A community designed to produce its own food

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by imp

To get back to the OP idea, I am interested in watching how this plays out over a few years time. I do like that there are more reasonable remarks in the article acknowledging that not all the communities, even the planned only ones so far, will not be producing all their own foods for the most part. Some of the ideas seem to all rest on a balance point, so I am wondering if there is a failure of one system as to how it would affect the rest of the systems and community, though.

Originally Posted by bower

I must admit I'm a bit skeptical when I look at those pictures and really don't see anyone doing any dirty work.

I think we need to get away from the idea that this is a commune.

Here's an in-depth article about this concept and the philosophies around it.

“ReGen Villages then stays involved inside each community as a management company – where all of the systems are managed by us as a concierge level of services for a monthly fee,” he adds. “However, if any resident wishes to volunteer inside a ReGen Village, either in the garden areas or other aspects of the community, we will deduct this volunteer effort from their [partner’s] monthly fees.”

The article also makes it clear that the private gardens inside people's glass "enclosures" are optional--they can do what they want with that space, but the community doesn't rely on them to produce food in them. It's no different than any other yard, only this time, it's enclosed in glass so that you can have a family garden for more months out of the year in the NL if you choose. They feature prominently in the photos probably because gardening is the new black right now--very trendy among the well-to-do and young professionals. I know many people who live in cities who would consider moving to the suburbs for the sole reason that they would want a kitchen garden, but they don't want the suburban lifestyle, including its inherent high resource usage.

The community's food would be grown in dedicated spaces for it and presumably primarily tended by people whose job it is to do so.

It also makes it clear that the glass house concept is climate-specific. The company does not envision the same for hot climates for obvious reasons. Maybe in more equatorial areas, the designs would include large shade structures that in dry areas would also include rainwater collection systems, etc.

It's more of a framework, not a set design.

For me, having lived almost all of my adult life in big cities, it's not such an alien concept to share living infrastructure with others but have dedicated people maintain certain common systems, like a super or a concierge or management company which is paid for by your rent, a maintenance free, coop dues, etc. In a way, this idea just takes things a little further, with those systems including things like food and energy production and incorporating architecture that actively encourages socializing with one's neighbors (something that city apartment living doesn't have for the most part right now).

This sort of structural interconnectedness may be much more alien to many suburban Americans, and maybe that's why so many people are jumping straight to the conclusion that this will be a hippie commune work camp instead of imagining different ways to incorporate more communality in less extreme ways.