Svanholm, Denmark

Svanholm is well known throughout Denmark, being major producers of organic vegetables and milk products. The community consists of 85 adults and 35 children, living and working an old farm with extensive old buildings, sheds and other facilities. Established 30 years ago, they have done major renovations of the old buildings, and now all families and others have self-contained apartments within the old buildings, although some single people have their own bedroom but share facilities.

Svanholm has a shared economy, with residents originally pooling all their incomes and drawing only pocket money. They started with a system where people worked in specific work teams for only 6 months before moving to something else to generate equality and avoid specialisation, but this proved too inefficient for the complex demands of running a large farm and no longer applies. People now pay 80% of their income into the collective pool. Some residents work on the farm or in jobs such as cooking for the community, while others run small businesses such as making furniture, children's play equipment or kitset eco-houses, or work in the local town. They eat together 6 nights a week.

Some residents have moved into the neighbouring town for more space, while remaining very involved in the daily life of the community. This was a pattern I saw in several other communities such as Findhorn and Sieben Linden, where people are committed to the community but need a little more space from the pressures of community living.

A year ago a fire gutted the milking shed. A larger milking shed is now being planned for a different site, and they are taking the opportunity to renovate a barn to house a range of health practitioners, and to open out the existing shop to the south and build a cafe and market place for the many visitors they host every year.