Earth Talk

"Thriving communes no haven for 'deadbeats'
USA Today 08-28-07
By Jody Keen

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Back in the Summer of Love, communes were notorious havens for free love and illicit drugs where youthful hippies spurned materialism and got back to nature.

Forty years after the peak of that era, thousands of communes still flourish and inspire more experiments in communal living. These days, dope-smoking hippies are out. Environmentally conscious living for people of all ages is the new ethos. Even the label "communes" has fallen from favor. Call them "intentional communities."

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"Village cooperative taps into health trends" Author(s): William R. Wood
Date: May 15, 2006 Klamazoo Gazette

Twelve children and a few adults entered the dim, cluttered farm kitchen, not knowing they were about to partake of a culinary surprise.

Plates dotted with bits of cheese and small chunks of hot dogs and salami sat on a table. Paper cups filled with milk were lined up on the table beside the plates.

The cheese was made from the milk of cows and goats on the farm, Lake Village Homestead Cooperative of Pavilion Township. The hot dogs and salami were made from cattle slaughtered there. The milk had come from a goat in a nearby barn earlier in the day, had been put through a filter and then cooled.
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"Children need activity, not just technology"
By Tony Kaufman
Date: May 6, 2007 Kalamazoo Gazette

Portage residents' secent decision to maintain Waylee Elementary as a neighborhood school has presented the community with an opportunity to examine the value guiding our educational system.

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