GardeNouns DAO Proposal

[TreeDjinn]

GardeNouns DAO Proposal

(Decentralized food production/permaculture communities)

Proposal by TreeDjinn from Australia

TL;DR

Creating self governed intentional communities centered around decentralized food forest gardens through the ethics and principles of permaculture.

Request

999 ETH, this should be enough to cover the acquisition of land and the establishment of our first GardeNoun’s intentional community.

Overview

To effect change in web3 I believe that a strong element of community is essential.
In real life, food is what brings people together and food production is the foundation of that. Food production has become more and more centralized in recent times, making us more and more dependent on the fragile centralized food production systems, separating us from our source of sustenance while making us more dependent on complete strangers and less dependent and more estranged to our neighbors/community. So now I propose a new ‘old’ way forward through a combination of our latest technology and ancient wisdom.

Food has brought us together for millenia… it’s time we get back to our roots. By decentralizing our food production systems we can re-establish a global network of localized communities that not only brings us back closer together, but also brings more resilience to our food systems. One of the main tenets of the blockchain is ‘no single point of failure’ this is also true for decentralized food production, it creates more resilience and diversity while bringing a sense of meaning and purpose back into our lives, enhancing our relationship with the earth and our understanding of our interconnectedness with all things.

Goals

1. Decentralized land ‘ownership’
2. Decentralized food production
3. Community governance through blockchain technology (DAO)
4. “Share skills to rebuild our combined reliance” - Formidable Vegetable
5. Education about universal patterning and sustainable food production (permaculture)

Specifications

Permaculture is rooted in the understanding of universal patterning, and how we can apply the natural patterns we see all around us to our food production systems and well… everything we create in this life, to create a healthier more harmonious world for everyone.

Permaculture is an ethical design philosophy based on 3 foundational ethics; Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share and 12 principles which you can learn more about in this free ebook by the co-originator of permaculture David Holmgren: The Essence of Permaculture.

Upon the anticipated approval and execution of this proposal, we would acquire some land in Australia (the exact whereabouts agreed on by the community/DAO.) Following the ethics and principles of permaculture we would then begin installing syntropic food forests, building some earthships/accommodation and a main hub for the first GardeNoun’s intentional community. Any excess funding would be put towards the acquisition of more land to replicate these communities across Australia and around the world!

Each land title acquired will fork into its own DAO, embodying culture (lore of the land), within the ethics of permaculture. Upon joining a community as a resident, one will sign a smart contract legally and spiritually binding one to the ethics of permaculture and the lore of the land as outlined in the contract.

Milestones

1. Land Acquisition

First and foremost we must acquire some land. To showcase the true potential of permaculture and blockchain/DAO technology, I would suggest that we acquire the most degraded farmland in an ideal location and aim to restore it beyond its former glory, documenting the whole evolution process on the blockchain. The land title is placed in a DAO (or trust) governed by the DAO.

2. GardeNouns DAO Community Governance Framework

With the decentralization of land ‘ownership’ naturally comes the next essential step; creating a system/framework for decentralized community governance, to create and maintain consensus on the rightful use and care of the land. I have been conceptually working on this solution on my own for some time now but of course we will develop this framework together as a community, getting as much diverse input as possible to create the most robust incorruptible governance system possible, of course, embodying the ethics of permaculture.

3. Nuclei Establishment

Of course this will take some time for us to establish a working self-sufficient intentional community, ensuring that our governance model is successful and making any required adjustments as we grow together.

4. GardeNouns Goes Global

Upon successful implementation of our first nuclei, we will be ready to expand and begin establishing more nuclei around the world using our successful working model as an example. We will document the whole process to pave the way for future successions/replications of this model. We will continue expanding outwards and begin acquiring land and establishing GardeNouns ‘forked’ communities all around the world! Soon enough there will be a GardeNouns community near you…

This may call for a Global GardeNouns DAO which will be governed by the communities which make up the nodes of this potential future ‘DAO of DAOs’

5. GardeNouns Holiday Access Pass

Anyone who is a part of the various Nouns communities may have the opportunity to gain an NFT holiday access pass upon signing a smart contract agreeing to the GardeNouns travel policy, this may enable traveling Nouns to locate, map out and check-in to GardeNouns communities with vacancies all around the world through ‘Noogle Maps’, using a ‘timeshare’ model.

Business Model Canvas

Summary

The main focus of this project is to create and maintain decentralized intentional communities to create a more sustainable and harmonious connection with land and each other, bringing us back to our true nature, re-establishing and maintaining an intimate connection with the land and our source of nourishment/sustenance. Through decentralization and DAO technology/community governance we aim to remove the delusion of land ownership bringing us back to a state of stewardship/custodianship of the land, bringing the land back into the realm of what was once known as ‘the commons’ that which is essential to all life, owned by none but used by and governed by all.

[CHEFFO]

As someone who cares deeply about this issue, I appreciate the high level concept. FOODNOUNS fully supports land management, community gardening and re-creation of our food systems.

This is not a prop though. It is a concept document. A casual request for 999 ETH is rude, unprofessional, and a major builder red flag.

The garden concept is great. Buying land for gardens is something that I have been exploring and discussing for a year now in Web3. This will happen. However it will be one of the most complex, hard to manage, legally complicated and long-term “investments” and group could make. The plan to create this environment needs to be vast as does the team(s).

The time-share, Noogle element is fun but again highly conceptual and not detailed.

I truly hope that we see things like this in the future of the Nounish Global Ecosystem. I hope we see a re-done version of this document that reflects more of a detailed approach and a larger team. We should also be exploring a MVP of this concept, then going all the way.

[bowlingseed]

Maybe 1.19M for “acquisition of land” and building an international community is ambitious and couldn’t be done for 100 ETH or with a small grant. The plan is well written, brief, and full of big ideas, and also uses a DAO to support a virtuous goal.

The Nouns Virtuous Cycle post states, " I think we should be bold with the Nouns DAO treasury. We should fund and cultivate a community of builders by experimenting, taking risks, and ultimately funding every high quality proposal that could lead to interesting culture and software"

Nouners, is being “bold with the Nouns DAO treasury” still a guiding principle?

[TreeDjinn]

Hello @CHEFFO thank you for your critical feedback. I can agree with most of what you have said. I intentionally kept the daft proposal short for the purpose of getting as many other diverse opinions as possible so that we can refine the vision and go into more detail together. I would love to have a chat with you about this vision and go into some more detail.

[TreeDjinn]

Hello @bowlingseed, thank you for your feedback/response.
We could look at proposing to acquire a much cheaper and smaller parcel of land to begin with and start with a simple community garden without much infrastructure an ‘MVP’ as CHEFFO puts it… however as you mentioned I also thought that a larger more ambitious project might draw the attention required to really get everyone interested and involved, bringing in as much diversity of hearts and minds as possible. You are right, the vision I have laid out is quite brief and full of big ideas, sowing some seeds to expand on with future proposals. As pioneers of this technology I believe that we must take risks and bold actions, but I also respect @CHEFFO’s point here:

@CHEFFO

However it will be one of the most complex, hard to manage, legally complicated and long-term “investments” and group could make. The plan to create this environment needs to be vast as does the team(s).

So maybe we can compromise and look at implementing a very basic governance system to begin with, slowly experimenting with (reversible) layers of complexity to the governance framework.

[bowlingseed]

Ok let’s team up: @TreeDjinn grows the food, @CHEFFO cooks it, and @Bowlingseed eats it. I’m here to do my part.

I wish you well on this proposal, I love your ambitious goals.

[TreeDjinn]

Sounds like a plan, lets get in touch!