ESC: Organic farming - from field to plate

The Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) of Germany, set up in 2014, is an umbrella organisation working to support the experimental creation and preservation of intentional communities across Germany. GEN Deutschland serves as an alliance between rural and urban intentional communities.

Through the sharing of best practice and innovative solutions, GEN Deutschland is creating a pool of wisdom for sustainable living on a global scale. Together we develop solutions in the four dimensions of sustainability: ecology, social, culture and economy.
In our development we follow a participatory approach and try to create a good balance between personal development, work for the common good and the respect for planetary boundaries.

The members of the network exchange experiences and cooperate in different areas within the field of sustainability – for example: ecological building, social entrepreneurship, youth work and education. Sharing good practice from ecovillages with a larger public across all generations is an important priority of both the network and it‘s member communities.

Our umbrella organisation, GEN-International, has consultative status with UN-ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council) and is a partner of the UNITAR-CIFAL initiative which provides training in sustainable development to local government officials, youth leaders and youth around the world.

GEN Deutschland is engaging in non-formal education addressing adults as well as youth.

Most of our member organisations have worked with young volunteers, some of them for more than 20 years. Most of them have experiences with German based volunteer programs (like Ecological or Social volunteer Service - Freiwilliges Ökologisches Jahr oder Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr), some of them do have experience with ESC (European Solidarity Corps).