A Regenerative Future with Bioregional Towns
A nature-based vision for ecological resilience and community health.
Climate health and human health are intertwined. When we damage our ecosystems, our health suffers — from heat-related deaths to a rise in toxicity or infectious disease.
When we heal our ecosystems using practices like regenerative agriculture, we can improve our health, the health of our regional ecosystems, and the health of the climate, which affects all life on earth.
Eco-villages, where people have lower carbon footprints by living in harmony with nature, can be ideal locations for nature-based community health experiments. I have been researching and thinking about eco-villages for over a decade and bioregional health for a few years.
The following article is a vision of life in an eco-village based on my experience in healthcare design, a deep love of nature, and my own intense healing journey.
Motivation
Health and well-being are the central focus of the eco-village. To achieve health — for ourselves and the ecosystem — we trust nature and partner with her, employing a blend of ancient and modern technologies from regenerative agriculture and herbal medicine to growing products from mycelium.
Healthy food
A lush, biodiverse regenerative farm, or food forest, nourishes our community. Native perennials, which sink more carbon than annual crops and are more resilient to climate change, grow around the medicinal plants that thrive on the farm.
Our perennial crops include nuts, berries, and perennial vegetables like artichoke, asparagus, and miner’s lettuce. Annual vegetables grow in a small sunny spot at the edge of the food forest, and a greenhouse extends our growing season.
Our farm operates on nature’s “waste = food” principle in a closed-loop system. For fertilizer, we use compost and animal waste generated on-site.
We don’t import pesticides or herbicides. We don’t export trash or toxic run-off. Our plant communities reduce pests and weeds, and their biodiversity increases resilience. We make the most of our water with greywater systems and healthy soils that store water to get us through dry spells.
To turn our food into medicine to treat community health conditions, our community chefs partner with medical professionals (herbalists, functional medicine naturopathic doctors, and dietitians) to create recipes using healing foods that naturally grow in our bioregion. For example, in a pandemic, the team focuses on immune-supporting meals and medicine. If there is a rise in heart disease, the group focuses on a heart-friendly diet.
Because inflammation is associated with many modern health challenges[i], everything produced on-site is anti-inflammatory. Contrary to life outside our healthy village, our default choices are not only healthy but have been specifically created to heal our community.
Of course, clean air, water, and soil, which everyone protects, form an essential foundation for healthy bodies.
Instead of putting the burden of healing on sick people, the community continually creates health together. When someone is sick, the community works together to nurture people back to health so they can contribute their talents to regenerating life.
The health team finds the simplest, most cost-effective way to heal our community, replacing most pharmaceuticals with easily grown alternatives. For example, mullein leaves, which grow abundantly, are used as asthma inhalers.
Growing our medicine reduces reliance on unreliable supply chains, eliminates carbon emissions from transporting goods, and reduces reliance on pharmaceuticals developed from fossil fuels. (Yes, that is a thing. I know, yuck!).[ii]
We prefer locally grown medicines because plants produce healing chemical constituents in response to environmental stresses.[iii] We become more resilient by working with plants that have adapted to our ecosystem’s stress and diseases.
This improves both our health and the sustainability of our food production. While we occasionally eat spices and chocolate that travel long distances, our health team continually develops creative substitutions. 90% of our food is grown on-site, 8% is sourced within 150 miles, and for the last 2%, we are very deliberate about sourcing to reduce ecological impact.
We believe in nature’s ability to heal us. When new plants arrive in our community, we welcome them, especially if they are labeled “invasives” (which often have potent medicinal and ecological properties). When farmers discover new plants growing in the area, the herbalists, farmers, and shamans learn how to work with the new plants to benefit our community, including our beyond-human neighbors.
Healthy homes
Our village has several dozen homes nestled in a rich ecosystem with the smell of fresh herbs wafting through walkways. The homes include cottages for individuals and larger homes for families or groups who live together. The low-profile dwellings blend into the landscape and minimize environmental impact while maximizing comfort.
We don’t plop rectangular boxes on the land. Instead, our buildings are a thoughtful expression of our ecosystem and are built or grown using the natural materials and techniques most appropriate for our bioregion. Most of our building materials are sourced from the site. Everything is non-toxic.
Buildings soak up the sun for heat in the wintertime and are shaded to keep cool in summer. Sun, water, and wind are all channeled through structures to provide light, temperature control, and pleasure.
We generate energy on-site and are conscious of our usage. To care for our flying friends, especially during migration season, we limit the use of outside lights not to disrupt migration patterns.
Each home is uniquely tailored to the inhabitants’ personalities. Some are cozy and nurturing, while others are bold and expressive. Some are designed for reflection with sparse décor, while others are designed for entertaining.
Like the farm, our buildings are closed-loop systems. We recycle greywater by filtering it through plants and fungi and find healthy ways to use all our waste. We are conscious of our consumption not to generate excess waste.
To reduce the need for redundant resources, we share less frequently used items. Laundry is shared with every three to four homes. Of course, all detergents are non-toxic, and over time, we develop home-grown alternatives. Because the community is walkable and most of our travel outside the community is via bike or train, we share a few vehicles housed in a community garage.
After several generations on the land, our community develops a smaller carbon footprint by understanding and living in greater harmony with the bioregion. Ecological knowledge is preserved and proudly shared with new generations.
Healthy community
At the center of the community is a community kitchen and dining hall for shared meals, celebrations, and love. The community hall includes a library, movie theater, dance/yoga/workshop space, and remote work offices. We have an outdoor starlit dining table and concerts in the forest in good weather.
We honor the cycles of nature and enjoy planting and harvest ceremonies aligned with the Celtic wheel of the year. Each celebration weaves in our diverse community’s cultural customs and food.
Everyone contributes to the community in meaningful and joyful ways. Those who enjoy cooking prepare community meals. Those who enjoy farming grow food and medicine.
Extroverts interact with neighboring communities, and introverts reflect and produce thoughtful materials for knowledge transfer. We share work so that people play to their strengths and pleasure.
Our leadership includes rotating leadership triads caring for areas such as farming, food preparation, buildings, and health. Each year a new leader replaces the longest-serving leader in the trio, giving the leadership triad a balance of stability and fresh ideas.
Adults join because of a desire to be part of a community, and children learn to care for and look after others. With a concern for our collective welfare, we equitably share in the abundance created within our community.
Each of us feels deeply loved and knows in our bones that we belong. With this love and all our foundational material needs easily met, we have very few misdeeds. On the rare occasion they do happen, we practice restorative justice.
We honor conflict as the fire of transformation. Our “shake-it-out shack” supports healthy relationships by enabling individual emotional processing and mediated conflict resolution.
The area is constructed at the edge of the village to provide privacy. Individuals can yell or vent anger in the space with no negative repercussions. There are also pillows and foam bats for hitting things and speakers so people can play music and dance it out.
Our community members are expressive and creative with considerable emotional freedom by cultivating emotional clarity. While people are welcome to “shake it out” as often as they like, they are encouraged to go at least once a month as part of their emotional hygiene. The space is regularly sained (a Celtic practice like smudging) to keep the energy clean.
Once people have had the opportunity to vent their frustration individually, a mediator works to find a solution that benefits all parties. The “shake-it-out shack” is considered a sacred space.
Community members model healthy relating behaviors, and young people in the community grow up with an unusually high aptitude for navigating the complexities of human relationships, which helps us respond to the stresses of climate change.
This high relation aptitude makes us great collaborators. Because of collaboration skills and deep ecological knowledge, our community members, including youth, are often recruited by leading organizations and research institutions to create global regenerative transformation.
An on-site spa, hot spring, beauty salon, and small medical clinic support our health and well-being. In addition to growing our medicine, we produce most of our beauty products.
Our medical providers are skilled in using natural medicines and consult with specialists worldwide to provide the best local care with global insights. Because our medical providers see people in their day-to-day lives, they have deeper healing insights. They also leverage the healing power of caring relationships.
We honor death as a part of life, and our graveyard is a forest. Our remains feed the local ecosystem with a tree planted over each of us after we pass.
Spreading the love
Our primary export is regeneration knowledge, and most of us work part-time on regenerative projects worldwide, either establishing similar healing communities, regenerating valuable ecology, or amplifying Indigenous voices. We know that social systems and ecological resilience are closely intertwined and continually create innovative solutions that replace obsolete extractive industries and systems.
Because of the power of fungi, we have a mycology research team that collaborates with other labs and research institutions around the globe to find fungal solutions for society’s challenges, including cleaning up toxic waste, creating medicine, and growing regenerative homes. Similarly, our health team works with researchers and indigenous people to develop the evidence base for highly effective plant medicine.
Another way we share the love is by having temporary residents who bring knowledge from other places in the world and broadly share the knowledge gained by living in our community.
We also invite artists to live on-site. Our artist’s cabin hosts new artists in residence each quarter. The program is highly sought after, and the art created in the heart of our community inspires regenerative transformation throughout the world.
What part of this vision resonates with you the most?
What would you change, add, or remove?
Interested?
If you are interested in bringing this vision to life in a diverse, multi-generational community in a temperate climate (probably in Northern Europe), please complete this form, and we’ll be in touch!
References
[i] https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2019/05/inflammation-disease-diet
[ii] https://www.kcet.org/shows/earth-focus/10-everyday-products-derived-from-petroleum
[iii] Buhner, Stephen, Healing Lyme. New Mexico: Raven Press, 2015.
