Ecovillage of the Week II: The Farm

Nestled in the beautiful country of Tenessee lies an ecovillage called The Farm. It was literally started by vans full of Hippies in the early 1970's. It is considered an ecovillage but falls on top of much criticism with its operations.

In terms of water, the community scores big points by having its own ground water supply. This is mostly gravity-fed and distributed from a 25,000 gallon storage tank. It supplies water to 90+ residents. Aside from potable well water, the Farm does have and rain water catch systems. It has been claimed the Farm doesn't have any mechanisms for doing so however, a recent You Tube video claims there are rain collecting gutters which channel rainwater to a cistern for later usage. During the dry summer months they use electricity to pump there water. Critics see this as inefficient.

For sewage, the farm does treat its gray and black water anaerobically, but they channel it to the forest when it completes its treatment stages. Some of the phosphates from gray water are used to grow phosphate-loving plants.

Waste is composted, while reusage and recycling remain extremely important.

There is a limited amount of information available about this topic at this time.

Sources:

http://www.thefarm.org/lifestyle/antiochecovillages.html

http://www.ecovillagenews.org/wiki/index.php/Is_The_Farm_an_Ecovillage?