Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Relationship to the food you eat

[Dave Burchell (burchell]

Rob Sandelin says [in part]:

>  I agree whole heartedly that raising food is a personal and community
> goodness.

[text deleted]

> As one person pointed out to me: "Hey,
> I didn't move here to be a farmer".  So the community garden stays small,
> supported by a small band of garden heads who love working the earth.

I'm with you, Rob.  Ideally, everyone would pitch in, growing, preserving,
and consuming the garden's produce.  But if you built a community around
those goals you would seriously limit who might be interested.

I loved reading _Walden Two_ by Skinner, but all the way through I was
saying to myself, "This is great on paper, but it's not going to work this
easily."  When I read the _Twin Oaks_ book I saw that I was right.

Better to set up an environment in which people can grow their own food and
see what develops.  Is produce at Sharingwood distributed according to
labor provided by individuals?  If so, individuals could barter or sell
produce they grow, perhaps softening a spell of underemployment or
giving community kids a way to earn some spending money.

> I did get Sharingwood to join with several other local communities to form a
> bulk food buying coop.  The coop buys bulk food together in one large order
> then splits it up,  and although not all of it comes from local sources,
> much of it does, and it makes organic meals possible, although only a few of
> us care about it. 

Is there a cost savings to be had with a coop, or only an increase in food
quality (e.g., organic)?  If so, how much?

> Rob Sandelin
> >Sharingwood  

-- 
Dave Burchell
METAknowledge Information Systems Consulting          burchell [at] acm.org
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/burchell/                     402-475-0089