Goals and Objectives
The overarching goal of the Future Farm Project is to perpetuate the mission of the whole farm. To that end, the founding owners and current managers of SSCSA (Henning Sehmsdorf and Elizabeth Simpson) are working to transfer the farm to community ownership through trust agreements and leases intended to:
1. Make sure that the farm will continue to provide high quality, fresh food for the local community,
2. Guarantee that the farm continues to be managed using Biodynamic practices to ensure soil fertility, ecological health, and resource self-sufficiency,
3. Help incubate innovative, creative projects to strengthen community-based enterprise and education,
4. Enable the next generation of farmers to work the land without having to own it, while providing opportunities to earn a decent living and economic security (The Economics of Food Self-Sufficiency 2004)
5. Guarantee retirement security for the current and future managers of the farm (at age 65) by providing on-farm housing, adequate supplies of farm-produced, seasonal foods (fresh vegetables and staples, fruit, eggs, dairy products, meat (beef, pork, lamb), and bread), utilities (water, electricity), and provide handyman’s help (1 day/week) with chores such as cleaning gutters, mowing lawns, splitting firewood, etc. (Retiring on the Commons 2017)
Current projects
1. Strengthen the Lopez Island Farm Education (LIFE) program at the local school by contributing on-farm classes and providing farm produce and meat to the school cafeteria at reduced cost.
2. Develop week-long farm intensive courses for public school and Waldorf students K-12 to gain hands-on experience of complete work processes involved e.g. in plant propagation, animal husbandry, food processing, or forest management.
3. Create a Waldorf Kindergarten at the farm that maximizes opportunities for small children to experience whole life cycles in forest, garden, orchard and at pond sites, and in interaction with farm animals and wildlife.
4. Expand farm stay accommodations for adults to experience the therapeutic effects of live-giving foods, a clean, wholesome environment, sound life habits and natural medicines.
5. Motivate the island community to take ownership of their food sources by investing in the Future Farm Project through donations, grants, or purchasing ownership shares.
Funding
The Future Farm Project is presently funded through continuing investments by the owners, through farm production and educational programs, through public research grants, WSU BIOAg grants, and through donations.
Donations to the Future Farm Project (or specific projects) are received through A.W.I.S.H. (A World Institute of Sustainable Humanity), a 501©3 organization under whose umbrella SSCSA is established as a non-profit organization.