Upadaria

 

The concept behind a farmstead estate is a grouping of around 15 or so adults, including around 5 nuclear families and single adults connected to them who share ownership in a multi-faceted farmstead which raises essential food staples for up to 1,000 families.

 

Essentially a UPO™ Farmstead Estate (farmstead for short) is a homesteading partnership of around 5 families and attached single adults who create a profitable business selling food staples to customers, which can be partially limited to fellow Upadaria™ns and fellow Christians, but also extend to the general public.

 

This concept takes the smaller application of homesteading to a new nevel of efficiency. By scaling things up, ot increases efficiencies and productivity. A small 10 are plot with fish farm, greenhouses, aquaponics, and small animal herds (goats, rabbits, chickens, for example), could outperform much larger farms.

 

The farmstead may also cover its costs through real estate investment and provide residential and/or commercial space to the public. In this case, a 20 acre farmstead may include 7 acres for the various components of food productivity, 3 acres for the peers who live there, 2 acres for around 12 residences and 5 commercial spaces leased to the public, an acre for refugees/transitional housing, and 7 acres set aside for nature.

 

The farmstead land would be part of a local UPO™ chapter land trust, which would be rewarded with a 10% tithe of produced foods in order to ensure aid to members and cover benevolence needs. The buildings would be owned by the peer residents and/or a cooperative owned by its peer customers. The business would be owned by its participants using a participatory ownership plan.

 

In areas with multipl UPO™ Farmsteads, there may be specialization and the various farmsteads may form an ad hoc or formal food production consortium to ensure that all essentials are locally grown in a sustainable manner. A local chapter organization may use its resources and crowdfund among members to provide seed capital for developing farmsteads which repay the loan and/or share profits with investors.

 

The development of farmsteads would be part of any area-wide “distributed city” plan enacted by an area chapter, the Shire. This would include education and training in homesteading, victory gardens, and farmsteading, from going food and raising animals, to technical methods and means, and business and marketing. Identifying, training, and funding people with the calling and skills to develop and manage farmsteads and to support homesteading and victory gardens is a necessary part of any distributed city planning regimen.

 

Farmsteads, whether linked to the Upadaria™ concept or not, are the essential element to local food freedom that will also enhance the well-being of nature and create local sustainability that frees people from the top-down centralized corporate food industry. Whether one’s cocnern is freedom, local autonomy, or the environment, an intentional program for developing, nurturing, and supporting farmstead estates is a ready-made solution.