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Farming in the Living Room

One important aspect of sustainability is access to a steady, predictable supply of unpolluted food. The best way to accomplish this is to grow your own.

"I see food as being as big an issue as architecture, energy, money, and recycling," says Reynolds. To enable people to become less susceptible to threats from chemicals, pesticides, and food additives, Reynolds has incorporated a greenhouse into his Earthship design.

Even before he filled his first tire with dirt, Reynolds was experimenting with the greenhouse concept. Many of the test houses on his initial 20 acres of mesa land contain greenhouses. One of them, which bears a strong resemblance to a lunar landing module, includes a two-story greenhouse with a thriving banana tree. In addition, he is experimenting with citrus, nut and avocado trees, as well as a host of different vegetables and herbs.

He has even considered agriculture in designing Earthship plumbing. Sewage is divided at the source into gray water and black water. Only black water, which comes from the toilet, is routed to a septic tank in the ground. The gray water-all sink, tub, and laundry water-is routed into holding tanks for use in greenhouse irrigation. The food particles that drain from the kitchen sink are particularly nutritious for the plants.

Getting off the Power Grid

Another aspect of sustainability is eliminating dependence on the community power grid supplied by the local utility company. To accomplish this, Earthships rely on renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind. The houses in Taos obtain their power primarily through solar panels mounted on the roof. Aside from the fact that during a power blackout their lights will still be twinkling and their ice cream will remain frozen, Earthship dwellers need never pay another utility bill. This fact speaks directly to more-humane economics regarding housing.

Also, by not relying on the power grid, people are able to buy land that would not appeal to most developers, because running utilities to it would be too expensive. Therefore, the cost of the land can be very low. Earthships, in their currently evolved form, can be built for as little as $20 per square foot, as compared with $50 to $75 dollars a square foot for traditional woodframe construction.

In effect, Earthship residents can live well on a very limited income, a feeling Reynolds describes in terms more appropriate to intoxication. One couple began work on a tire house with a total investment of $15,000. They had intended to build two houses. When one was finished, they became so enthralled by living without expenses that work slowed to a crawl on the second. Instead, they went skiing, hiking and camping, enjoying freedom as if it were a new toy.

In Reynolds's mind, this is the type of freedom that was intended when the country was founded. He believes that since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a different kind of oppression has evolved, one orchestrated through economics. The banks run most people's lives. Even the wealthy are paying great sums regularly to lending institutions, to utility companies, to grocery stores and restaurants. It is a self-perpetuating lifestyle that requires a constant flow of money to maintain, no matter what the level on the economic scale. And this style of living trickles down to those who can no longer afford the stakes of the game: the homeless people who walk the streets of every urban area in growing numbers.

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