We are communities
Which give more than they take
Communities that champion organic farming, local wildlife and eco-tourism
For people to live, work and visit,
inHarmony
We are food positive
Growing food organically
On allotments, farmland and orchards,
Our communities produce more food than they consume.
Surplus produce is sold and distributed
Under our own brand, spreading the inHarmony word.
We are energy positive
Our communities produce more energy than they use.
Excess energy is used to power neighbouring towns and villages.
We are rent positive
Our energy-efficient homes don’t only reduce bills,
They’re also a source of income for our residents…
Each house is designed to give occupants the option to rent out part of their home
To holidaymakers, visitors and eco-tourists,
Enabling residents to have more rent coming in than goes out.
We are wildlife positive
Protecting and increasing biodiversity
Healing the land
We are health positive
Places you can learn to live with fresh food in fresh air
Why
Unless we change the way we live, large parts of the planet will almost certainly become uninhabitable for most of mankind.
There is an on-going crisis in world farming. This arises from the widespread trend towards ever-larger, energy-intensive monocultures and factory farming, which degrade soil and destroy biodiversity. This trend is largely driven by corporate pressure on both Government and farmers, encouraging them to rely on expensive, polluting and often unnecessary, artificial inputs. This kind of farming cannot provide a sustainable source of healthy food in the long term. A combination of factors is reinforcing these unsustainable policies, including the following:
• The average age of farmers is rising steadily as young people find it increasingly difficult to take up farming for economic reasons
• Family farms and smallholdings are being absorbed into large industrial agricultural estates, again for economic reasons, arising largely from Government taxation and subsidy policies
• Pressure from giant marketing organisations and supermarkets on farmers to accept prices that are below production costs
How
There is an urgent need to counteract these trends by initiating an ambitious scheme for achieving the following objectives:
• Facilitating the development of an increasing number of smallholdings and family farms, in addition to helping to maintain existing small farms.
• Obtaining high levels of productivity and quality through diversification of production, labour intensification and the adoption of organic and agro-ecological farming systems.
• Creating opportunities for useful and satisfying work for young people which will enable them to earn an income they can live on.
• Developing new marketing systems that pay economic prices to farmers for high-quality, healthy food.
What
Beautiful, well planned communities that are beneficial to the planet and a pleasure to live and work in, thus changing the pattern of future development by good example.
Millom
We expect the first inHarmony to be by the seaside, by the Lake District near Millom, Cumbria.
It will comprise of approximately 500 homes and 300 acres. It will include electric bike and car pool, farmers market, indoor and outdoor natural swimming pools, multi-university campus, retail, restaurants, workspaces, bicycle, walking, and educational farm trails, visitor centre. The village inharmony it will be built like an Italian hill town with much of the town acting as an amphitheatre overlooking a stage overlooking the largest freshwater lagoon in the north-west.
Birds Eye vision by BAFTA winner Catrina Stewart of S&M Architects
About us
inHarmony is a multi-award winning team who have between them helped create some of the largest and most iconic building structures in the UK including the 2012 Olympics. They are presently in negotiation with some of the world's leading funds and trusts to deliver an ambitious stream of projects that they hope will revolutionise the construction and farming industries.
inHarmony is supported by the Conservation Farming Trust a not-for-profit. More background detail about the origins of the inHarmony concept sometimes refered to as "agrivillages" can be found on their excellent website newfoodentrepreneurs.org.uk
Short videos
The first is our little video
Made by the wonderful people at Steve Edge Design
Brilliant music by Potterovski
Second is a feature about inHarmony that appeared on BBC1 TV's Countryfile
