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Maynard Kaufman and Barbara Geisler
We are offering acreages for home-sites on 120 acres of gently rolling farmland in Southwest Michigan, about one mile from the small town of Bangor and ten miles from Lake Michigan. The climate makes this area suitable for all kinds of fruit production. The purchase of a home-site would include access to nearly 80 acres of fields, woods, and wetlands along the Black River. This provides recreational opportunities for members of the community as well as land for food production.
Originally we had planned this solar-reliant development on a 68 acre tract of land that we no longer needed for farmland. The development of this land will be the first phase of the project. This spring another 52 acres was offered for sale along the north boundary of our 68 acres. We are currently negotiating the purchase of this 52 acre tract. It includes a three acre pond, and slopes rising from the pond provide home-sites with lovely views. Home-sites are available on a variety of lands, from open hilltops with great views to more secluded sites near trees. The map shows how the road might circle the pond. This map is a preliminary vision of where the road and home-sites might be located. There will very likely be some changes as engineers make their recommendations and the surveyors lay out lots.
What we are proposing is a unique and affordable kind of housing development in a rural area. This offer is for people who are seriously considering a move to a sustainable future in the countryside while retaining access to the city. The Amtrak line from Grand Rapids to Chicago stops in Bangor twice a day, to Chicago in the morning and back in the evening. As Amtrak ridership is increasing, additional runs are expected.
ECOLOGICAL
VALUES
If this is to be a healthy and vital community it will consist of a diversity of people. But, given the fact that the community will live by rules that govern energy conservation and land use, it is important that people in it share a set of values such as the following. The key words are “SOLAR,” “ORGANIC,” “ECOLOGY,” and “COMMUNITY.”
1. SOLAR requires a commitment to community reliance on the flow of solar energy for food and energy production. Solar energy includes wind and photosynthesis in addition to photo-voltaics rather than reliance on fossil fuels.
2. ORGANIC methods of food production means not only the avoidance of farm and garden chemicals, but enriching the soil with organic matter and using methods in harmony with nature. Such methods would be similar to those used for produce that is “certified organic.”
3. ECOLOGY depends on diversity, both in terms of maintaining bio-diversity and in terms of diversity in the human population. This is not a gated community; relationships with the larger surrounding community are necessary and will be encouraged.
4. COMMUNITY is thus cherished both in the larger surrounding area and within the development as members work together to achieve their goals of security and sustainable living.
Buyers of land in this community will give expression to these values in how they build their houses and use their land. As the world moves toward the time of peak oil, when production begins to decline while demand continues to increase, energy prices are expected to rise dramatically. Thus the need to develop energy systems based on renewable resources is obvious. The need for community self-reliance in food may be less obvious, although it can be justified by other considerations such as freshness, taste, quality, and of course food safety and security. Food from the corporate-controlled supermarket is produced and distributed with large amounts of fossil fuel energy. The average family of four uses about as much energy in the food they buy as in the car they drive. Cheap oil has meant cheap food, but as we move toward the end of cheap oil food prices will rise even more rapidly than prices of oil.
Some people imagine that living in the country is a retreat from the world and its problems–as if that were even possible. In fact, this move can be seen as an exemplary action in these, “the last days of ancient sunlight.” The goal is to move toward reliance on renewable energy. Since burning fossil fuels adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere which intensifies the greenhouse effect and global warming, this community can join others in working toward a carbon-neutral future. By reducing our carbon emissions we can indeed “live lightly on the land.”
Needless to say, none of this can happen unless people share the values listed above and act accordingly. People who buy into this community should therefore be prepared to live with some limitations as they share land and energy resources. Houses should be of modest size, carefully insulated, and with a south orientation to enhance passive solar input. We built an off-grid house like this on another part of this land recently (at 25485 C. R. 681) and will be happy to show it as a model for what is possible. (An article on our house can be found at www.michiganlandtrust.org.) Our main heat source is a masonry stove which keeps the house warm with about two cords of firewood a season. The community will have to decide on the limit of firewood that could be harvested by each household so that the wood-lot continues to be productive.
LIVING IN A COOPERATIVE COMMUNITY
Other cooperative arrangements in the community might include a wind turbine for the generation of electricity. Although each household that chooses to use renewable energy for electricity may put up its own photovoltaic system, it is more cost-efficient for the community to cooperate in the erection of a larger wind turbine to generate additional electric power. People near the county road may want to connect to the grid and move toward renewable energy in a step-by-step process. The community would make arrangements for road maintenance, perhaps for a farmer to provide food, and this would require community decisions on how fields are used. People with larger home-sites could also maintain vegetable gardens and keep horses and other livestock on their own acreages.
At this point thirty home-sites are available. Lots are from one-half acre to three acres in size, and they should be in the $30,000 to $50,000 range, depending on the infrastructure costs. As mentioned above, buyers, as members of the community, will have access to over 70 acres of common land. A condominium association, with by-laws, is being prepared and will eventually manage the common land. It will be protected by a conservation easement. A road will also be provided, along with the possibility of some collective wastewater disposal systems.. People who buy lots would build their own “green” houses.
The land to be developed is in the northwest part of Section 6 of Arlington Township in Van Buren County. Elevations range from 650 to 688 feet above sea level.
AND WHO ARE WE
I, Maynard, have lived here on what had been a 160 acre farm for over thirty years. Back in 1972 I moved here to start a “School of Homesteading” when I was teaching Religion and Environmental Studies at Western Michigan University. I have been farming with organic methods and have been a leader in the organic food and farming movement in Michigan. Barbara worked in human resources in San Francisco for twenty years where she began anti-nuclear and peace activities. She returned to Michigan in 1986 where she worked as a teacher. We met in Green politics activities. A few years ago, she and I sold about 70 acres to two young organic vegetable growers and both have developed successful local markets. In 2006 I wrote a book entitled Adapting to the End of Oil: Toward an Earth-Centered Spirituality. I have studied food and energy issues since the 1970s.
Maynard Kaufman and Barbara Geisler, P. O. Box 361, Bangor, MI 49013. (269) 650-1758. Homestead@sunflowerecovillage.com. More information will be available in response to particular questions. Inquiries are welcome, along with indications of interest in particular lots.