—Lancaster Farming: Saturday. July I 12 ORGANIC LIVING By Robert Rodolo MAVAVAviwx»i»y«!*i*y»v«v»v»yA%%%s!*!»>j>>K*ivXw.v»v»w»v»w»v»v»v«v»!» t w!w*» *>« New Towns Take People Back To Nature “We need people! We are a non-profit association working to establish a cooperative community. We’ve just acquired over 900 acres of beautiful rolling contryalde. We especially need skilled people carpcnteres, farmers, teachers. Come and help us create! We need your talent and energy.” Classified advertisements like that are cropping up frequently nowadays as more and more idealistic people try to establish new back-to-the-land communities. Some of the projects are well-thought-out and financed. Others prove to be impractical, pie-ln-the-aky dreams. But the planners generally share certain common goals. Most are disillusioned with urban and suburban living as we know it. They want to get away from the bad effects of our technological society: pollution, greed, crime and the nine to-five rat race. They’re betting that by starting with a clean slate, they won’t repeat the same mistakes. Residents of the new communities are seeking self sufficiency in food, energy and even education.. They’ve seen enough of energy crunches and food shortages to distrust our highly-centralized economy. They want to raise their own livestock, grow their own food, and generate their own power from the wind or methane gas. Honest labor, even if it means hard physical toil, is welcomed. Fanning, gardening and handcraft cottage in dustry usually form the economic core of new communities. Dutch School Natural Foods LARGEST SELECTION OF NATURAL FOODS AND VITAMINS IN CENTRAL PENNA. RT. 222, AKRON. PENNA. PH. 859-2339 FREY FREE STALL LIFETIME FREE STALL HOUSING Cut bedding costs 75 per cent, reduce labor for barn cleaning and cow washing; reduce teat and udder injury to the minimum house your milking herd in free stall housing. Each cow provided a stall for loafing. She won't be stepped on, the rear curb forces manure out into alley for mechanical cleaning or washing. A few minutes twice a day cleans the stalls and curbs, bedding lasts almost forever if your stalls fit the cows. Popular sizes are 6’6”, 7’ and 7’6”. Size ’em by breed. Our free stall partition may be mounted on wooden head boards or we make a steel 'hvider Set the legs in 8 to 10” concrete curbs to hold and retain bedding Stall floor can be soil, sand or gravel Bedding straw, sawdust, peanut hulls, ground corn cobs, etc Should be installed with paved alley surface 8 feet wide for mechanical cleaning or washing - 8 Models all steel welded farm and feedlot gates - 2 Models all steel welded head catch gate For prices, contact: Fred Frey, Mgr. (717)786-2146 FREY BROS. R.D.2 Quarryville, Penna. 17566 What I really think the young people especially are trying to do is recereate a peasant style of life in a modern, enlightened way. They have seen file damage to body and soul that machine living has done to their parents’ generation. They find real freedom to exercise their minds while tilling the soil, or while reveling in the good feeling that manual work can give. “You know, some kids today wish the Depression would happen all over again!” a student told me. “We want to test ourselves, to see if we can measure up. We read about the way people lived in the Depression, and it doesn’t sound all bad to us.” These “new peasants” are also vitally concerned about the environment. They want to live close to nature without destroying it. Many new communities put strict limits on their population density right at the outset. One of file most ambitious and carefully-planned new town projects is the Pahana Town Forum, 629 State St., Santa Barbara, Calif. Since 1971 it has attracted about 2,900 members who have indicated a desire to build a town from scratch. The Forum has acquired a 1,400 acre site in a beautiful forested valley in western Oregon, and construction is expected to begin soon. Pahana is anything but a refuge for dissatisfied youths seeking to “drop out.” Engineers, salesmen, teachers, housewives, and retired people have all expressed an interest in file new town. And they’ve been sending in their suggestions for how the community should be structured right from the beginning. They’ve planned a village where automobile traffic will be virtually eliminated. Industries are to be small and non polluting. An natural open space and wildlife will be carefully preserved. Garden Way, Inc., in Charlotte, Vt., is planning a series of unique new communities built around gardening. Residents, HOG PRODUCERS) Sold in sorted lots the auction way. See them weighed and sold and pick up your check. SALE EVERY MONDAY 9:00 A.M. NEW HOLLAND SALES STABLES, INC. Phone 717-354-4341 Abe Diffenbach, Manager from all walks of life, would still commute to jobs in-tha outside world; But they wpuld shine end m large, garden plots right atthelrddorsieps.' ' ' Don’t get the idea, though, that you must move to the country to participate in a new community. Communities Is a Washington, D.C., organization that is building a more natural, self-sufficient community in a square-mile urban neighborhood. ' _ 9 I So far, the multiracial and mixed income group has established several collectively-owned retell food outlets and a trucking cooperative. Urban gardening and, agriculture wilKplay a teg part in the future of Communltas. One member has already raised one thousand pounds of rainbow trout in ins basement, at an estimated cost of about 85 cents a pound. The system could be adopted by other residents. "We have calculated, using load retail figures, that we could easily supply the entire com munity’s fish needs," says a Communltas publication. Also on the drawing board is a neighborhood treatment plant for fertilizer production and methane gas generation. "A family of four.can amost generate enough methane from its own wastes to cook its foods, and if we add garbage and trash-of the, average family, it is more than enough," ac cording to Communltas. One thing is for usre. No matter how the new towns fare in coming years, any setbacks won’t be for lack of enthusiasm. "It’s going to take a lot of hard work and we can depend upon being met with difficulties and disappointments," says Chris Canfield of the Pahana Town Forum. "But the opportunity is here and now!" Want to be more self-sufficent? “How to live on Less and Love It More” is a 50-page guide to putting your house and ground to work for you—naturally. To get a copy, send fifty cents to Robert Rodale, Organic Living, in care of this newspaper. Please ask for the booklet by name and allow at least three weeks for delivery.