The
Farm
Ecovillage
Project

Contact: 

The Farm is a communal settlement that practices sustainable, developmentally-progressive village living. With about 250 full-time residents, The Farm offers all the necessities and amenities of any community: grocery store, medical clinic, filling station, schools, water system, pharmacy, post office, cemetery and scores of businesses and residences. The difference between this community and others, however, is in the way the community functions. All agriculture on The Farm is organic. The buildings were constructed entirely from salvaged, recycled and local materials. In sum, the value of community and a respect for life are emphasized on The Farm. The community has no poverty, little domestic violence, and virtually no crime. Guns and other weapons are forbidden on The Farm.

The Farm began in 1971 when 300 people, riding in buses, arrived in Summertown, Tennessee intent on building a communal society. These first arrivals were the followers -- literally -- of San Francisco university professor Stephen Gaskin who had been touring the country to deliver his message about a shared society. When the caravan pulled back into San Francisco at the tour's end, Gaskin's fans knew they had found something special. "We didn't want to separate," Gaskin says. So the group decided to make a go of Gaskin's vision and create a communal society together. "We had found two places where the people were really nice -- Tennessee and Minnesota," says Gaskin. "But Minnesota...it was too cold."

The original 320 settlers entered their wealth and belongings into a common pot. On a budget of $1 per person per day and no grants, food stamps or welfare, the settlers bought the land, erected the buildings and became agriculturally self-sufficient within four years. These settlers built schools; greenhouses; dry good and grocery stores; automotive, welding woodworking and machine shops; a health clinic, laboratory, dispensary, a neonatal intensive care unit and infirmary. At the end of five years, much of the infrastructural work was complete. Not only that, but more than 60 Farm residents had received medical training and were providing medical care to the underserved within a 20-mile radius of The Farm.

About the same number of residents live on The Farm now as when it was established, but this was not always true. The Farm population had swelled from 300 to nearly 1,500 during the early 1980's, but it soon became clear that such a large population could not be sustained at The Farm. A series of agricultural setbacks helped punctuate the point. The community underwent a significant scaling back in size in about 1983. Simultaneously, for the first time, residents were allowed to hold some private property, although The Farm deed is still held in common. 

During this transition, The Farm halved its agricultural area, relocated outlying settlements to protect neighboring hardwood forests, and zoned off more than half its acreage from all development to help preserve natural biodiversity. Having recently acquired an additional 800 acres, The Farm has established a charitable conservation land trust with the goal of acquiring and preserving the entire upper Swan watershed.

The Farm is now also launching the Ecovillage Network of North America, an effort to link a wide variety of green communities, Eco-City projects and ecovillages, and to encourage a transition from the traditional Western consumer lifestyle to one of sustainable development. Two other projects of The Farm -- The Natural Rights Center and the Environmental Resource Center -- already provide instruction on how communities can pursue sustainable development policies.

Program Highlights

Agriculture

• In sum, more than 300 acres of previously marginal land have been restored to productive organic gardening.
• All waste is composted and used as fertilizer.
• Organic agriculture methods, including polyculture, heritage seeds, cover cropping, crop rotation and the preservation of beneficial insects, are pursued.
• Snakes, lizards, toads and turtles provide organic pest control.
• Apiaries were constructed to pollinate fields, nurseries and orchards.
• The Farm Education Conference Center offers lectures and workshops.

• Since 1978, all buildings constructed at The Farm utilize solar energy and other energy-efficient designs.
• The Farm School is the largest passive solar school in the state. The school was constructed with numerous recycled materials and utilizes an earth-berm design.

• The Farm formed the Global Village Institute for Appropriate Technology, which financed the creation of a food sciences laboratory. In cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture, The Farm experimented with a number of soy foods. Among The Farm's creations were the first soy-based ice creams and soy burgers.
• In 1985, the food science laboratory was transferred to The Farm's Tempeh Lab, which today is the nation's largest supplier of soy fermentation innoculants.
• Mushroompeople, a commercial enterprise for The Farm, is one of the nation's largest mail order suppliers of specialty mushroom spawn and growing supplies.

• In 1992, The Farm formed the Swan Conservation Land Trust to purchase and preserve the entire upper Swan River watershed. This area is rich in endangered species, including the yellow-eyed grass, the grass of Parnassus, the Fen orchid, the Small-headed rush, Eggert's sunflower and the Tennessee Snaketail dragonfly.

• The Farm's first chicken wire satellite dishes led to an electronics company, Solar Electrics International, and spawned the craze for CB (citizens' band) radio.
• Additional technical pursuits led to the creation of International Satellite Orbit magazine and the development of the first truly accurate, low-cost hand-held Geiger meters (with more than $1 million in orders in 1994).
• The Farm has also helped build the world's sixth largest photovoltaic array, and established the WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link) network on the Internet.
• The midwifery program, established in 1971, has delivered more than 2,000 babies with outcome statistics better than hospitals (Cesarean rates are only 1.8% versus 25% in hospitals) in large part due to comprehensive, family-based support programs in prenatal and postnatal education, nutrition and care.

• In 1974, the Farm launched its ambitious Plenty project, an effort to spread the wealth available within "homegrown communities" and self-taught skills to those in less fortunate circumstances. Today Plenty is active in 12 countries on four continents, piping water to remote villages, training health care workers, reforesting wastelands, building schools and municipal buildings and establishing cooperative gardening projects.
• The Farm is home to the Natural Rights Center and helped launch the Environmental Resource Center, both of which provide information to communities who wish to pursue sustainable development. 
• The Farm is launching the Ecovillage Network of North America and also serves as regional headquarters for the Global Village Network.

• Since its creation in 1971, The Farm's The Book Publishing Company has offered dozens of books on vegetarian and vegan cooking, sustainable agriculture, women's health, general health, the environment, and Native American issues for sale. 

Vital Statistics

Program Management/Partnerships: The Farm Ecovillage Project is anaged by the Global Village Institute. The project has entered into partnerships with the Context Institute, Plenty USA, Global Ecovillage Network, Fellowship for International Community, Ecoville Foundation (Russia), Second Foundation and Ecocity Builders.

Budget: The Global Village Institute, which manages the Farm Ecovillage Project, operates on an annual budget of $125,000. 

Community Served: The 250 residents of The Farm and the thousands of individuals who wish to pursue sustainable community development who rely upon The Farm's expertise and examples.

Measures of Success: