An Overview Of Our Solution
We are a mixed farm and ecovillage that is dedicated to feeding our community, carbon sequestration and holistic management towards those aims. We do this in several ways: cover crop, biochar production, mixed livestock grazing and human labour. The problem is an imbalance in the carbon content of the atmosphere, the loss of minerals and nutrients in our soil and the carbon footprint of the food that we eat. We try to solve these issues by producing as much as possible of the food we eat, localizing our food needs, finding farm-appropriate ways to sequester carbon into our soils, strategic cover crop to scavenge depleted soil minerals and appropriate livestock management.
Who is this solution impacting?
Community Type
Suburban
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: Africa
General Information
Organization type
Kooperatif
Ecosystem (select all that apply)
Forests
Freshwater
Grasslands
Population impacted
500-5000
Challenge
Size of agricultural area
20 acres
Production quantity
45 member summer CSA, 20 member winter CSA, small scale dairy, egg and fruit production, artisanal asparagus and maple syrup production
People employed
8
Solution
Describe your solution
We have done much to ensure sustainable practices are a part of everything we do. We put a conservation easement on our land which minimizes the development we can do to protect the lands natural features, we sell bird-friendly hay which allows for birds to use our meadows for nesting, much of our infrastructure is based around energy-efficiency or passive solar. We have built seasonal cabins, solar showers and composting toilets for our members. Agriculturally we have begun using several types of mulch (cover crops, leaves, wood chips, hay, straw) for all the benefits mulching provides. We have planted over 16,000 trees to create windbreaks for agricultural purposes, creating wildlife corridors to offer traveling wildlife safety and to sequester carbon. We have just started creating biochar as another way to sequester carbon which also offers agricultural benefits. Domestically we created a culture of passionate seasonal and local eating, ensuring we have dedication and knowledge from all our members from seed to plate (to compost). We continually develop new systems to feed our chickens less grains and more free and wild sources of nourishment. We collect rain water, built an above ground cistern and water appropriately as part of our sustainable farm development strategy.
Implementation
Describe your implementation
We signed up for the Credit Valley Conservation Authority's rural water program grant, which allowed us to receive $100 per acre of any area that was successfully covercropped over the winter. We've built a "Ulud" biochar burner, produced biochar and created an experimental garden to monitor its effects on vegetable crops. We've built and maintained a small herd of grass-fed cattle. Through our volunteer program we can pay a small amount for the labour needed to carry out some of these projects. Our CSA has successfully funded a program that allows them to grow and develop fresh weekly produce to our local food bank and youth shelter. We also host several events to educate our community on intentional community living, sustainable food production and other important topics. The largest obstacle is financing, both for capital cost to implement solutions on a larger scale and to cover the labour costs.
External connections
We are members and work with the Credit Valley Conservation Authority, Ecological Farmers of Ontario, National Farmers Union, Ecovillage Network of Canada and the Global Ecovillage Network. As mentioned previously we also work directly with the Orangeville Food Bank and Choices youth Shelter. We are part of a small group of intentional communities, eco-builders and responsible land use advocates working towards zoning changes to help with the development of farm and rural properties.
Results
What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?
We are trying to sequester carbon from the atmosphere by creating biochar and using it as a soil amendment, which can greatly improve crop yield due to its ability to retain water and create habitat for beneficial microorganisms. We are also trying to mineralize our agricultural lands by adding rock dust, improving nitrogen content by leguminous cover cropping and lowering our carbon footprint through transitioning to human labour from tractor power.
Describe the context in which you are operating
Please include facts/figures where possible. (Where relevant, include information about social/community factors, water, food security, nutrition, and/or economic and sustainable development.) (1500 characters max.) We are operating a mixed farm on an ecovillage, an intentional community with a dedication to sustainable living. We have 192 acres of wetlands, forests, pasture, and agricultural lands. We have a renovated farmhouse and a one-of-a-kind environmentally friednly large shared residence with 11 private suites and roughly 6500 square feet of shared common space, including a library, kitchen, game room and dining area. We support several small enterprises that all work holistically with each other through our governance structure. We currently have a maple syrup co-op, a community supported agriculture market garden, egg production and chicken production, all on a very small scale at the moment. The ecovillage is governed by a board of directors that belong to the housing cooperative and the land cooperative, using consensus-decision making model for decisions. Many members are provisional members who do not have equity or liability in those cooperatives but can still manage an enterprise and be involved in the decision-making.
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
We've planted native shrubs, trees and wildflowers over the last 15 years. We are slowly implementing holistic mob grazing for our cattle, "leader-follower" livestock frameworks for our cattle and poultry. We have designated areas that we leave alone to allow for natural succession. We've used strategies to enhance our forests from many ecological restoration specialists.
Language(s)
English
Water
We collect our roof water and use on gardens, plant cover crops so we do not get nutrient runoff from rainwater, we have an engineered wetlands that cleans our black and grey water and we use only water-efficient taps.
Food Security/Nutrition
90% of the produce we eat, 100% of the chicken, 90% of the eggs and 75% of the fruit we eat has been grown on the property, and we have provided roughly 50 CSA shares to neighbors for nutritious seasonal produce.
Economic/Sustainable Development
We've created small jobs through the CSA and maple syrup production, as a community our food is accessible economically because we offer worktrades or volunteer hours that can be traded for a lower food bill.
Climate
Our tree planting initiative has the potential to sequester a large amount of carbon from the atmosphere once mature, we rely less and less on fossil fuels for our agricultural activity year after year and we are able to coordinate car-sharing efficiently.
Sustainability
As a holistic farm aiming to live sustainably some aspects can offer economic sustainability through markets like our produce, but most do not, at the moment, produce a yield of tangible goods and would depend on grants or government subsidy. These are elements of our farm plan such as biochar or tree planting. However, due to the novelty of our farm, we have great economic potential as an educational component for sustainability studies.
Return on investment
Much of our agricultural activities require little upfront capital and for some enterprises like chicken production or maple syrup can see these costs covered easily in the first year or two. Other enterprises like cattle, take either time or money to build up the herd to a size that is economic viable.
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Replication and Scale
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
A key component to replicating this project is municipal support for zoning exemptions, multi-stakeholder approach to membership, outside investment or alternative land-use access. It could also benefit from equity or longterm stability for farmers in the land since there salary may not be adequate to secure such coveted (and expensive) land.