From Madhava Smullen at ISKCON News
Sunset
over the bell tower on Krishna-valley's main square (Somogyvamos,
Hungary)
An
ISKCON devotee, Radha Krishna Das, has been elected to the highest
managerial body of the Global Eco-Village Network (GEN) Europe.
GEN
describes itself as a constantly expanding group of intentional
communities and eco-villages, that bridges all cultures and aims to
create a global pool of wisdom for sustainable living.
GEN
Europe serves Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and consists of
fifty full member communities and over one hundred supporting
members.
In
becoming a part of their managerial body, Radha Krishna Das—who is
also a member of the board of directors at ISKCON Hungary’s Krishna
Valley eco-village—joins four other council members.
There’s
president Macaco Tamerice, from the Damanhur community in Italy;
Thomas Heuser, from ZEGG in Germany; Alfonso Flaquer, from La Base,
the first straw bale dwelling community in Spain; and Jana-Momo
Mohaupt, from Tamera in Portugal.
Radha
Krishna was asked to run for election in the council when GEN Europe
held its annual conference at Krishna Valley in July of this year.
The
GEN Europe Council - Radha Krishna Das is in the back left corner
150
people from 35 countries attended the 12-day conference, making it
the largest international meeting of non-ISKCON members ever held at
Krishna Valley.
All
were members of eco-villages and sustainable communities around
Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
And
all were very impressed with the 660-acre sustainable Krishna Valley
farm, where 150 resident devotees produce almost all of their own
food—including grain, honey, sixty different varieties of
vegetables, and more than 600 fruit and nut trees—without the use
of any pesticides, chemicals, or artificial fertilizers.
“After
they saw the farm, we spoke for some time, and they asked me to run
for election in their new council,” says Radha Krishna Das. “GEN
Europe is an association of eco-villages who are trying to change the
direction of the world, and to show good examples of how to live in
harmony with nature. So of course I was delighted to.”
This
means that Krishna Valley is also now a member of GEN. According to
Radha Krishna, this is a very positive development for the ISKCON
farm.
GEN
Conference at Krishna Valley
“Not
only can we share our experience with them, but we can learn a lot
from them too,” he says. “There are eco communities that are part
of GEN that have been running for thirty to forty years now, and have
a wealth of technical and social development experience we can
benefit from.”
For
example, Radha Krishna explains, a Portuguese eco-village advised
Krishna Valley on how to develop their water management system so
that they could retain rainwater on their land during the dry summer
months.
“For
the past two years, we didn’t have rain for 3 or 4 months,” he
says. “It was a catastrophe. The cows could not graze, and we had
to put hay on the pasture just so they could eat something. But now,
with the help of our friends from Portugal, we can keep the grass
green and the cows can graze nicely.”
Radha
Krishna believes that becoming a member of GEN could help the
progress of not only Krishna Valley, but all of ISKCON’s
eco-villages and farm projects.
“All
of these eco-villages have had their own problems, which in many
cases are very very similar to the ones that we’ve had—the social
issues, the economic issues,” he says. “So we could learn a lot
from each other’s failures and successes.”
Radha
Krishna Das explains Krishna Valley's cow protection program to GEN
Conference-goers
Many
ISKCON rural communities would be eligible to become members of
GEN—the only two requirements are being a group of at least 10 to
15 people who live together and work towards sustainable living; and
paying an affordable annual membership fee.
Member
communities become a part of an organization that is funded by the
European Union, the European Voluntary Service, and the German
Foreign Ministry. They can avail of special training and education
programs recognized by UNESCO, attend GEN’s annual conference for a
reduced fee, and vote at GEN’s general assembly.
Of
course, ISKCON would also get the chance to network with people all
over the world striving for the same goal of living off the land;
people who are highly experienced in all the elements of sustainable
living such as landscaping, water management, and energy efficiency,
as well as getting grants and funding.
“GEN
wants to share its information with as many people as possible, and
truly hopes to change the direction the modern world is going in,”
says Radha Krishna.
“In
the future, we even hope to change governmental regulations and laws
to become more favorable towards the development of eco-villages and
intentional communities.”
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