María Josefina Díaz
Kelsey Bearden
Marlene Gras

BAJA SAGE Regenerative Agrihood

El Pescadero, Baja California Sur, Mexico

New community based around a regenerative farm.
7 buildings, total of 26 units. 60% of the property is the built community / 40% farm. Farm is one half hectare.

Project is fairly developed, near completion: farm is entering its 4th season, houses have been sold although houses are yet to be occupied (spring 2024).
We have good contact with the project. I am living near this development and have direct contact with owners, the person in charge of the farm, the person who started the farm, and the community liaison.
The size of the project is manageable for analysis.
The project contacts are interested in working with us and learning together.
In name and intention this development has regenerative aims. From conversations with various players, I know that they are struggling to actually live up to their ideals.

This development is occurring in a rural agricultural area with extremely intense development pressure for (foreign-owned) housing and tourism development, converting farmland to other uses. I see a lot of potential for the project to provide an alternative development pathway example for the area, if successful, though it is also an excellent example of foreign investment driven gentrification.
Some of the development team has conducted a survey on local community needs and part of the project included building affordable housing for locals in another location.
The farm is managed as a regenerative mixed vegetable and early succession agroforestry model. In soil health regeneration they have been quite successful already.
The farmer and crew are part of a farmer/rancher network that is stewarded by the organization I work with. The farm has been host to a couple of farmer-to-farmer workshops for the network and holds an important role in the collective imagination as an alternative production model (there are very few examples like it in our region).