A Discussion of Food at The Farm, Tennessee

The Farm in Summertown Tennessee, founded in 1971, is located on 1750 acres. It began as an intentional community that grew into an ecovillage over the years. They now have an Ecovillage Training Center located on site as well. In an article, Is The Farm an Ecovillage?, written by a member Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina, it's status as an "ecovillage" is debated over. There is definitely controversy over whether The Farm is acting as an ecovillage by not growing food on their abundant fields that used to be cultivated in the 1970's. But The Farm has reasonable justifications for neglecting 50-60 acres of land, which have already been cleared.

Back in the early days, The Farm boasted around 1400 residents, now there are only around 175 residents. This is one of the biggest reasons for the change in food production over the last 38 years. Because of the large population in the 70's, there was greater man power to work the fields. In recent years, many community meetings have been held so that residents can discuss the subject of growing food at The Farm again. Some residents have suggested getting tractors, which would enable them to cultivate the land with a minimal amount of labor. But that wouldn't be very environmentally friendly now would it. Residents of The Farm have realized that fossil fuel based farming techniques is not the route they want to go.

Other residents advocate for home gardens. Many households already have home gardens that produce much or their fruit and vegetable needs. This could be a possible solution to growing more food on site, but to me this seems like a diversion away from community.

The article mentions one of the best ideas that residents have come up with, which is to create a "regional food-growing network" to foster "local food interdependence". Instead of growing everything on site, The Farm could team up with near by Amish and Mennonite farmers that are already growing food in abundance. The Farm could grow vegetables and other specialty products that would allow them to trade those products for food that their neighbors have grown. They could also get products that are grown in other areas through a "regional food-buying co-op". This seems to make the most sense for The Farm. This also is something that could be utilized in all regions around the world. When farmers team up with one another they can create massive networks of farmers, communities, and households that are dedicated to supporting and securing local food initiatives in order to promote ecologically sound ways of living. In the case of The Farm, this would enable them to cultivate some of their acres of cleared land. It would reduce the stress of feeling like they needed to utilize every acre, and would probably make them feel like they were a part of the local food movement.