Token issuance, backed by land

Cardano community owned farmland (tokenized) to be regenerated with the AgroForestry Götsch-method. Token backed by increasing fertile land.

2011-now reforesting own piece of land Brazil. 
10 yrs business in the Netherlands.
4 yrs Policy Officer at the Ministry of the Environment.

Challenge: to build a business on top of Cardano

Abstract of the plan:

1. Acquire degraded farmland publicly, through the issuance of tokens (without subsidies from governments!).

2. Hire expert-farmers to regenerate these acres with strict ecological methods.

3. The net revenue of the top-quality harvests, and of Eco-agriturism, offers the opportunity to expand.

Our solution works because people are becoming more aware of the necessity to preserve the natural environment and to by clean foods and water. This is shown by the market growth for organic produce. If you look at sales in the US, there was a 31% increase from 2016 to 2019 [2]. Around 20% of Brazilian consumers buy organic [3].

To invest in these tokens is very attractive, because they represent tangible assets and could grow in value: more land surface per token plus increasing sustainable organic production.

If only 1/5th of arable land would be managed with strictly audited eco-practices like agro-forestry, we would sequester all the yearly carbon-output of fossil fuels [4]. And there would be 6x more food production with half of the costs [5].

First step:

To tokenize the land and buildings of the founders. Issuing on the Cardano Network (if possible, through a ISPO; and listed on SundaeSwap).

Requested funds in USD 185000

We plan to fund the greatest part of the project with the proceeds of the listing of the token on SundaeSwap. We hope for a hard-cap of 5 million dollars.

With part of the revenue of the harvests and of eco-turism we will expand. And so forth. It is an exponentially growing franchise concept.

We only need funding to start:
Initial Costs, estimation in dollars, 185.000:

4500 – Notary-costs: starting a foundation; articles of association; registering the first plot, donated by the founders, in the treasury of the foundation.
500 – Chamber of Commerce
5000 – Legal check franchise concept, design contracts with tenant farmers, etc
60000 – Developers to launch the token on the Cardano Blockchain
8000 – Accountant for fiscal details of the concept
2000 – Certification by eco-auditing institutes, like Skal or the Rainforest Alliance.
50000 – Promotion campaign
50000 - Finishing touch on the existing infrastructure, like the school-house
5000 – consultancy Ernst Götsch

185000 Total

FEASIBILITY

Greenpeace started with one boat and a radio. We start with one plot of land + buildings + the internet of value …

We are investors in Cardano from 2017 when Ada was 3cts. We believed in the project from the beginning and think this could be a great practical application of the network. Our land-management and forest regeneration of the past 10 years resulted in:

- the returning of our water stream all year round, adding to the drinking water of the valley.
– increasing biodiversity
– thirty-fold rise of the economic value of the land
– other families in the neighborhood following our example

The market and the appeal for this idea is huge ! In 2 ways:

A. there is a growing market for organic produce (see the numbers above).

We will focus on crops with added value after processing at the farm, like coffee, cocoa, cashew, pecan, coconut, moringa, mushrooms, berries, medicinal herbs (e.g. against viruses: rock-rose, nigella seed, cardamon, star anise, and saponine for the vaccine industry).

B. THE trend is an ecologic lifestyle with a contemporary sportive feel. Experiencing nature, back to the Wild, for nature AND humans.

In this era of Covid-restrictions there is an immense need to get out of the city to enjoy relative freedom. Humans love to be creative and social, not just function like domesticated transhuman individuals in an industrial sterile society with tyrannical rules of conduct. There is a need for a parallel society with new ideals and chances, decentralized instead of top down. So to start new small eco-villages, that thrive on newly regenerated farmland, connecting like-minded people, will be very succesfull.

Participants will be easy to find, for example:

– farmers who are fed up with the ever-changing rules and land expropriation by their government
– volunteers for a meaningful sabbatical
– token holders for a retreat in the eco-villages (e.g yoga, climbing, hiking, kayaking, etc).
– students who want to learn Agro-Forestry in the right way

What adds to feasibility is that family farms in Brazil have a yearly tax exemption of 115k. So this gives room for reinvestment and expansion.

In Brazil there is an extra target audience for the tokens: mining companies. These are obliged to regenerate the land they exploited ('carbon sequestering'). This could make the LOT token (Land in Organic Transition) even more successful.

IMPACT IN LATIN AMERICA

Because we are creating independent jobs and the ecological awareness is built into this franchise-format, the project could have a good impact and grow exponentially, investing in people an planet. Imagine in every province new small eco-islands, which are leading by example and spreading their success and knowledge. Each participant who learned the skill of managing such an eco-farm-village, can start a new one elsewhere (Semco-style of Ricardo Semler).

We think this system is far better than what the global think-tanks came up with:

…"Rather than promoting organic and regenerative farming, the technocratic elite are pushing something called 'zero-budget natural farming'. Bill Gates is part of this scheme. As explained by Vandana Shiva, Ph.D., the setup works something like this: The state takes out large loans, which are then divvied out to farmers to grow food for free. The farmers make their money not by selling their crops, but by trading their soil carbon rate on the global market. Farmers with higher carbon in their soil will make more money than those with carbon-poor soil. Meanwhile, they'll make nothing from the crops they grow."… (explanation by dr Mercola, Nov '21).

AUDITABILITY

The Foundation will be maximum transparent:

– There will be a simple app to login to, its spending for all to be seen.
– All the contracts will be available on chain.
– The farms will be audited periodically by the certification institute for organic produce, for example Skal, Demeter, Rain Forest Alliance, Fair Trade, Soil Association, etc.
– via webcams one can overview the activities at the farms
– Every token holder can join brainstorm-sessions and voting.

Suggestions are very welcome !

ROAD MAP

2022

Q1 – Consulting (Catalyst, technicians, Notary), Registering Foundation,

Legal Framework, tokonomics, contacting experts Agro-Forestry, Board of Advisors,

Promotion,

Meanwhile finalizing infrastructure on the first farm (school-house, lodging)

Q2 – Technical development to launch LOT: target June 22, 2022

Q3 – goal: 100 million tokens (from 1 billion) in circulation

Q4 – organizing workshop Agro-Forestry

consulting crypto experts about how to implement upcoming new rules of authorities (KYC?)

2023

Q1 – start of agriturism and production on the original plot

Q2 – expansion: Acquisition of new degraded plot(s?)

Q3 – certification (e.g. Rainforest Alliance)

Q4 – infrastructure building/ renovation on the new plot(s)

from 2024 onward

Setting up local distribution of produce

continuing Eco-agriturism and education

More expansion with the revenues of the harvests

Repeat ad infinitum and all over the world

Please see the website for the details, like mission, organization, Identifying information of all proposers : https://www.korpos.nl

References:

1. https:// ourworldindata.org/soil-lifespans
2. https:// www.usda.gov/media/blog/2020/10/28/organic-thriving-agriculture-segment
3. https:// www.statista.com/statistics/919097/share-consumers-bought-organic-products-brazil/
4. soil biologist Walter Jehne: see on our website at videos
5. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652617323569