Abundance Project: This New Neighborhood Will Grow Its Own Food, Power Itself, And Handle Its Own Waste
One of the most fallaciously accepted
beliefs in society today is that there isn't enough space or resources
available for everyone. The belief is that the planet is overpopulated
and that humanity can't harmonize with the environment symbiotically. As
a result of this unquestioned
belief, we've devolved into a parasitic relationship with the Earth
mother. Thankfully the light of hope is still shining brightly, and the
following article proves it.
The
elite indoctrinates the masses into thinking humanity has no choice but
to cannibalize the very world which gave it birth. But as many are now
rediscovering, these are unfounded beliefs based on ignorance of our
true relationship with the environment. The reality is there is plenty
of land, water, and resources for all life, not just humanity. But the
problem is, our civilization—care of despotic
elites—is woefully inefficient.
The systems we use every day are taken for granted. We assume that there is no other way to
live life, but is this really true? Planned obsolescence or the
intentional promulgation of inefficient, inadequate and
destructive technological and economic practices are pervasive within
the fabric of human life. Cars are made to fall apart, homes are made to
degrade and loose their value, foodstuffs are intentionally denatured
to maintain the medical industry—and these are only a small handful of
the things the population accepts without question.
Instead
of developing efficient technologies that enhance sustainability and
abundance, policies are created that actually hinder it. Consider that
the average person consumes foodstuffs which produce untold waste and
destruction for the environment, by way
of artificial farming and distribution methods. And this
is primarily because of centralization systems which are in contrast to
how nature works.
For
example, massive monoculture farms require a great deal of energy to
maintain, pesticides to protect crops, and increased transportation and
storage costs to distribute the produce properly. All of which makes the
food more expensive, less nutritious, and of course, allows certain
corporations to produce enormous profits— all of which is on the burden
of the consumer.
In
short, centralization of material goods (food, water, electricity and
so on) is incredibly costly for the people and profitable for the elite.
It allows companies to collect massive profits while the people and
the environment suffer untold destruction and loss. Since the so-called Green Revolution during
the 1930's when society transitioned away from organic farming to
massive artificial farms, disease and food costs have skyrocketed.
In
comparison, 150 years ago, the reverse was the case. Small communities
worked together to provide for each other, albeit not in a perfect way.
Knowledge of farming and survival skills were standard educational
foundations for nearly everyone in society, save those who choose to
live in major cities. But today, the vast majority of people have no
comprehension of how to sustain themselves. Humanity has become almost
completely dependent on the very systems which destroy health and ruin
the environment—and what's worse—most people aren't even aware of these
costs.
The
bottom line is ignorance is not bliss. In only a few short decades, the
environment will be so completely ravaged by modern day society that
civilization as we know it will come to an end. Future generations will
look back at this time and wonder how their forefathers could have been
so foolish and short sighted. Half of all species on Earth have gone
extinct due to environmental destruction care of modern day practices.
Thankfully,
the solution is simple. We must re-educate individuals so as to form
decentralized sustainable communities. The primary reason why most
people believe that the world is overpopulated and that we need enormous
centralized systems, is a lack of knowledge, specifically in regard to
how people lived in the past. Therefore, the first step is to dispel the
illusion of dependence, scarcity, and humanity's divorce from
nature—which are central tenants to the false paradigm of technological
progress we labor under now.
The
following article is one such educational tool to re-awaken our fellows
to the realities of abundant living. To be sure, humanity isn't the
problem, it's what humanity chooses to do that needs to change, our
practices, beliefs, and social programs. Once these things have been
corrected, which can happen fairly quickly, restoration of the
environment and human health can take place.
ReGen
Villiage is a new sustainable community project near Amsterdam
employing holistic systems of energy and food production, waste
management, and overall design. The team is not using any hidden
technology, such as free energy, for implementing sustainable methods.
They use existing technology to develop the project, which is highly
encouraging and is a central point to dispel the false belief in
dependence and scarcity.
Even
with existing advances—which are arguably far behind what is really
possible—they plan to produce a completely sustainable community. Power,
waste, and food will all be generated locally, reducing costs by orders
of magnitude and potentially distributing surpluses into the
surrounding areas.
Again,
the team is using conventional methods, which are not even the most
efficient, by far. This underscores what is possible when a holistic
concept of decentralization is explored, and more to the point, when we
begin to question the status quo.
Our
world can be healed and restored back to the paradise it was meant to
be, but only if we seek to dispel our own ignorance and take steps to
embody change. Our children deserve to inherit a planet of safety and
abundance, and this is well within our grasp today.
- Justin
Source - Fast Co-exist
by Adele Peters
This New Neighborhood Will Grow Its Own Food, Power Itself, And Handle Its Own Waste
ReGen Village, outside of Amsterdam, doesn't need a grid or food
systems. It's a model for a future, fully closed-loop settlement.
If you live inside one of the houses in a new neighborhood being built
in an Amsterdam suburb, your dining room might be next to an indoor
vegetable garden. Outside, you'll have another seasonal garden. And down
the street, almost everything you eat will be grown in high-tech
vertical farms.
The neighborhood will be the first
ReGen Village,
a new type of community designed to be fully self-sufficient, growing
its own food, making its own energy, and handling its own waste in a
closed loop.
Any household waste that can be composted will feed livestock or soldier
flies. The soldier flies will feed fish, and fish waste will fertilize
an aquaculture system that produces fruit and vegetables for the homes.
Seasonal gardens will be fertilized by waste from the livestock.
By using the most advanced methods for growing food—a combination of
aeroponics, aquaponics, permaculture, food forests, and high-yield
organic farming—the neighborhood will grow many times more food than a
traditional farm of the same size, with fewer resources. Aquaponics, for
example, can produce 10 times as much produce on the same amount of
land, with 90% less water.
We anticipate literally tons of abundant organic food every year—from
vegetables, fruit, nuts, legumes, fish, eggs, chicken, small animal
dairy and protein—that can continually grow and yield in the vertical
garden systems all year long as supplement to the seasonal gardens and
farming adjacent," says James Ehrlich, CEO of ReGen Villages, the
California-based developer, which will also manage the
neighborhood-slash-farm. The company partnered with Effekt, a Danish
architecture firm, on the design.
The community will also produce its own energy, using a mixture of
geothermal, solar, solar thermal, wind, and biomass. "We're looking at
some very interesting technologies for small-footprint biomass that can
take surrounding farm waste and turn that into a consistent energy
source in a way that can power these communities in northern Europe even
in the dead of winter," Ehrlich says. A smart grid will distribute
power efficiently, sending it to a carport to charge shared electric
cars as needed.
A biogas plant will turn any non-compostable household waste into power
and water. A water storage system will collect rainwater and graywater
and redistribute it to seasonal gardens and the aquaponic system.
It's the first of a network of similar communities that ReGen plans to build around the world.
"We're really looking at a global scale," he says. "We are redefining
residential real-estate development by creating these regenerative
neighborhoods, looking at first these greenfield pieces of farmland
where we can produce more organic food, more clean water, more clean
energy, and mitigate more waste than if we just left that land to grow
organic food or do permaculture there."
The first 100-home village is on the outskirts of Almere, a quickly
growing town 20 minutes by train from Amsterdam. Inside Almere, the
company is also building a scaled-down version with 35 condo units. The
company also has more projects planned in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and
Germany, but plans to expand everywhere.
"We're really looking at starting off as the Tesla of eco-villages,"
Ehrlich says. "That's the idea. So we're coming out as a little bit
higher-end for Northern Europe." Next, the company wants to adapt the
system for arid climates such as the Middle East.
"We tackle the first two hardest climate areas," he says. "Then from
there we have global scale—rural India, sub-Saharan Africa, where we
know that the population is going to increase and also be moving to the
middle class. If everybody in India and Africa wants the same kind of
suburbs that we've been building so far, the planet's not going to make
it."
Ehrlich, who also works as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Stanford
University and as a senior technologist there, was inspired by a 2013
UN report that argued for the creation of self-sufficient communities.
In Almere, the village is likely to grow about half of the food that the
community eats—it won't grow coffee or bananas, for example. It will
also feed energy back to the local grid. But in some locations, the
company believes that the neighborhood could be fully self-sufficient.
The community in Almere will break ground this summer and be completed in 2017.
All Images: Effekt
Related 13-Year-Old Invents Tesla Inspired Free Energy Device for Under $15
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Source:
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3060167/this-new-neighborhood-will-grow-its-own-food-power-itself-and-handle-its-own-waste
