One of the key characteristics of a regenerative property is resilience.

In practice, this implies that your property has inbuilt redundancies for its main functions - such as food, energy, water, etc.

Meaning...

Food is produced in a multitude of ways,

Energy is generated in a multitude of ways,

Water is provided in a multitude of ways…

You get the picture. If one option fails, there are others to take its place.

(Redundancies = resilience = ability for your farm or homestead to sustain itself in the face of disruption.)

Given that we are living in these exciting times, where we are hit by crisis after crisis, I would say one of the best things you could do for your well-being is to ensure that you have these redundancies in place so that you are less dependent on the system that keeps failing us.

So, if you are nodding in agreement, let me run you through my framework of evaluating your property for resilience and then addressing the weakest links in the system so that you can be more self-reliant.

Here’s the intel:

STEP 1. Identify the critical functions of your regenerative farm or homestead

After thinking extensively about the functions of a regenerative property, I have identified eight main ones. These are:

1. Food - production of nutritious food while nurturing soil health.
2. Water - conservation, management, and water recycling to support the household and a thriving ecosystem.
3. Energy - electricity generation via renewable energy sources to power the infrastructure needs, heating and cooling of living spaces
4. Waste - reduction of the output and transformation into valuable input, creation of closed-loop systems
5. Income - generation of income aligned with ethical and community-focused principles.
6. Protection & Security - securing/sheltering the human inhabitants against environmental and social challenges.
7. Health - promotion of physical, mental, and spiritual well-being
8. Habitat & Biodiversity - promotion of environmental well-being and the thriving ecosystem.

Each of these roles/purposes/functions is something that a regenerative property can provide. But, not all might be relevant to your context, and not all are critical functions that need redundancies.

For example, if you live on a rural property in an economically prosperous but dry and fire-prone area, work from home in the IT sector, and have financial resources to leverage, the critical functions of the permaculture property for you might be Food, Water, Health (to avoid burnout from too many Zoom meetings!), Protection & Security (fire protection). The rest, like energy, waste, income, habitat & biodiversity, might be secondary and, for the time being, can depend on single systems and elements.

So, the first step is to identify which of the above-listed functions are critical in your context.

STEP 2. List all the ways that critical functions are supported

Once you get step 1. nailed down, list all the systems and elements supporting these critical functions next.

For example:

Food - annual garden, orchard, chickens, aquaponics…

Water - well, rainwater harvesting tank, pond…

Health - medicinal herb garden, walking paths through the forests, dedicated areas for relaxation and observation…

Protection & Security - firebreaks, shelterbelts, water systems…

STEP 3. Address the weakest link(s) in your overall system

Now, looking at your list, analyze which critical functions fail the redundancy test. I.e., dependent only on one system or element.

For example, it could be that you don't have enough elements or systems supporting your health function and only have a medicinal garden, or that (fire) protection & security function is only supported by well water.

Whatever function failed the redundancy test, think of additional ways to support it.

Aim to have at least two ways of support. The more, the better, of course. As the old saying goes: "Two is one, and one is none."

And that's it. That's how you ensure you are more self-reliant and resilient around the most essential things in your context.

Once you do this evaluation and fix your weakest links, it only makes sense to focus on 'upgrading' other functions in your system. In my mind, each of these is important in its own way. It's just a matter of prioritizing what to fix and install first.

Now, there are many moving pieces (systems and elements) on a regenerative property that could support a specific function, so it can easily get time-consuming and overwhelming trying to think through it all.

My Regenerative Loops Database can assist you with this assessment, show you the weakest links in your system, and give you my recommendations for what to do about it.

Once you know what your weak links are, you can browse the database for hundreds of ideas to strengthen those critical areas -- as well as suggestions for how to connect those new projects to other systems on your property.

In short, it’s a plug-and-play tool for creating a truly resilient and interconnected system. It helps you design smart connections between all components of your property through instant "needs and yields" analysis of each design element you choose. This way, you don’t have to spend hours thinking about how your animals, gardens, and orchards… might work together in perfect sync, where the output of one component automatically becomes the input for another.

It is all done for you, and you just have to choose the components you wish to have on your land, and the database will tell you what to connect that component to in order to create a self-sustaining "loop".

If you’re interested, you can explore the product and purchase it here: https://permaculture-apprentice.kit.com/products/regenerative-loops

No fixed price. Pay what you can.

$1.00 Regenerative Loops Design smart connections between all components of your property. This is a searchable database with 1000+ example... Read more Get it now!

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-William