Cohousing-L Mailing List: cohousing: self-sufficient community

[Jessica Shaten (jessica]

William Thornton raised a couple of issues that are dear to my 
heart...namely, the prospect of creating a **village** that minimizes its 
dependence on what has become the all-pervasive, planetary system of 
industrialized interdependence and which cannot go on forever (it 
simply consumes too many non-replacable essential resources to move 
massive amounts of stuff around in order to meet basic needs that 
for 10,000 years of human history were met at home).

Self-sufficiency requires community;  no one can do it alone.  I began 
subscribing to this list because I was aware that the social issues of 
creating community out of a culture that has emphasized isolation as the 
solution to interpersonal difference and conflict are not easy ones to 
address, and I was interested in hearing what others were thinking and 
saying about it.  In general, I have been stimulated and informed by the 
exchanges I have been reading.

But is there anyone else out there interested in this idea of 
village self-sufficiency and long-term sustainability?  It is not 
really a co-housing issue per-se (or doesn't need to be), so I don't 
want to clog up the list and the e-mail messages raising concerns that 
others don't share, but if there are others of like mind, I'd like to 
communicate.  



On Tue, 16 Jan 1996, William Thornton wrote:

> I would like to add to the list:
> 
> Rain water storage or wells in case the utility company lets us down.
> 
> Alternative sources of electricity, such as solar cells or generators to
> provide backup for essential electrical needs.
> 
> Design of common kitchen to be adaptable to other sources of fuel than
> natural gas.
> 
> Preservation and enhancement of the fertility of the land and enough
> cultivation  to provide cohousing members with the skills, tools, and seeds
> to become as self-sufficient in food production as possible.
> 
> 
>