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Everyone can be a villager, even if you live in a city, town, or neighborhood. It's a way of being: a villager is someone who is part of the local community, and someone who supports the community by living and promoting a sustainable lifestyle. We are responding to the challenge of creating settlements that function with a minimum of fossil fuels whilst fulfilling the demand for supportive, close-to-nature lifestyles. To facilitate this transition we are developing new community investment- and business models.

The local food movement in America is gaining steam. The question is whether can it attract sufficient capital from the private sector to build large, profitable businesses. Without that, it's just a fad. there is the inextricable link between energy and agriculture. The food industry in the U.S is one of the largest and most wasteful consumers of energy. Various studies estimate that the food industry consumes around 10% of the nation's energy with only about 20% of it used in the actual production of food. The rest goes to processing, home refrigeration and preparation, and of course, transportation. Transportation costs also are a major factor in food prices, especially for water-heavy vegetables such as romaine lettuce.For all of these reasons and others, the local food movement in America is gaining steam.