture.
• Timber: Similar design to the food forest, but with an emphasis on trees that wll be valuable for timber when fully grown.
• Wild: This would be left alone after some optional initial earthworks to preserve water. Many people believe wild land is worth nothng, but you only need to look at the degrees of corruption timber companies will go to in order to exploit the Public wildlands in the USA to see that this is not true. Usually there is quite an expense in fencing for this knd of project, but the goats here are herded, not free-ranging, and the locals will respect your wishes and not graze the land. There are wild baby-tree predators but the removal of the goats will be sufficient to ensure success.

Comment below if you have questions and/or expressions of interest – or email me on andy (at) tribalnetworks.org

"Money" is nothing but a social construct that comes with a number of "rules of the game". In one way, "money" has much in common with computer operating systems: most users are completely unaware of the degree to which these rules are flexible, malleable, and allow very different designs. So, before we ask ourselves: in what way could a different design of rules lead to a different role of money, it is worthwhile taking a look at what sort of phenomena the present arrangement gives rise to. A telling passage can be found in Bill Mollison’s autobiography:

For six days a week, 8 or more hours a day, for years on end, we felled and milled trees; at the end of each day, we had cut all the timber for houses. (…) On bad days, we cut five houses, on good days, seven.

We cut about 35 houses a week. But one lunch time, pondering on this remarkable record, I asked the apparently simple question of all seven of we mill-workers. "Do any of us own a house?" We all looked at each other; none of us did. To get a house, one would in those days borrow $7000, pay for 56 years, and repay $30,000 – 50,000 dollars. It all seemed ridiculous.

After very little discussion, we agreed to work one day for ourselves and easily cut seven houses.

(…)

Many working men must be able to count such wealth, but they never possess it. Something is seriously wrong and you cannot see what is wrong until you follow each product and its financing through. If I build a house for $7000 and it is ten years older, I may sell it for $30,000. The same house is sold for more money again and again and again. A confidence trick indeed. Every time it is sold, someone pays for it all their lives; yet it was already paid for! It seems clear that, in a very few weeks of a whole life, we could provide for all our needs; shelter, food, fuel, fibre, energy, the lot. But we waste our lives in debts. – Travels in Dreams, Tagari, p. 829

Things are quite a bit more subtle than presented here, but this passage certainly is valuable for raising the question: how big are the implications of the rules of the money game for society?

If money is needed for some specific economic activity, there are a number of alternatives to obtaining credit from a bank, which very often is the only strategy considered even though it may not be the economically most advantageous one. One such alternative would be subscription schemes: a book is announced and the money to print it is raised through pre-orders at a reduced price. Such schemes can become quite clever: The Permaculture Designers’ Manual gives the example of a restaurant that handed out dated meal vouchers at a reduced price ("A voucher for 8 dollars, for one 10-dollar meal, at one day in July") to raise the money for major refurbishment. Here, something interesting happens: as these vouchers have an immediately verifiable value, they themselves become a sort of "valid currency" (in the sense of "having a verifiable value", although they are not "legal tender") that can be used to settle debts between people who use them. In the end, what the restaurant did was to enlarge the money supply in circulation themselves, rather than asking a bank to do such a favour for them. (Banks have the exclusive strange privilege to expand the money supply, cf. [1], and charge massively for exerting this holy power, in the form of interest, ultimately paid for in real economic goods and services!) So, the provider is using his customers as a "bank" here. Once one starts to develop an eye for this, one discovers a zoo of such "banking with the customer" schemes already being in place, from cell phone top up vouchers, to customer accounts, and even "company money" [2].

The essential insight here is: banks are not "holy institutions", and there is pretty much nothing a bank can do (save from receiving large government bailouts maybe) which people themselves could not do as well – perhaps even in a much better way, considering the imperative of re-investing surplus from rehabilitative activities to further speed up rehabilitation, rather than re-investing loot to speed up plunder.

Wherever people can agree on rules to regulate the flow of claims on work, they can easily cast this into an own currency. As we have seen, taking away people’s freedom to come up with their own rules of the game for their currency is a serious step towards the destruction of their culture. But, this works in the opposite direction as well: if a culture wants to retain, strengthen, or rebuild its identity, it is well advised to take a close look into the money issue and start to design its own currency according to the rules that fit it best. The objective of such a currency is not to drive out the transregional currency, but it should be made very clear by which schemes the transregional currency in the past has elbowed its way into its present dominance.

There are a number of such regional currency schemes in place, quite many of them being based on ideas of the Austrian Silvio Gesell; a key one being that of "demurrage:" holding on to money rather than getting it back into circulation fast is punished in some form. While this rule seems somewhat popular among alternative currencies, it is by no means the only conceivable option: when it comes to the design of rules, the sky is the limit of our imagination.

A very interesting and quite successful regional currency scheme was set up in 2003 in a rural district in South-Eastern Bavaria (incidentally the home region of the author): the "Chiemgauer" currency [3]. This currency is restricted to a region of about 500,000 inhabitants and is governed by a few rules easily comprehensible by everyone, which, however, achieve quite interesting different effects depending on the role of the participant in the "Chiemgauer" economy.

Key rules are:

• There is a registered association, the "Chiemgauer e.V.", open to everyone, which administrates, runs, and sets the rules for the currency. The rules of the game are not cast in stone, but open for being fine-tuned by the inhabitants of the region (through participatory democracy) as needed in order to deal with positive or negative trends.
• Formally, the "Chiemgauer" is a voucher whose value is identical to the Euro. Available denominations presently are 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 Chiemgauer.
• When person X exchanges Euros for Chiemgauer, this is done at a 1:1 exchange rate. If, however, Chiemgauer are exchanged back by person Y for Euros, the reverse rate is 1:0.95. Of this 5% difference, 2% are presently used to pay the administrative costs for running the regional currency. The other 3% are passed on to a regional charitable organization (e.g. a kindergarten, a music school, a museum, etc.). This "charity tax" is entirely paid for by Y, the person withdrawing purchase power from the region (the reason for exchanging Chiemgauer into Euros, rather than spending them locally), while X gets to choose the charity (which is registered in a database along with the serial number of the bill). Charities receive the money generated from this scheme as Chiemgauer.
• There presently is a "2% per quarter" depreciation fee on Chiemgauer, i.e. a bill becomes invalid after three months, unless upgraded by a stamp costing 2% of the bill’s value. This provides an extra incentive to keep the currency circulating fast.
• From the perspective of a charity, asking their members to make their regional purchases in "Chiemgauer" with them as the re-exchange beneficiary is a great way of raising additional money at no additional expense to their members. As they receive this money in the form of "Chiemgauer", they have an incentive to preferentially spend it on regional products.
• From the perspective of a shop owner, the fee rates associated with accepting the "Chiemgauer" are comparable to the fees paid when accepting payment by credit card. However, it gives local businesses an interesting advantage over chain store competitors, as an enterprise that works by widely distributing centrally sourced identical goods throughout the country (rather than providing functionally equivalent goods produced from regional sources) is punished by the back-exchange tax not felt by regional businesses (who can pay their providers in Chiemgauer). As members of charitable organizations are keen on making their purchases in Chiemgauer, there is a need for opportunities to spend them, so accepting Chiemgauer means enlarging one’s customer base. Also, holders of Chiemgauer are keen on getting rid of that money fast, i.e. tend to pay their bills as soon as possible.
• From the perspective of a (residential) consumer, exchanging Euros into Chiemgauer is a great way of supporting specific regional organizations that contribute to the cultural strength and identity of the region without extra direct costs.

This fairly clever scheme seems to have proven its value, as is witnessed by the growing popularity of this currency. It clearly illustrates what can be done just through the design of the rules of a currency. One might expect that much more would be possible if a bit of effort were invested into educating people about what money is, and how it works – or rather, how we can make it work to our advantage by appropriately designing its rules.

References:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional-reserve_banking
2. http://www.disneydollars.net/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_dollar
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiemgauer, http://vimeo.com/4606454

The last decade was quite an eye opener to the world. Multiple converging events collided to shake many awake out of their apathy, and the proliferation of the internet helped spread the word like never before. Environmentalism went from a concept that was scoffed at to being the overriding concern of the majority. Today you’ll find sandal wearing tree huggers side by side with briefcase wielding wannabes. The tanked economy woke people up, worldwide, with the startling realisation that free market capitalism has completely failed them. Celebrations for the fall of the Berlin Wall and communism were half-hearted and filled with cynicism, with the realisation that the greed that forms the basis capitalism brings very real consequences. We watched in horror, while the ‘invisible hand‘ (see also) went AWOL when we needed it most and governments worldwide took trillions of taxpayer dollars and spent us all into the next century to salvage the largest industries from their own stupidity and lack of foresight. By now we were so punch drunk we could only stare as the Wall Street bankers who orchestrated the collapse made off with golden parachutes and bonuses that defied belief. And, although the economic slowback reduced oil prices from the through-the-roof highs of 2008, thus muting alarm over this for too many with short attention spans, we now have millions more people the world over conscious of the outright vulnerability of our present situation as we ride the crest of peak oil. The unjust wars fought with a veiled but obvious motive disgusted and infuriated all but the most callous or ignorant, and the decade was peppered with annual, high level international talks about climate change that were doomed to fail from the outset.

With these thoughts in mind, I share the video clip below. Despite only being uploaded onto YouTube three days ago (Dec 29), it’s already been watched 173,000 times.

I think this clip can get us all thinking about the potential of weakening the banking stranglehold by simply moving our money out of their hands. As well as moving our money to more community-minded institutions, isn’t this also the time to think seriously about local currencies, like those we see featured in the recent In Transition 1.0 video, and really get serious about buying local and working cooperatively to build relocalised resiliency?

I’d be very interested to hear your ideas on changing the system from the inside out. If you’re involved in financial aspects of Permaculture, comment to tell us about it. Or, better yet, write up a post and send it along (editor (at) permaculture.org.au).

Further Viewing:

• Money as Debt
• The Crash Course

The Koanga Institute originally developed out of a mission to save heritage seeds in New Zealand. Over a period of 20 years it has built up a national collection of over 700 varieties, which are regularly grown out, distributed and maintained. For most of the last 20 years this was done just outside of a Kaiwaka, a small village about 100 kms north of Auckland, NZ’s largest city. Increasingly over the last 5 years the Institute has focussed on how we learn to live sustainable lives, believing that we can’t save the seeds if we don’t save the gardeners, and we don’t save the gardeners unless we build communities that honour and support gardeners. Then completely out of the blue, three years ago, Kay Baxter and Bob Corker, the founders of the Institute decided to leave Kaiwaka and have taken the Institute on a nomadic journey.

The main reasons for leaving Kaiwaka, were a sense of impending suburbanisation of our once rural district (one lifestyle block at a time), and the sense that the eco-village we had designed had some major limitations in its economic and governance structure, and that these combined limitations were unlikely to change. We had a dream of taking what we have learned from our years of observation, study and experimentation and do something more bold, with more potential to engage our personal visions and those of others. The dream hasn’t got a home just yet, but our nomadic ways are about to end. Over those last few years we’ve continued to shape our vision and we’ve had some major shifts along the way

One of the biggest shifts, for us, has been our involvement with the Weston A Price Foundation (WAPF) culminating in our writing Change of Heart: The Ecology of Nourishing Food. The crux of the WAPF hypothesis is that most of our modern health problems are a direct result of applying the industrial paradigm to our food and our ecology and that the diet patterns of non-industrialised societies (which have developed through observation and community benefit rather than reductionist science and corporate profit) form a better basis for health – and that the challenge to us, in the 21st century, is to bring philanthropic science to bear in creating a holistic modern diet based on the principles learnt over thousands of generations. We’ve been thoroughly absorbed in learning the practicalities of eating a modern non-industrialised diet, and we are totally convinced of the validity of the WAPF hypothesis. In a similar way modern cities, suburbs and their associated ‘agribusiness’ have been based on the seemingly invincibility of the industrial paradigm. But now we have very clearly seen how this ‘invincibility’ is largely reliant on a 100 year drawdown of: fossil fuels, deep top soils, aquifers etc (i.e. a massive subsidy from the past with little thought of sustainablility.)

Beyond the WAPF hypothesis we are faced with a similar quest in creating post industrial human settlements: The bringing together of the patterns from the past into a modern context – walking away from industrialism/consumerism and creating post- industrial human ecologies.

The Context of the Bigger Dream

A major part of the Purpose of the Institute, is supporting bringing forward new shapes in the way we live. It never fails to amaze us how parts of the ‘jig-saw’ in our dream sit and wait for us to find them, and once we have found them we wonder how could we have missed seeing them. Or isn’t that amazing – now we can address that issue. It could be scary that we don’t always know all the answers, but life is about finding the answers (not knowing them all) and the essential belief of the dreamer that the answers are out there (if we keep looking) is all we need to implement our dream in the face of doubt (and doubters).

Enough philosophising – I’m going to share with you some of the key concepts and issues that lie behind our new dream – and then unfold it.

Our first night after leaving Kaiwaka, was at Trish Allen and Joe Polaisher’s, a time to share our journey with friends and fellow dreamers. As usual Joe had something I “needed” to see, and we sat down and watched Arithmetic, Population and Energy: Sustainability 101 by Dr Albert Bartlett. This is one of the world’s driest videos, next to John Jeavon’s Dig It, and with equally important content. As Albert says it’s not rockets science, but the implications of continual exponential growth are stark. You will never forget this video, and it really helps us put the continuous economic growth model into perspective. You only have to superimpose a graph of exponential growth (whether it be population, oil use, resource depletion etc.) over the bell shaped graph of finite resource availability to immediately see the potential for collapse.

Moving on I also spent some time reading David Holmgren’s ideas on our possible ‘energy futures’. David ‘casts an eye’ on the exponential growth of the industrial revolution up to now and asks where to now? Four possibilities present themselves:

1. Techno-explosion, the ongoing belief that its onwards and upwards, more growth, amazing new technologies, and more discoveries, in our ‘reach for the stars’, including possibly space travel and colonising other planets. (This may be necessary, the way we are going, and why anyone believes we wouldn’t do the same to the next planet, I’m not sure.)
2. Techno-stability, a scenario where growth levels off and we use conservation, recycling and appropriate technology to sustain a similar level of energy use and material well being to the one we have now (the lucky ones of us).
3. Energy Descent, a conscious reduction in energy use, with increased use of the sun’s energy, biological systems and appropriate technology to ensure a sustainable future. This almost certainly means the ruralisation of communities and economic activities. We live where the resources are rather than cart them to cities.
4. Collapse, an uncontrolled rapid descent, with accompanying loss of knowledge and infrastructure for an industrial culture. A worse case scenario involving a major die-off of human population.

It’s not too hard to see examples of all four operating at present, with less and less people being part of Scenario One. Personally nothing that I’ve seen over the last 50+ years gives me confidence that Scenario One will continue. I agree it is possible, but I believe it would take an enormous spiritual, political and economic shift the likes of which we have never seen in our history.

So if we rule that out, and we assume that Scenario Two is really an optimistic version of Scenario Three, then we are left with two scenarios.

We believe that we have to start seriously preparing for both, with the main emphasis on Energy Descent. We also believe that a major economic contraction will start occurring within the next 5 – 10 years (possibly sooner) solely based on reduced availability of oil and other resources. We try not to focus too much on possible contractions caused by global warming, epidemics, war, or earth changes (however some preparation for Collapse is a sensible ongoing insurance policy).

That’s the bigger picture within which our dream sits.

Our Vision

There’s no one right way to proceed from there, each is going to be an expression of the individual or individuals who are the immediate drivers of the dream. For Kay and I, here is a summary of the principles that will lead the way.

• We will be developing an intentional community with a clear purpose of becoming largely self reliant (within our community or our bioregion) in food, health, energy, clothing, shelter, currency and finance. We are subscribers to Richard Douthwaites ideas, check them out.
  • The community will be focused on self- reliance and interaction within its bioregional community, and global society. It will not be isolationist.
• We will focus on materialistic simplicity, an age old pattern that is just as empowering as it has been in the past
• We will look to understand and copy the patterns of traditional villages and communities
• We will take particular care in ensuring the land we settle on has adequate resources to achieve our goals – particularly enough water and good soil
• We will choose a rural setting, not unduly affected by horticulture, industrial dairying or lifestyle blocks, an area that is not likely to change dramatically in the foreseeable future. This will also mean avoiding being close to a major city (2hrs?). We see the need to fully engage in our vision without too much interaction or conflict with the expanding presence of this culture. This is likely to mean we choose a small dairy farm, sheep farm or forestry land in a relatively isolated area
• We will take particular care to ensure that, once we have satisfied the infrastructure requirements of the District Council and the Resource Management Act, we have sufficient capital, energy and an appropriate governance to invest in the community’s economic development – to give legs to our vision. Most of the ‘eco-villages’ in NZ have not done this adequately, or have not wanted to do it, consequently they have become rural suburbs with very little development of self-reliance. In particular we are likely to establish a well provisioned design/building cooperative, a good water supply system, a small dairy farm and shed, a cooperative processing facility, community facilities, and a cooperative communications/office facility.
• We will adopt the legal structure and typical governance structures of a Community Land Trust. We believe this is by far the best model developed so far to promote self reliance. Its philosophical base is that we are ‘owned by the land’, not that we ‘own the land’. This is a huge topic to discuss, check out our summary and compiled links.
• A major part of the economic development within the community will be centred around the Koanga Institute, including maintaining and distributing its seed collection, and an education facility based around experiencing and learning about the whole process of developing self-reliance. This will entail the lease of a section of the Community Land Trust specifically for this. The activities of the Institute will provide opportunities for employment and contracted self-employment. Outside of these opportunities we envision others will be both self-employed and/or working within other independent business organizations, with independent leases or licenses from the Trust to suit their needs.
• The initial development of the community will be done by a purpose formed development company, under contract to the Community Land Trust. This stage will possibly take up to 4-5 years between obtaining the land, setting up the Trust, obtaining resource consent, constructing the infrastructure required by the resource consent, marketing, economic infrastructure, and settling the full complement of settlers.
• We envision two parallel economies within our community, the ‘internal’ one being based on our self-reliance within our bioregion, the ‘external’ one being oriented towards using the internal economy to create external synergies. One example of this will be that the institute will bring students in from all around the world to learn from what we are doing and to contribute to both our internal and external economies. We also imagine using our base of producing and processing good food to export some high value processed products. There are lots of possibilities which will arise out of the vision and passion of the individual settlers.
• We will provide for both clustered and non-clustered housing and clustered sites for ‘cottage’ industry
• Much of the detail about how we do this will present itself out of the individual nature of the land we acquire
• We will plan for and attract sufficient people and specific skills to meet the needs of a diverse community. We expect this will be at least 20 families. Some of the positions within the community for settlers will be held for who ever turns up, however we will also target the specific skills we will need once the detail of the development forms. This is likely to include builders, designers, business managers and administrators, investors, elders, farmers, gardeners, healers, food processors, mechanics, teachers, foresters, potters, weavers, blacksmiths, etc.
• There will be use of ‘gatekeepers’ to protect the direction of development, these may include:
  – Limited or no grid electricity to foster alternative and low energy use
  – Prescriptions on the heat dynamics of housing to encourage passive heat storage
  – Prescriptions on housing materials
  – Organic management of the commons
  – Possibly others

First things First

We have developed a good relationship with a UK based finance company owned by a New Zealand family, that is interested in supporting our vision. Our challenge now is to put a proposal in front of them that stacks up. This finance company is also involved in purchasing large parcels of isolated farm land that is suitable for forestry planting and preferably future ‘carbon credits’. This is particularly advantageous to us as they can purchase the whole farm and sell or lease back a small part that fits our requirements. There are many ways this will be mutually beneficial, and best of all this relationship has been initiated from one of the institute members whose family has an on going commitment to support our work.

Now we need the land. This is an invitation to all the readers of this to help us find the ’spot’. What’s it going to look like? Here are a few ideas:

• Probably 200-1000 hectares of marginal hill country grazing and with some easy contour land and a small amount of elevated river terraces with good soil (between 5-10 ha) plus good grazing land (30-40 ha)
• Good water flow through the summer
• Doesn’t need to have any housing on it, but could be an advantage
• The present owner could have the option of retaining long-term leases on house sites if required and being part of the community
• Could be anywhere in NZ but most likely to be south of Rotorua and north of Palmerston North, or warmer parts of the South Island
• We need to keep in mind that this will continue over many generations into the future – so we need to choose wisely

If you are reading this and know someone who may be able to help us, please feel free to pass this on with a personal introduction attached. (Please do not send it out indiscriminately.)

We are also keen to start a network of supporters including potential settlers, investors, designers, and those who simply would like to lend their encouragement. We’ll be keeping in touch with progress as it happens on www.changeofheart.co.nz. Also we’ll be having regular meetings starting in the new year. We already have four committed families.

First Fruit of the Research Program

Starting the research program this year, I was not sure how people would respond to the new direction. Since we have started the program, the donations earmarked for research have equaled those for the garden support, which has been very affirming for me. Thanks to all those who have responded so generously. Here’s my first opportunity to give you some feedback.

One of the principles behind what I have been attempting to achieve is that the strategies and techniques we bring forward are those that are suited to NZ conditions and that can be used by most people with local and/or common materials. It has often been the case in the past that we (broadly being the ‘alternative’ movement in NZ) have copied ’sexy’ techniques from overseas without clearly identifying whether these are the best for us NZers. I intend to address this. I have also kept in mind that we may not always have access to sophisticated industrialised products in the future. So you will see a common thread of minimising industrial products, and eliminating sophisticated ones.

The overall goal of the research program is to be able to design and build a place to live where we address all our basic material needs: shelter/comfort, passive solar energy use, processing/storing/preparing/cooking food – and do this in a way which is low cost and respectful of our environment and our health. Much of this is embodied in the concept of the ‘autonomous house’.

Perhaps the most important starting point is getting a clear understanding of the principles involved and finding the best techniques to match our requirements, rather than latching on to techniques with the ’sizzle’.

We have identified the following key issues:

1. Building houses with an appropriate combination of solar heat input, heat storage and insulation, to maintain comfort without any fuel energy inputs (other than those in #2 below). To do this we have decided that we will store most of the solar gain in the mass of the insulated floor, and provide well insulated light earth walls to prevent loss of heat from the house. In the USA, some practitioners believe that we are best to use solid walls insulated on the outside, which act as radiators for the stored heat in the floor. We believe that in our more temperate climate the heat transfer from the floor and raised solid kitchen heating facilities is sufficient. We are also aware that wood frames are more suited to our climate (we have plenty of wood) and that generally wood is good to match our earthquake requirements. Where ever we can avoid steel and concrete we will. There is a strong interest in straw bale in NZ, and while it provides a near perfect insulation, we have avoided this because baled straw is usually an industrial product, still requires steel tie downs and lacks a strong history in a humid climate. So our strategic approach has been to attempt a NZ version of a light earth wattle and daub. The wattle can be a traditional green wood weave, or sawn wood multiple layered fixed lattice work (depending on your resources). We have trialled several daub mixes, and by far the best one is a 50/50 mix of clay slip/cow manure mixed thoroughly into wet pine needles. The resultant matrix when dry is incredibly strong, flame proof and has a density of approx 300kgs/m3 – almost half that of pumice. (Density is strongly related to the insulative R value.) This will all be done using timber poles and non load bearing walls. We will probably apply the daub in situ, and make panels of the same material for the ceiling. In both case the daub base will have traditional earth plasters applied. We have made one panel so far, and we will be testing the face loading once it is plastered and dry.
2. Constructing home made wood fuelled stoves and ovens to provide all our cooking and heating needs. We have decided to use a combination of three different strategies.
   a. Well insulated earth ovens
   b. Traditional Asian pot-type charcoal cookers
   c. A rocket stove with a manifold flue where we can direct the heat flow to multiple end uses (hot plates, wet back water heating, space heating and even into the earth oven)
   The key to this is the valve/manifold. We’ve come up a with a nice simple design, which we are constructing now and will test by Xmas. Watch the next newsletter and website for photos.
3. Recycling our ‘wastes’ to maximum benefit. Given that 80% of the nutrients we excrete are in our urine, the key to this is in collecting and recycling this in a safe way. We’ve gone back to the first design that Joe Polaisher showed us probably 20 years ago, and we’ve added a few refinements. We’ve also improved the greywater recycling system which we first designed and built at Kaiwaka. I’ll be writing a booklet on the design in March. In the meantime check out our next newsletter/website for some photos. These two systems between them are able to satisfy legal requirements, and enable people to build their own systems for less than $400 materials and 3 days work.
4. Food drying. Earlier this year we trialled the solar food dryer that we found on the Geopathfinder website. This is a radiant dryer, rather than a convection dryer, as most conventional cabinet type solar dryers are. What we’ve discovered so far is that the convection dryers are less efficient (about 80% as effective as the radiant dryers), however both types have some advantages and disadvantages. Here’s a summary.
   – Radiant heaters are more efficient and more suited to hot drying (fruit, meat)
   – Radiant heaters are not suited to drying seeds, because they can get too hot, and also because the seeds roll down the tray.
   – The temperature of convection dryers can be controlled better, and the source of heat can be varied (direct solar, or water radiators from hot water cylinders that can be solar powered or wood fuel powered).
   – If you have a large source of window sashes, radiant dryers can be relatively easy to make.
   Our conclusion, if all you want to do is dry fruit over the summer, radiant dryers are probably your best bet, however if you want to dry over the whole year (including seeds) which we do, then a convection/cabinet dryer is far superior. I will be writing a booklet with information and designs in March.

If you are interested in learning more about all this appropriate technology – and more, consider doing our 4 day workshop in April.