Building on Proven Ideas

Ka Māla Village is inspired by existing models of sustainable agriculture, worker-owned business, and cooperative living.

Sustainable Agriculture

Worker-Owned Business

Cooperative Living

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Ka Māla Village: Ecological, Economic and Social Architecture
Ecology
Ka Māla Village employs traditional Hawaiian and Polynesian crops and farming techniques combined with cutting edge sustainable agriculture practices from around the world. Aloha ʻaina and malama ʻaina are adhered to under the guidance and direction of the konohiki and interpreted as "the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems...the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way."1
Economy
501(d) Apostolic Association tax status
The 501(d) status provides tax exemptions for religious and apostolic communities that share a common treasury. The IRS has failed to define religious/apostolic and thus the terms can be construed to mean any strongly held spiritual or secular belief. The business that the community decides to partake is not taxable as long as all the proceeds are deposited into the designated common treasury and distributed. This includes all income whether produced through the community’s revenue source or by the individual. The community’s business can have either a not for profit or a for profit purpose. The 501(d) exemption does not have any restrictions on political activity, unlike the 501(3)(c). In addition donations made to the community are not tax exempt.

• Members are not employees.

  
• Workmanʻs Compensation, Social Security and income tax are not paid.

  
• Social Security credits are not accrued.

  
• Donations are not tax-deductible.

  1 Bill Mollison, Permaculture: a Designer's Manual
  

• Limited outside income is allowed but is double taxed: to the member and to the community.

  
• Community must operate at least one business.
  Society
  "The original community of humans is not the family but the tribe... It is an integral part of our human social existence that lies beyond history... it is only when we have found a full equivalent to it that is aligned with our times, that we again can enter into full and wholesome relationships with each other.”2
  Ka Māla Village adheres to the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.
  As an egalitarian community, ka Māla Village:
  

1. Holds its labor, income and other resources in common.

   
2. Assumes responsibility for the needs of its members, receiving the products of their labor and distributing these and all other goods equally, or according to need.

   
3. Practices non-violence.

   
4. Uses a form of decision making in which members have an equal opportunity to participate, either through consensus, direct vote, or right of appeal or overrule.

   
5. Actively works to establish the equality of all people and does not permit discrimination on the basis of race, class, creed, ethnic origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

   
6. Acts to conserve natural resources for present and future generations while striving to continually improve ecological awareness and practice.

   
7. Creates processes for group communication and participation.

   

2 Dieter Duhm, Community as a Universal Way of Living

501(d) COOPERATIVE FARMWORKER HOUSING
A 501(d) business is a worker-owned cooperative farm that provides for all the needs of workers and their families, including housing, food, clothing, health care, education, childcare, senior care, transportation and utilities.
Ka Māla Village, 501(d) farmworker housing cooperative, will permanently reduce any need for government or charity assistance for its low income rural farmworker families and individual residents.
Ka Māla Village will be a residential agricultural cooperative producing subsistence, market and export crops as well as value-added products; conducting agritourism and related endeavors, and featuring a multi- generational, diverse population and full employment of able-bodied adults.
The workers of the 501(d) business are the resident members of the cooperative. There are no employees, no payroll and no payroll taxes. Income tax is not paid.
SUCCESSFUL 501(d) BUSINESSES

East Wind Nutbutters
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange Commonwealth Seed Growers Twin Oaks Hammocks
Twin Oaks Tofu
Since 1980Since 1999Since 2008Since 1967Since 1991
Supports 65 people. Supports 32 people. Supports 15 people. Supports 105 people Also supports Twin Oaks
KA MĀLA VILLAGE

Sleeping Hale
Sleeping Hale


Eating Hale


Cooperative Farm Living

Agricultural Processing Facility
Customary Practices

Agroforestry

Eating from the Farm

Sustainable Subsistence

Practices

Ka Māla Village
Farmworker Housing and Agricultural CooperativeProposal Name: Ka Māla Village
Type of Change: New Project
Sectors Affected: Farmer Worker Housing, Food Security, Agricultural Exports, Nutrition.
Proposal Description: As a Farmworker Housing Cooperative, Ka Māla will permanently reduce the need of approximately three hundred and fifty rural farmworker families and individuals with no- to moderate-income for assistance in the areas of housing, nutrition, unemployment, health care, early childhood education and senior care. Because greater percentages of Hawaiians and other socially disadvantaged groups live at or below the poverty level than other demographics they will qualify in proportionally higher numbers for residency. Ka Māla will be a prototype of a residential agricultural cooperative featuring domestic production of subsistence, market and export crops, the manufacture of value-added products, agritourism and related endeavors, cooperative farmworker housing, a multi-generational, diverse population and full employment of able-bodied adults. A 501(d) worker-owned cooperative will serve to produce revenue and provide for the necessities of workers, including but not limited to housing, health care, education, childcare, senior care, transportation and utilities. A Community Land Trust devoted to the support of the 501(d) will acquire, improve and maintain land to accommodate the farmworker housing and agricultural cooperative. Workers will be efficiently housed by implementing a proven model of cooperative living, will employ traditional and sustainable agricultural practices and will protect and enhance natural resources. Ka Māla will emphasize renewable energy, green construction, minimized infrastructure impact and waste production and efficiencies of scale. In five years the Farmworker Cooperative will have passed break-even and Ka Māla will be financially self-sufficient.
Justification: Hawaiians and other minority groups are disproportionately affected by the severe shortage of affordable housing on Kauaʻi, which causes farmworkers to be excluded from the
housing market. Farmworkers are also typically unable to afford the inflated prices of Kauaʻi’s imported food, energy, and other goods, causing them to be added to the growing at-risk populations of Kauaʻi. These housing and economic challenges threaten the supply of affordable farm labor for Kauaʻi, perpetuate the marginalization of socially disadvantaged groups and hinder efforts to realize food security for the islands.
Expected Outcomes: Ka Māla Farmworker Housing Cooperative will permanently reduce or eliminate the need of approximately 350 farmworker families and individuals for public or private assistance for housing, nutrition, unemployment, health care, early childhood education and senior care. The proposal is for thirty 12-bedroom houses, 3 main community buildings and associated residential and agricultural infrastructure to be built on approximately 500 acres of arable land over a period of 5 years1. The funds will be used as follows: real property acquisition and improvement as well as agricultural equipment and supplies, 83%; start-up and initial operating expenses of agricultural business venture, 10%; personnel and administrative costs, 7%.
Self-sufficiency in all areas will be sought and through training and technical assistance workers will produce over time an increasing percentage of their own basic needs, lessening the reliance on imported goods and increasing food security. Agricultural products will also be used as possible to supply the workers' own needs for food, medicine, construction materials, household items and implements, etc. Workers will also produce a steadily increasing agricultural surplus for domestic and export sale. Once profitable, Ka Māla will reinvest 50% of revenue in excess of the cooperative's needs to the business and devote 50% to an expansion fund which will be used to replicate the cooperative in additional locations, increasing exponentially over time the number of no- to moderate-income families and individuals served, the extent to which food security is achieved, and the volume of domestic and export sales without additional federal,
1 Real Property Acquisition and Improvement costs are based on the purchase of 1 Brydeswood Ranch, Kalaheo, HI 96741 and 2-2131 Kaumualii Hwy, Kalaheo, HI 96741. If these properties becomes unavailable or prove to be unfeasible the same monies will be directed to securing land and housing to accommodate as close to 350 farmworker families and individuals as possible.
state or county assistance. In five years Ka Māla will be financially self-sufficient and require no further government funding.
The physical, agricultural, social and business development of Ka Māla Farmworker Housing Cooperative will be documented as a replicable model of a productive, resilient, efficient and culturally appropriate agricultural community that houses and employs some of the most vulnerable and at risk farming population of Kauaʻi.