Our aim is to build upon the existing precedents for regenerative land management such as agroecology, agroforestry, and permaculture, and so create a living example of how land can be simultaneously productive and biodiverse. This will be achieved by designing for maximum efficiency and minimum waste, building soil organic matter, enhancing biological interactions and maximising biological and genetic diversity.

We are proposing the implementation of a system of carbon capture farming. We don’t just want to reduce our carbon footprint, we want to create livelihoods that have a negative carbon impact. We will achieve this through our relationship with the soil and our use of renewable sources of energy.

We will work with short rotation coppice systems to provide biomass to meet local energy demands. We will also produce charcoal for agricultural purposes – not only on a commercial scale, where the heat is being harnessed for secondary purposes, but also through our domestic heating systems. The charcoal, when infused with nutrients and incorporated into the soil, locks the carbon into the soil, stabilises the nutrients, and provides niches for microbial life.

Our food-growing operations will be a combination of intensive annual and more extensive perennial growing. The use of domestic animals will be assessed according to their appropriateness to our goals for the site.

We recognise the vital importance of biodiversity in creating resilient ecosystems. Species will be chosen for their ability to enhance biodiversity and efforts will be made to create a wide variety of habitats on ALI farms.

We also intend to make use of fungi to convert our waste streams into protein and medicinal compounds, as well as researching their ability to enhance plant growth and soil health.

Our heat and power requirements will be provided for on site. We will generate our own energy with a mix of wing and hydro electric generators and solar PV cells; our heating will come from woodfuel using wood gasifying/charcoal producing stoves as well as solar water heaters.

We will reduce our need for transport while sharing vehicle costs, and all vehicles will be powered by on site biodiesel production units.

We will thus as a company attempt to bring our use of fossil fuels to an absolute minimum and we will evaluate the embodied energy (Emergy) of all our economic inputs both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Similarly, we will carefully design our infrastructure around natural building principles, prioritising local natural materials and traditional building techniques.