About Horticulture Enterprise Zones

Our journey begins on the farm and emerges within the city as an initiative designed around a process of food production principles that I call Sustainable Eco-Extensible Horticulture^©. The HEZ production unit is firmly grounded in one of the most essential economies in the world: food production. No society can sustain itself without an economy to provide daily sustenance for its citizens. And, no civilization has ever existed without a stable food production system to feed its citizens.

Our HEZ initiative seeks to create enterprise zones of interdependent entrepreneurs involved in all aspects of food production (growing, processing, distributing, and serving), as well as entrepreneurs involved with solutions for local sustainability, food and water security, environmental safety and remediation, and microindustry.

Not only can an HEZ provide food to a community, but income to local organizations, and long-term livelihoods (jobs) for all involved. Of course, some aspects of this system have been practiced for centuries by monasteries and others. Such activities were not designed to be commercial, however — only to sustain the group. The HEZ is commercial and is designed as a collaborative-open source network to sustain a far larger community. Although its vitality is tied to entrepreneurship and brainpower, an HEZ succeeds when a commitment to collaboration extends across social boundaries and community cohesiveness is enhanced.

• What does an HEZ look like? The HEZ Architecture.

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