Every day, approximately five produce delivery trucks roll through the alleyway past my home. They’re bringing tomatoes from California, bananas from Ecuador, apples, mushrooms, and carrots from the U.S. I live in Ontario, Canada, where farmers produce all of these things and more with the exception of bananas, of course.
But the point is, if most of these foods are readily available locally, why are they being shipped in from far away? And the issue is not limited to food: almost every single item in my apartment came from somewhere outside of Ontario. There must be a way for us to live without sending so many trucks, ships and planes so many miles back and forth across the globe.
I spoke with Zachrey Helmberger and Caroline Barry, two people who are making a commitment to self-sufficiency.Helmberger lives with his partner in the Greater World subdivision outside of Taos, New Mexico a colony of earthships, designed to produce their own water, power, heat, and at least some of their own food. Barry is the proud owner and builder of the first straw bale and cordwood house in the UK, on her farm, Brook Farm. Both participated in the building of their homes, both of which were built using mainly recycled materials.
Earthships
An earthship’s structural walls are built using rubber automobile tires, which are lined with used cardboard, rammed with earth (found at any construction site), and stacked like bricks. Gaps are filled in with dirt and empty bottles or cans, and the resulting wall is nearly indestructible. Interior and non-load-bearing walls are made using cement and empty bottles or cans, which have no particular structural value but help to keep the amount of cement to a minimum. Brainchild of Michael Reynolds, earthships can be adapted to a variety of climates any climate, boasts the website and are designed to use minimal or no public utilities. A pre-packaged earthship can be bought, with anywhere from one to five acres of land, for between $25 000 and $100 000 U.S. it’s more if you want to customize.
Photovoltaic (solar) panels and a wind turbine meet the home’s electricity needs, which are kept to a minimum by berming (building a wall of earth up over all but the south-facing wall, with a thermal wrap in between). An earthship requires no electricity or gas to stay warm or cool it uses passive solar heating and air exchanger tubes that bring cool air in from deep in the ground. The electricity that is produced from the sun and wind is collected in a battery and the house is wired using conventional wiring and circuit breakers. Rain and snow are collected from the roof and stored in a cistern, from where the water goes through four phases of re-use. It comes out of a faucet, waste water from there goes into botanical cells to be cleaned and to water the plants. It is then routed to flush the toilet, and from there passes through a treatment system and is used again in another botanical cell.
