Food and Land
Back to the future?
The Big Picture: Sometimes it’s useful to look backwards to get a handle on the steps one needs to take to see real progress. This is especially true within this movement for building a better planet-wide society. Much has been tried already, and from those projects, much was learned. Today we’ll take a glance at the Green Building Movement that began in the 1970’s.
For the Record: By now Green Building practices have a real active presence in the economy. There are LEED standards that new and renovated buildings are following, and much innovation in the generation and storage of power on-site. These are good, and more could be done in this arena. Part of my own independent studies in the 1990’s acquainted me to longstanding projects as Arcosanti & Cosanti; in the western US states. These folks bought 800 acres in Arizona, and over 50 years of development have carefully managed to thrive within only 20 acres. So they have all they require, and are able to protect a huge swathe of land from encroachment. Their focus on architecture is renowned; not least in the ways they managed to cool their dwellings without modern Air Conditioning, simply using good design principles. No small feat, in a place that routinely tops 100 degrees Farenheit for much of the year.
- https://www.arcosanti.org/50th-anniversary/
Meanwhile in neighboring New Mexico and Colorado, the Earthships architectural movement was also taking off. They too seek to work more closely with nature and its teachings; to create homes that work efficiently within their given situations. I am lucky enough to have stayed in a few, they are truly beautiful as well.
- https://www.earthshipglobal.com/
Looking further south, we come upon the Centro de las Gaviotas project in Columbia. I’ll focus a bit more on Gaviotas, since it’s not terribly well represented online.
- drinking bottles made of plastic, but shaped like Lego brick toys so that the village kids use them for play after they are no longer good for holding water
- a well-pump that is also a children’s see-saw, no motor / fuels required
- regionally appropriate windmills
- bricks made from waste by-product, for building
- https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2021/02/nzambi-matee-plastic-bricks/
- http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/colombians-building-houses-made-wasted-plastic-shaped-huge-lego-bricks/
What they’re saying: “Better quality, Low price, and Zero Waste. We’re doing this. If your economists say that it cannot be done, sack them!” – Gunter Pauli
- https://mobilized.news/bouffier/ (More about the Gaviotas Project)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunter_Pauli (Very influential Fellow)
- ** www.zeri.org
- Urban Ore, who divert tons away from landfills every week, and sell usable products such as old doors and house furnishings
- The Ecology Center, who likewise finds novel ways to repurpose trash into art, toys, etc…
- Build It Green, a trade association that is on the forefront of teaching big ideas to the stodgy old building trades.
- https://mobilized.news/bite-sized-book-reviews/(look at – the Green Collar Economy)
- https://mobilized.news/bite-sized-book-reviews-ii-electric-boogaloo/(look at – Capitalism 3.0)
{Late edit} Here are a few more sites that are relevant to this discussion:
- https://mobilized.news/sarah-savory-holistic-management-and-action-is-the-way-forward/
- https://endelevu.co.ke
- https://aroundtheworld.coop (Much more on this site, in the next essay)