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Modeling resilience, regeneration and transformation

We’re Launching the Lifeboat Academy!

We’re Launching the Lifeboat Academy!

It’s our latest and biggest project:

 

The Lifeboat Academy

at Highgrove Farm and Commons

 

Imagine if there were a living lab – a physical space in the community – where we could sustainably feed ourselves, heal the local ecosystem, and learn how to work in harmony with nature and each other – would you want to be a part of it? Now imagine an interconnected network of these local labs scattered around the globe, sharing information and resources to get through, and even thrive, whatever might be coming. 

That’s the vision behind the Lifeboat Academy at Highgrove Farm and Commons – to develop a model of resilience and regeneration at the person, place, and community level that can be easily replicated by practically anyone in their home community. 

 

A Social Benefit Company based on the Fair Share

All our work is based on the idea of the “fair share footprint.” We see this as the foundation of a new, healthier way of thinking about resources and the economy, one that can heal the damage done by extractive capitalism. We believe that each person should have access to their “fair share” of resources and that with that comes an obligation to care for those resources responsibly. We also believe that we are all better off when we find ways to work together effectively for mutual benefit.  

That vision is baked into our organizational DNA. The enterprise will be set up as a Social Benefit Corporation, so our commitment to the community and the environment will be written into our by-laws and as an on-going experiment. Those commitments will be converted into tangible goals against which our performance can be measured. 

The work will be guided by a Stewardship Council with 16 seats to represent the diverse needs and interests of the people served by this common pool of resources, building on Elinor Ostrom’s rules for effectively managing the commons using Sociocracy 3.0 as a framework for cooperation. 

 

A Place-based Action-Learning Commons

The experiment is focused on maximizing quality of life within a sustainable footprint. We see this in very concrete terms. We estimate that Highgrove represents the “fair share” of 16 people – the resources available to feed, house, and provide for our needs. Our first big production goal is to be able to provide the equivalent of a complete diet for 16, with minimal outside inputs in a way that is carbon-neutral or carbon-negative and resilient in the face of climate chaos. 

The enterprise is also an experiential, place-based learning centre, staffed by 6 caretakersfarmers and 2 interns with space for an additional 8 learner guests. In addition, we will make our learning available online to support a network of virtual learners and “lifeboat builders” around the world. Our first big educational goal is to support the establishment of 100 new place-based lifeboats. 

 

Transition Economics

The enterprise will be financially independent, with multiple income streams to provide additional financial resilience. We anticipate income from food production, value-added food services, onsite visitors, online learners, and special events. Profits will initially be re-invested in farm / community infrastructure development and eventually invested in adding more footprints to the commons by investing in other local living labs. 

All of this work, though, depends on freeing these 16 footprints from the bonds of extractive capitalism. That’s why we are seeking project partners in this work. We are looking for people who are willing to invest in this vision for the future. Specifically, we are looking for “fair share holders” and those willing to invest in 10-year social performance bonds.

 

Social Impact Bond Holders

Bond holder dividends come in the form of tangible progress on the pro-social goals of the enterprise:

  • A demonstration of carbon-negative, climate-resilient food production.
  • Increasing local food security. 
  • The creation of structured affordable housing.
  • Increased bio-diversity, eco-system health and carbon sequestration.
  • The establishment of 100 local, place-based resilience networks. 
  • A demonstration of effective, non-coercive forms of cooperation and mutual aid.
  • Dissemination of resilience and regeneration skills through onsite experiential opportunities and an online community of learners. 

Bond holders have the added benefit of being able to leverage their equity in the project and the assurance that their investment is backed by the real estate value of the properties in the event of non-performance. 

 

Fair Share Holders

Fair Share Holders are individuals, groups of individuals pooling resources together, or organizations. Fair share holders benefit even more directly than bond holders. They have the opportunity to serve on the Stewardship Council and have access to the shared pool of resources. For example, a local arts organization could use the commons to host community events. Likewise, in addition to knowing that their investment is backed by the real estate value of the property, they get a special “insurance policy” in the form of the right to come and live within the supportive, resilient community we are establishing in the event of social disruption.   

 

 

Have questions and want to know more?

We have a more thorough proposal and FAQ here.

 


 

Hear from our partners:

 


 

 

 

Benji Ross

Founder of the Bioregional Catalysts and Weavers Guild

 

“Who couldn’t use a lifeboat in these crazy times? How about one filled with community members who all want to see the best for each other? Ben Kadel and collaborators are bringing years of experience and a lot of heart to this project. I’m excited to see how this evolves.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

April Struthers

Social Change Consultant / Owner Wit Works Ltd.

 

“I’m excited to be creating a human scaled, humane environment where we can do our best, based on effective thinking and social research, building human resilience.”

 

 

 

 

 

CoHo BC

Collaborative Home Ownership

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brooke Hayes

PhD Student, University of Victoria

 

“This work fundamentally rethinks the structure of our food systems and communities, building resilience and adaptation at local human and ecological scales. This comes at a time when we need new models and new leaders to elevate and emulate new ways of thinking and acting to address embedded social and ecological issues that allow growth and healing at all scales.”

 

 

 

 

 

Rebecca S. Krantz, PhD

“I have been a friend and colleague of Ben’s since the mid 1990s when we met in graduate school in Wisconsin. I have worked as a farmer, a social scientist, a community organizer, a group process consultant, a leadership coach, a philanthropist, and a writer. In many of these roles I have benefited from Ben’s ability to synthesize and make accessible ideas and practices from many disciplines and walks of life. The Lifeboat Academy project particularly appeals to me because in the coming changes, we are going to need more of what Margaret Wheatley calls islands of sanity: Places where we can reconnect with ourselves, each other, and the more-than-human world; where we can learn and practice resilience, restoration, regeneration, and re-indigenization. I am looking forward to the journey.”

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

The Lifeboat Academy – A “Bullet Point” Proposal

The Lifeboat Academy – A “Bullet Point” Proposal

The Lifeboat Academy at Highgrove Farm and Commons

A proposal to develop the properties at 5440-5444 Highgrove Rd. as a model of resilience and regeneration and a permanent community asset

 

Problem statement / needs assessment 

  • Things are already bumpy, and they’re going to get bumpier.
  • Climate change and the authoritarian threat are symptoms of societal collapse (not the cause of it). 
    • The cause lies in our collective delusion – the false beliefs at the heart of the extractive / colonial mindset that gives rise to all the crises we currently face. 
    • Our social structures are and will be incapable of responding adequately to the climate emergency, so we’re going to have to do things ourselves.
    • Our current “economic” system is the primary tool used to maintain these destructive systems, therefore we need to transition as quickly as possible to the Gift or Circular Economy (or at least to create spaces that are protected from these market weapons).
  • Collaboration is our secret human superpower, but our ability to collaborate effectively has been damaged by the trauma of colonialism / predatory capitalism. 
  • We urgently need to find innovative, non-institutionally-dependent ways of responding – in other words, we need to rebuild from the ground up. Highgrove Farm and Commons is our proposal for how we do that.

 

Social Challenges Engaged

  • Modeling regenerative agricultural practices
  • Providing a (literally) grounded model of “fair share footprint” living
  • Increasing local food security
  • Providing structured affordable housing for workers
  • Training in practical “resilient” life skills
  • Reconciliation with Indigenous communities and ways of knowing
  • Returning land to Commons ownership and management.
  • Modeling high-functioning collaboration practices (Sociocracy 3.0) 

 

Goals and Objectives

  • Our mission is to maximize the quality of life within a sustainable footprint. 
    • We define a “sustainable footprint” as a “Fair Share Footprint” to make “sustainability” real, grounded, and workable.
      • We estimate that the properties at 5440-5444 Highgrove Rd. represent 16 “fair share footprints”
      • (1 Footprint + Labour) * Infrastructure = Material Needs for 1 person
      • ∴ Highgrove Farm’s material goal is to produce the equivalent of food, water, shelter, and energy for 16 people in a way that enhances the health of the ecosystem of the farm.. 
    • We define “quality of life” as those experiences that make us feel like we are living a life well-lived. We refer to this as the Happiness Project. 
  • Our goal is to create a model of resilience and regeneration at the person, place, and community level that can be easily replicated by nearly anyone in their home community.
    • Resilience is to regeneration as surviving is to thriving. 
    • Personal resilience = social-emotional ability to manage eco-grief and anxiety related to climate chaos and social disruption. 
    • Place-based resilience = the practical skills and materials necessary for providing sustenance regardless of shocks to the larger economic / productive system.
    • Community resilience = collaboration and communication skills that allow us “to weave together our strengths in such a way that our weaknesses become irrelevant” and effectively manage conflict / tensions.
  • As such, we also serve as a transformative, experiential place-based education centre for those who want to start building their own Lifeboat using similar processes – a.k.a. the Lifeboat Academy
  • It’s a transition mechanism from extractive capitalism to a sustainable economic foundation (circular or gift economy). 
    • We recognize that we must function within the current economic system.
    • We avoid “market” entanglements as much as possible, leaning into self-reliance, barter, and mutual-aid networks as much as possible. 
    • Set up as a social enterprise.
    • Profits are initially re–invested into farm infrastructure.
    • Eventually, profits fund the “Golem Trust” which seeks to return more “real estate” to the commons and establish other local “resilience hubs.” 

 

Structure

  • We operate as a commons incorporating the insights of Elinor Ostrom’s rules for the commons in our structural design and governance systems. We use Sociocracy 3.0 as our operating system as elaborated in our Charter Agreements. 
    • We aren’t simply an experiment in regenerative food production. Experimenting to optimize our ability to work together effectively is equally important to resilience and regeneration. 
  • We seek 16 “fair share holders” to act as stewards of the pooled common resources.
    • Each share is valued at $150,000 CDN.
    • Shares can be purchased or earned.
    • Shares can be held by individuals, organizations, or groups of individuals. 
    • Shares bring both rights and responsibilities.
      • Fair shares are backed by the real estate value and assets of the Farm. 
      • Fair share holders have access to their fair share of resources and obligations to care for those resources. 
      • The “Insurance Policy” – Fair share holders (ultimately) have the right to live on and be fed by the property if it becomes critical. 
  • Stewardship Council 
    • 6 shares are reserved for resident farmers.
    • 2 shares are reserved for interns / students.
    • 8 shares are available for the broader community.
  • We are seeking 10-year “social performance bond holders” who are willing to invest in the vision of the enterprise and support the caregivers
    • Performance bonds are backed by the real estate value of the property in case of non-performance.
    • Social bond holders have access to the equity in the project while they are bondholders. 

 

Strategy / Guiding Principles 

  • We treat all projects as a series of experiments designed to maximize learning, agility and adaptability in the face of uncertainty – a dynamic system not a fixed set of rules or policies. 
  • We see the farm as a living organism composed of interconnected and interdependent functions. 
    • We attempt to honour and incorporate indigenous ways of knowing and working which foremost sees us as enmeshed in relationships with “all our relations.”
    • We prioritize biomimicry and observation as ways of recognizing the supreme intelligence of nature.  
  • We “feed the farm first.” 
    • We develop our food production infrastructure to first meet the majority of farm needs, selling any excess to increase farm income as it becomes available. 
  • We offer our educational, transformational and learning experiences as part of the Gift Economy, creating channels where the value we create for others can be returned to support the farm’s needs – including both money, resources, and skills. 

 

Methods / Approach

  • Our current food production model is based on blending insights from permaculture, regenerative agriculture, and traditional, non-industrial systems of agriculture and food production. 
    • Practically, this looks like a mixed-use farm with chickens for eggs (and supplemental meat), goats and cows for dairy (and supplemental meat), pigs for meat, gardens with a heavy emphasis on beans and pulses, small-scale grain production, bees for honey (and pollination), and mushrooms. 
    • At full production, we expect to produce
  • Housing on the property will use a co-housing model, with the current barn acting as the common house. We envision constructing four off-grid cottages (demonstrating a variety of green building techniques) and four “bunkies” – or small off-grid bedrooms for farm guests. 
    • This will provide permanent housing for 6 farmers and 2 interns plus up to 8 guests. 
    • Construction will start with the bunkies as a way of providing accommodation for 6 farmers and/or interns. 
    • Construction of cottages will happen in phase 2 (see below). Cottages will conform to the zoning standards to preserve the real estate potential of developing the sites for larger, conventionally grid-tied homes if the enterprise needs to be liquidated. 
  • We anticipate that 6 farmers, with supplemental help from interns and guest / learners can produce enough for 16 people – thereby feeding themselves and any farm guests, with extra food going to feed Pender folks.

 

Implementation Plan / Phases

  • Phase 1 – Immediate – 
    • Build 5 bunkies and augment kitchen / shared space to provide space for 6 farmers (or interns).
    • Begin recruiting fellow farmers
    • Begin recruiting “Interim Stewardship Council”
    • Work with CoHo BC and Foodlands Cooperative of BC to develop purchase agreement
    • Seek “Bond holders”
    • Continue to build online educational offering – aka The Lifeboat Network
  • Phase 2 – Foundation Building
    • With farmers in place, build on initial food production potential
      • Pigs with feed
      • Consolidate garden production
      • Add dairy goats
      • Build on chicken flock
    • Begin recruiting “Fair share holders”
    • Produce additional “bunkies” for guests
    • Host Permaculture Design course and other “big picture” engagement events.
    • Begin hosting guest / learners
    • Plan cottages
  • Phase 3 – 
    • Build farmer cottages
    • Continue to augment food production while reducing overall footprint. 
    • Continue to support the development of the Lifeboat Network and the establishment of 100 new Lifeboats. 

 

Qualifications

  • Ben and Roland have 9 years experience developing the model on three different farms including experience with:
    • Chickens, pigs, sheep, goats, and cows
    • Gardens and soil web health
  • Ben has a PhD in sociology and social psychology with 25 years experience working with the emotional dynamics of teams and effective collaboration. 
  • Roland has Masters in art history with experience creating transformative experiences in “non-ordinary reality”
  • Ronnie has 10 years experience working with student affairs and community organizing, along with deep experience living and working in community. 
  • Our current project partners include: .

 

Evaluation Plan

Our performance will be tracked in the following ways:

  • We document all farm produce including its calorie and macronutrient content and compare against the annual dietary needs of 16 people. 
  • We track energy usage on the farm including kilowatts of electricity and liters of gasoline or any other petroleum products. 
  • We attempt, where possible, to document the footprint of any equipment or materials brought onto the farm. The footprint of durable goods is depreciated over the expected useful life of the item. Any used or salvaged materials are considered to have zero footprint. 
  • We document the number of visitors to the farm and the number of “visitor days” as well as the number of people “on-boarded” to level 1, level 2, or level 3. 
  • All participants in any educational activities will receive an invitation to complete a feedback survey. The results of these surveys will be analyzed and reported annually as part of the farm’s annual winter planning process. 
  • We will document the number of new “Lifeboats” established. Lifeboat coordinators will be asked quarterly to provide a list of activities or actions their lifeboat has engaged in. Failure to provide any activities for more than three quarters will mark the Lifeboat as dormant. 
  • We will conduct an annual soil survey to document the depth and living soil carbon as a measure of carbon sequestration. 
  • We will conduct an annual survey of farmers, interns, and guild members to track overall happiness, quality of life, and effectiveness of collaboration systems.   

 

Funding Sustainability

  • Our income streams include:
    • Farm production – raw materials including eggs, diary, garden vegetables, tree fruit and nuts, honey, mushrooms, pulses, and grains. 
    • Value-added food services – much of the raw materials from the farm will be converted into meals for guests and special events which will increase our income potential for food. 
    • Guest accommodations – leaning into agro-eco-edu-tourism opportunities. 
    • Onsite and online educational opportunities including webinars, support circles, and coaching offered on a “pay it forward” model.
    • Special events hosted onsite.  
    • Donations and gifts from those who value the work we are doing. 
  • We estimate initial (2023) income streams to include farm production worth about $16,600, $15,000 for online educational opportunities, and $36,500 for guest accommodations and meals (roughly $68,000 / year or $5,680 / month). 
  • By 2024, we expect our income to be $27,000 for farm production, $30,000 for online education, and $54,800 for guest accommodations and meals (roughly $112,000 / year or $9,320 / month). 
  • By 2025, we expect income to increase to about $133,000 per year. 
  • Eventually, we think our income at build-out from food production to be about $72,000, from guest stays to be about $73,000, and online activities to bring in about $30,000 for a total build-out income of about $175,000 per year. 

 

FAQs

Why the Salish Sea? Why Pender Island? Why Highgrove Farm?

  • Our current location provides many advantages.
    • The Salish Sea (and the Canadian side of it) provide a relatively stable social democracy and robust local economy that is relatively well-insulated from potential climate shocks. 
    • Likewise, we are well-integrated into our local community on Pender Island with many well-established relationships with potential project partner. 
    • The properties at Highgrove Farm also provide unique opportunities. As a former clear-cut with a mix of arable, marginal and forest land it allows us to practice ecosystem repair while representing a relatively balanced fair share footprint. 

Do 16 “Fair Share Footprints” mean we are only feeding 16 people?

  • No. The idea of the “fair share” is primarily designed to give a concrete focus to the abstract idea of “sustainable footprint.” While we hope to create the equivalent of a full-diet for 16 people, this could be shared out as, for example, 10% of 160 people’s diet or 1% of 1,600 people. 

What is a timeshare-cropper?

How does the on-site education process work?

  • We offer a “choose your own adventure” framework. 
    • We hope most will come for the “Gumboot Bootcamp” – an immersive, 10-day experience that introduces our operating systems, provides direct experience doing a variety of farm chores and projects, and allows them to join any of the existing guilds as an apprentice. We’ve developed a formal “on-boarding” system to facilitate the learning process.  
    • Guests can come to enjoy and experience the farm in a less structured way, 

Farming Beauty and Joy

Uncategorized by Roland MauricePosted September 14, 2021

What are some things that make you smile and breathe deeply? A forest, a flower, a pie, a baby, a starry sky? These are beautiful things, and there are reasons

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Highgrove Farm – Year One

Part One – The first Six Month There’s a lot to report, so we’ve broken it into two posts: the first six months with a bit of an intro about

Who wants some Pender Pork?

Are you interested in buying local, improving resilience and purchasing high quality pork while supporting local farming? Then this is your lucky day! 


Only 1 half portion left! Get your order in soon!

The short and sweet version!

We sell our pork in whole, sides (half), and quarters. If you order a whole or side, you get to customize what cuts of meat you like. If you order a quarter, you get butcher’s choice. To add your name to the list, click here to bring up the order form and we’ll send you a confirmation email to get the process started.

If you have any questions about the details of pricing and process, read on!

Our Pigs

Our pigs are mixed-breed Durock, Hampshire, Landrace and Yorkshire.  Our goal throughout has been to raise the happiest, healthiest pigs possible.

Apart from basking in the sun and taking mud baths in their wallows, our pigs have been eating a combination of high-quality Vancouver Island-sourced feed, apple pomace, fallen fruit from our trees, kitchen scraps from the HUB (our local restaurant) and all the natural offerings from the pasture. Rounded out with plenty of back scratching, these have been some pretty contented pigs.

How’s does the process work?

We know many people have never bought meat directly from the farmer, so we want to walk you through the process. We know you all only want the bacon, but farmers traditionally sell meat by the whole animal, the side (half) or the quarter. Buying a side is the most common way to do it and it represents enough pork for a small family or a few friends for a year (unless you are big meat eaters).

What’s in a side?

Each side has a mix of pork chops, roasts, sausages, ribs, ham and bacon.

When you order a whole or a side, you get to select the size of roasts, thickness of chops, bone-in or boneless, which cuts you’d like cured or smoked, and what sort of sausage you prefer (if any).  We guestimate that you’ll get about 100 pounds of finished pork per side and around 50 pounds per quarter – with variation coming from the size of the pig, and the selection of bone-in vs. boneless cuts. (Billing is done based on hanging weight1.)

Quarters are generally the same mix of cuts, but, obviously, since we’re dividing a side and there is some variation in the cuts from front to back, it won’t be exactly the same.

What will it cost?

We’re offering our pork at $5/pound (based on the hanging weight1) plus the butchering costs. The price of butchering varies slightly based on your custom cutting requests, but run $1.25 per pound for regular cuts, and slightly more for smoked meat (like hams and bacon) or sausages.  Butchering will be done by Braun Meats in Duncan.  We guestimate your invoice to be in the neighborhood of $1,000 (incl. pork, butchering and taxes) for a side (and about half that for a quarter).

Again, variation in price is a result of pig size and butchering choices.

It’s hard to do a direct price comparison with retail prices, but last year we calculated that our happy healthy pork was about 10 or 15% more expensive than buying industrially produced pork cuts at Thrifty Foods.

Pick-up Process

Your pork will come frozen from the butcher.  It is critical that you’re able to pick it up the day it’s ready at 5441 Highgrove Rd (see map), as we don’t have freezer space for 14 sides!  We’re expecting the orders to be ready the end of August / beginning of September, but it depends on the butcher. The pigs have a date at Braun for August 19th and they tell us to expect one to two weeks for processing.   We’ll give you as much advance notice as possible.  Plan on having about 3 cubic feet of freezer space ready for a side

Order Now – ONLY 1 Half Portion Left (or 2 quarters)

We’ll be taking orders on a first-come, first-served basis. We opened our sales up first to our customers from last year and so over half of our pork is already sold. Please fill out the form here to reserve your pork. We request $100 deposit on all pre-orders, due by August 19th.

We will follow up with emails (or phone calls if preferred) to confirm your order, and to collect your custom butchering requests.  We anticipate having your pork available for pick-up in the first week of September.

Contact us directly if you have any questions


1 Live weight refers to the weight of the animal when it goes to market. The hanging weight is the weight after slaughter which removes much of the internal organs – leaving about 70% of the live weight. The actual weight of final meat products is reduced again by about 30% of the hanging weight as most bones and excess fat is removed. Again, the final weight of meat will depend on the custom cutting instructions you choose.

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The Pig Project

Pigs have been part of traditional farms for thousands of years for a lot of good reasons. Here is some information about how we are integrating pigs into Highgrove and why.

Farm Journal: 6 May, 2020

Comment 3Farm Journal by BenPosted May 6, 2020Tags: Community, Compost, Pigs View 37

Another nice day. High 15. A little splatter of rain out of no where, but mostly blue skies with puffy clouds and quite breezy. In fact, breezy enough that it

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A Practical Food Security Plan

A Practical Food Security Plan

Now that the dust is starting to settle from the emergency response to the pandemic, many of us are starting to think about what lies ahead. In our little island

Do Piglets Go To Heaven

Yesterday one of our piglets died. Another one is sick and hopefully is on the mend but, like an infant, it can’t tell us what’s going on so we wait

Journal Entry for March 30, 2020

Comment 2Farm Journal by Roland MauricePosted March 30, 2020View 33

But I have to say how I’m amazed at how much we actually got done in a week, and it hasn’t been because of the pandemic. The social isolation has

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Daily Journal: 25 March, 2020

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The weather started cloudy but ended up sunny and warm with a high around 8c. We’re on day 11 (I think) of physical isolation. We haven’t been in quarantine –

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Our Wish List

We are starting our farm in challenging times. The covid-19 pandemic started closing things down less than 2 weeks after we moved in to a blank canvas farm. Our plan

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Recent posts

We’re Launching the Lifeboat Academy!
We’re Launching the Lifeboat Academy!
November 7, 2022 by highgrove_qxqppk
The Lifeboat Academy – A “Bullet Point” Proposal
The Lifeboat Academy - A "Bullet Point" Proposal
November 4, 2022 by highgrove_qxqppk
Farming Beauty and Joy
Farming Beauty and Joy
September 14, 2021 by Roland Maurice

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