Crowdfund – Organic Farming Education for a Resilient Bali

We have launched our request for financial support for Bekandze Farm School, in Indonesia, to help small holders switch to organic and resilient farming methods.

If you have read my book Breaking Together, or simply seen the recent science and news on the environment, then you know we have entered an era of increasing disruption. Like many people, I want to respond in ways that reduce harm and create possibility. That is the aim of this new farm school in Indonesia. Already, we are helping more local farmers switch to organic and resilient forms of agriculture, as a basis for re-localising and regenerating the rural economy. But to establish ourselves as a viable training centre, with a lasting impact locally, and to communicate that globally, we need your help. 

We began in February 2023, with a 15-year land lease, a partnership with a local charity that specialises in organic farming, and capital for the start-up costs and staffing for two years. Our partner, Emas Hitam, already helped 30 families in a neighbouring area to switch methods, thereby regenerating soils and biodiversity, reducing toxicity, capturing carbon and becoming less susceptible to external disruption. We aim for similar outcomes around the town of Tampaksiring and to then develop a regenerative business network with the participants (to be controlled by them). To achieve this vision, we need to finance our training programmes for local smallholders, as well as the development of our facilities. 

Therefore, our target is to raise over 15000 GBP by Earth Day, April 22nd 2024. Your donation would help us arrange training programmes for over 100 Balinese small holders, with follow-up support. It would also pay for more tree planting and further development of our facilities. If we beat our target, we can take more steps towards becoming a zero carbon farm, including solar power. All funds will be received by the Schumacher Institute, a UK registered charity. 

The co-director of the project is Dr Patrick Smith, an Australian agriecologist living in Bali and working with local communities to move back to nature-positive food production. His research and teaching career included roles at the CSIRO and Australian universities, with senior consulting positions in the environmental sector. He has extensive experience addressing the many environmental issues associated with the agriculture. He has worked with indigenous groups in Australia and the Asia-Pacific since the 1990s to develop livelihoods based on traditional cultural knowledge and concepts of land stewardship.

I am the other co-director, and am best known as a scholar on societal breakdown due to environmental change. Downloaded over a million times, my ‘Deep Adaptation’ paper inspired many people to join a new wave of climate activism, as well explore how to reduce harm from the unravelling of modern societies. I’m a former UN consultant and senior manager with NGOs, and quit a job-for-life Professorship in the UK to emigrate to Indonesia to pursue collaborative resilience with local communities. Currently I’ve been bankrolling this initiative… but allocated funds are running low. Thankfully, The Schumacher Institute is helping receive donations for this work to grow. So if you could support us to show what’s possible from a post-doom grassroots initiative, please chip in to our crowdfund! 

Our own Earthshot!

If we raise sufficient funds (23K total), then we will purchase an electric scooter and get it converted into an electric tricycle for zero carbon farm deliveries (as it would be powered by our solar panels). We believe it would be the first such vehicle in Bali, perhaps Indonesia. We would make a film about the process of scooter conversion and deliveries. If one donor provides us with a gift of 5000 GBP for this vehicle, we will name it after them, painting their name on the side, before making the film. Given the resource constraints on planet Earth, we believe this is the appropriate use of EV technology, not fancy private vehicles. Help us show the way?