GAMCOD1 - grow a million calories from one acre of dirt, year 1

The idea started here.

First, I need to figure out a budget and then do a kickstarter.  I was thinking that this would be my most ambitious kickstarter ever at $300k.  My best ever kickstarter brought in $150k.  Today I learned that somebody is offering to match kickstarter pledges up to $150k - so this makes the kickstarter goal $150k.  (deets)

The plan is to hire

  - five professional gardeners (deets)
  - one professional manager
  - one (maybe two) professional videographers

There will be some cost in seeds and fertilizers.  There are kickstarter fees, and there will be costs for running a kickstarter.  There could be other costs in video stuff.    Calculating budge is here.

Each gardener will have one acre to attempt grow the million calories.  A quarter of that must be flat and be "an organic garden" (deets).  There are some minimums about crops and long term considerations here.

I think each plot will require a permaculture design by the end of the first month.  



What are some new threads that need to be created for this project?

What are some things that need to be figured out?

Things are gearing up!  Anybody else dreaming of this project coming to life??

I'm excited!

I might need to rethink this a bit ...

Maybe the prize stuff should be $20k to reach a million calories and $20K more for whoever gets the most calories over a million.

And maybe the hourly rate is about $35 per hour and pay starts jan 1 (but the gardener could show up later - like in march).   So if a person shows up the first of january and works 40 hours a week through oct 31, then that would be $60,200.  And if they harvest both bonuses, that's more than $100,000 for less than a year of work.

And then we need a sixth gardener here to be paid to do other gardening things ...  standing by ...  just in case there is a need to pop into the GAMCOD program.  

Assuming that all five plots hit a million calories, then this makes the gardener budget  481k.   The manger would be 100k.  2 videographers at 80k each is another 160k.   kickstarter takes 10%.  excavator:  $10k, materials 5k and special advisors/commentators or guest appearances  is 10k ....   that brings us into the neighborhood of 800k.  

Wow!   such a great project!    I think you will attract some very interesting gardeners.  I am excited too see their techniques and what new innovations come for this.  

I am a gardener!   Where do I sign up?

Samantha Lewis wrote:
I am a gardener!   Where do I sign up?

https://permies.com/wiki/178360/permaculture-projects/Paid-Build-Permaculture-Paradise-Wheaton

Hi!!!

I applied for one of the gardener positions for GAMCOD, but have not heard anything in response.  I never even got an acknowledgement of the submission of my application.

This was more than a month ago.

Can someone please reply?

We did not have enough people apply.  So we have been contemplating different ways to try to get this program off the ground.  

I wonder if it was asking for too much time commitment on too little notice? Assuming that interested people have regular 9-5 jobs and families and whatnot, taking a year (or several months) off and relocating is a big commitment to consider.

Random idea just popped into my head: what do people do when they end up on a reality TV show that films over several months? Could that offer some insight into how you can make it more attractive for people to temporarily uproot their lives and hopefully for them to have something to go back to after?

Samantha put up a possible idea that might save gamcod:

What if we found five gardening/permaculture celebrities and worked it out so they would get paid to make a one acre design for their acre.  And then there would be a person on-site that would implement the design.  

Rather than paying $60,000 to $100,000 per gardener, the idea would be to pay something like $10,000 to the celebrity and $10,000 to the gardener and then bonuses for hitting a million calories.  So the cost of the project would be less (thus more likely to get funded) and maybe it could get legs where the other design did not.

??

If the problem with the original offer was a shortage of qualified applicants, I honestly don't see how the new offer would be more attractive. The applicant will be doing the same work for a fraction of the original pay and now, rather than creating their own design, is just implementing directives from a third-party designer -- effectively becoming a mere sub-contractor.

Dc Stewart wrote:If the problem with the original offer was a shortage of qualified applicants, I honestly don't see how the new offer would be more attractive. The applicant will be doing the same work for a fraction of the original pay and now, rather than creating their own design, is just implementing directives from a third-party designer -- effectively becoming a mere sub-contractor.

Everything you are saying is true.  Perfect logic.  

But here are two important points:

   1:  we can put it out there and if we get ten times more people, then it becomes viable despite logic

   2:  what is your solution?

Wow!
Not enough people applied?
That's crazy.
This is an incredible idea and what an opportunity to do what you love and get paid great ta boot!

I was so jazzed to do this!!!...
What a pity.  :-/
And I was gonna win by a landslide.  
My thumbs are so green they look like they were dipped in maple syrup then rolled in spirulina.

Curious if you didn't have enough people apply, why not at least let them know that with a response?

Also, I don't see how in the world the new "celebrity idea" even comes close to the attractiveness of the original idea.  
Don't see anybody going for that, except maybe bored HS drop-outs who'd have to choose between that and McD's.