VILLAGE FARMS PROPOSAL

Background
Concept
Organisation
Summary
Action Pan
Background!
Rural life in developed countries has been in long-term, systemic decline for decades now
with no remedy in sight. The proposal is made with the following assumptions:
a. that rural communities are the cultural parents of regional and national
identities;
b. that human beings are a nation's or local community's most precious assets
but nowadays are rarely regarded or treated as such by governments or corporations
who are the maor employers of people;
c. that rural areas are in long-term systemic decline as a result of the overall
social-financial structure, and that there are few, if any, models of successful
rennaissance of such areas in the developed !est;
d. that more specifically, the family farm as the last functioning model, is
increasingly no longer viable and
e. that the feudal model is long obsolete although it was highly effective in many
ways, principally in fostering self-organised local communities related to larger
regional and national communities, lin"ed by both religious faith and national
governance conventions;
f. that reviving rural areas, their economies, populations and local community
cutural e#pressions, is of paramount importance;
g. that the growing and mar"eting of food and other locally produced products
such as furniture, clothing, leather and suchli"e, all of which come from the land and
local labour, is the "ey component of rural community vitality;
h. that locally produced, organic food $which by definition is grown in healthy,
organically nourished, biotically rich soil% is better economically and culturally and
many recent studies world wide have reported how small scale organic farms are
more efficient than agro-business monocultures. $&ote '%
i. that this proposal offers a relatively simple, albeit not necessarily complete,
way forward, an e#periment that has a good chance of revealing far more than can be
e#pressed in a simple proposal such as this.
"#e Farm Viage Concept!
(iven that the single family farm is clearly no longer viable as the dominant farming
paradigm, and given the perceived need to revive local farms and communities, it is hereby
proposed to e#pand the notion of a 'farm' and turn it into what it should be: the heart and
engine of rural life. This can be effected by essentially diversifying the population that both
wor" the farm and live nearby, in essence developing not farms per se, but 'farm village' or
'village farms.'
)or e#ample, imagine the following )arm *illage development: ta"ing an old +,- acred
farmstead as the base $though also possible would be virgin terrain, only +- acres etc. %:
A $orking %arm %eaturing!
e#tensive vegetable crops including cold weather partially underground
greenhouses, cold frames for '-. months per annum harvesting capability
orchards with native fruits, many from heirloom and new local varieties derived from
them
lovely gardens for visitors and other residents to wal" through
fish pond
modest forestry operation which also heats all residences and facilities
small gra/ing cattle operation producing fresh dairy $not for commercial e#port off
the farm% including especially organic, pasture-fed butter and cheeses
free-range chic"ens, mainly for eggs and also for assisting with natural fertili/ation of
soil, all feed coming from the farm itself
some grain crops for animal feed and bread-ma"ing
stables with wor"ing and riding horses
farms products and services are mar"eted both to other 'villagers' some of whom
have shares in the farm and0or are paid to do seasonal wor" $helping with harvest,
processing etc.
Around t#e $orking %arm& a '(iage'!
a small retirement home for +- seniors with staff, most of whom live in some of the
residential single and multi-family $co-housing% homes, some clustered in a small
street configuration, some scattered throughout the property.
1afe-ba"ery, using fresh, stone-ground flours using grains from the farm, cheese and
butter from the farm
2ospice
3ome bed and brea"fast facilities, a small inn or eco-campground
2orse trails riding the horses from farm's stables
1ommunity 2all for meetings, performances
1hurch 2all for sacred worship and meditation practice
3upplemental or full school
4ain street with a few services such as
doctor, ba"er, ironmonger, computer technician, plumber, lawyer etc all of whom
cater to people all over, not ust villagers.
That's the basic idea. 5ou can come up with modern fancy business-sounding language li"e
'multi-use, multi-purpose, multi-generational, residential and commercial' etc. 6tc. 7ut
essentially what is being proposed here is a village clustered around one or more wor"ing
farm operations. *illagers can participate in some aspects of farm production $cheese-
ma"ing, horse-trail riding, grain grinding% either as seasonal labour or as proprietors of their
own operations purchasing the grain, leasing the horses, buying the cream etc. 3ome people
will live in the village and drive to wor" elsewhere but ideally there will be a core population
of people who run the farm operations and live and wor" in the village. The core village
population will be enough to ma"e the farm basically viable, but will also attract additional
income, both to the farm and themselves, with various products and services, some of
which ma"e products for sale outside the village $and even the country%, some of which
cater to guests and visitors $for e#ample during the *illage's 3aturday )armers' 4ar"et which
ta"es place on the farm and therefore can feature often forbidden things li"e raw mil",
organic unpasteuri/ed butter and so forth.
ORGA)ISA"IO)
This is the rub and the main purpose of this proposal. The concept is 8uite simple and
accords with basic social organisations one finds all over the world in naturally developed
tribal societies and throughout ancient and modern 6urope, some of them recently
restructured in e#isting old villages in rural 9taly for e#ample $lin"% and thriving. They have
already proven that something li"e this can fit into the modern world with its current social,
financial and governance models, but the 8uestion is: can ways be found to fit them into
rural &ova 3cotia even though generally no such old-fashioned villages currently e#ist:
The purpose of this proposal is to spur the creation of an organisational committee which
oversees the necessary research and subse8uent development of five such *illage )arms in
a chosen area, which 9 recommend to be 1ape 7reton, because of its si/e $not too small, not
too large%, because of its surprising diversity of rural community cultures which are all both
uni8ue and also very 1ape 7retonish. ;ne near 3ydney in the 6ast, one near 3t <eters in the
3outh, one near 4abou = 9nverness = 4argaree in the !est, one near 9ngonish in the &orth,
and one near 7addec" in the centre. )ive.
2ow will the organisation of such villages be structured: : this is not "nown or herein
proposed. 9t is the duty of the ;rganising 1ommittee to
a. oversee research and some studies by professional consultants showing e#amples in
history and current similar societies of successes and failures of this type of 'farm
village'
b. 1hoose '-, such models
c. determine how they might be funded and implemented
d. implement them.
e. The committee members will be appointed and paid somehow. $2ow:::%
There are many unanswered 8uestions here but they should not be addressed in this
proposal since most will re8uire e#tended research and consultation to penetrate. 3uffice to
say that the sort of research needed to consider actual implementation will be valuable
whether or not the various *illages are actually developed, therefore there can and will be
no waste of precious national or provincial resources, principally the funds and time of the
individuals involved. That said, probably some of the "ey concerns will be around:
)inancing structures = special provincially-issued bonds: 9nterest-free loans: *illage
as corporation leasing to individuals, or oint-share cooperative, or what:
;rganisational structures = who or what is the boss, what aspects are run by
individuals $within 1ommon and other norms of >aw%, what by some sort of collective
governance:
;perational viability: what si/e village population ma"es a small farm operation
viable: !hat labour is involved, what costs, what yields per acre etc.
!hat demand might there be for such 'village farms', who li"es the idea:
S*MMAR+
This proposal assumes that if such an initiative were underta"en and if ways were found for
such *illage )arm developments to function in a socially and financially healthy fashion, that
they could serve as a model for renewing rural areas throughout &ova 3cotia and the
4aritimes, initially, but also generally in the developed !est where chronic unemployment
from the outsourcing of manufacturing and agricultural obs is causing widespread crisis,
not least of which is the virtual death of the family farm and the increasing difficulty we all
have in getting fresh, high 8uality, nutrient-rich local produce.
The essence of this idea is to provide essential support to the small farm operation by
including a population in and around the larger farm property that both acts as an
immediate mar"et for basic farm products $eggs, cheese, vegetables, meat etc.% but also
provides high 8uality, locally sourced products for others in the village to turn into value-
added products and services themselves. &ot only that, but functions not directly related to
farms are encouraged $such as a hospice and senior citi/ens centre in the e#ample above%.
)urther, in the event the )arm *illage notion ta"es off in practice, that there will be
hundreds of them in any given region over time, each with its own particular character and
style. 3ome might be organised around a religious faith, others around a specialised farm
product $li"e grains for organic ba"ers including stone-milling operation and malthouse for
local breweries li"e 7ig 3pruce in &yan/a%, or around hospice wor", or arts $li"e a glass-
blowing academy with several practictioners of the art and the *illage becomes a mecca for
glass-blowing enthusiasts around the world%.
;nce the right way of structuring such developments in law and funding and economic
viability is found, they could go a long way to reviving rural life in 1ape 7reton, in &ova
3cotia, and in the developed world internationally.
AC"IO) PLA) ,not %oo$ed-.
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