Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

ebuilDing cornucopia : How to create a community garDen 113
the development of an elaborate structure for food production and
distribution. In this article, we intend to share the most important lessons we
have learned over these past 35 years, including the difficulties we have
encountered and the solutions we have pioneered as a result. While much of
our situation is unique, many of the solutions are concrete examples with
broader application.
So now, the story of a community that began with just a few people,
mostly young city folk, inspired by the spiritual dream of a new civilization.
These were visionaries who developed our own model of society, which
included sustainable agriculture as a focus. Thirty-five years later, we
produce not only enough for our own community needs but also surplus for
the surrounding local community: vegetables, wine, bread, olive oil, cheese,
and meat.
From Family Garden to Self-sufficiency
In the late 1970s, the first citizens of Damanhur purchased a muddy, hilly
piece of land and christened it their capitol: Damjl. With no previous
experience in agriculture, the founders did their best to create and cultivate
terraces into a family-style garden. The group’s main focus at the time was
the construction of the underground Temples of Humankind, which was
built entirely by hand, in secret. The physical demands of construction
heavily influenced their diet and nutritional needs.
Soon, out of necessity, certain community members began to specialize
in farming. Food production began to become more efficient. Just like our
artists and builders, who were learning their crafts from the ground up, our
farmers too were starting from scratch.
Damanhurians were pioneering a new civilization and were doing so
with an increasing sense of urgency. Their goal to create a new paradigm for
An enterprise
originally begun
on crude terraces
has grown into a
sophisticated regional
exemplar.