Yep! After years of scrimping and saving every penny
(many of which came from MOTHER EARTH NEWS’ Lifetime Subscribers), we have finally made a land purchase—622.4
acres of beautiful mountains and valleys and streams and
lakes and clearings and shady groves and ferny dells and
pastures and woodlands and old log cabins not very far from
our home offices in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
The variety of
elevations (running from 2,080 to 2,720 feet above sea
level), soil, native flora and fauna, etc., that you’ll
find on this nearly-mile-square piece of property is incredible.
And if you’ve been reading this magazine any length of
time at all, you’ve probably already got an inkling of the
passively solar heated underground dwellings, biodynamic
gardens, self-contained hydroelectric systems, wind plants,
and other environmentally-oriented installations that we’ll
soon be making on this land.
The idea, in short, is to tap the best and most
inventive minds of the world (many of whom you’ve already
seen featured in this magazine’s pages) to construct a
showplace “Community of the Future:” a food self-sufficient,
energy self-sufficient village that “rests lightly” on the
surrounding countryside; a delightful place in which
to live, filled with inhabitants who couldn’t care less if
the Arabs shut off the oil, the coal miners go on strike,
or the nation’s truckers refuse to haul food across state
lines.
Or, to put it another way: We (and you) already know
that $100,000 homes can be constructed for $20,000,
and that once you move into such a dwelling, the house can
be heated and cooled forevermore for no more than $15 or
$20 a year. And that it’s extremely fulfilling (rather than
a chore) to grow far more healthful food for your family
yourself than any supermarket will ever sell. And that it’s
better (and easier) to set up your own home business than
to punch a time clock. And that communities—once
again—can be designed and built for people instead
of cars. And we (and you) know many other related things for no other reason than that we’ve all read about
them in this magazine.
But just publishing a story about a passively
solar-heated house here and a successful home
business there and a new wholistic gardening
breakthrough somewhere else isn’t good enough
anymore. If we ever hope to rub this society’s nose in the
fact that life can be different, and better, and more
environmentally oriented, and more satisfying in the
bargain, we’re just going to have to bring all of
these good things together in one spot at the same time for
everyone to see firsthand.
And that’s exactly what MOTHER EARTH NEWS’ Community of the
Future is all about. And we’re well on our way to making it
a reality. And we expect to keep right on financing this
work very largely the same way we’ve been financing it in
the past: with the revenues we receive from the sale of lifetime subscriptions to this magazine.
So if you’ve ever thought about signing up for a
lifetime of MOTHER EARTH NEWS, this is the time to
do it (just as 3,003 other good people have already done).
Your investment, remember, does three things: [l] It
makes it just that much easier for us to keep publishing
still bigger and better issues, [2] it assures you of
receiving every one of those issues that you’re entitled to
for as long as there is a magazine (forever, we hope!), and
[3] it helps us finance the Environmental Research Center
that we’re already starting to build on our lovely piece of
land.
That’s really stretching today’s shrinking dollar and,
in return for your non-refundable contribution, you will
receive [I] every issue that is printed for as
long as you live, [2] recognition—unless you request
otherwise—in this magazine, [3] a genuine Certificate of
Thanks, [4] your name—unless you request otherwise—listed
permanently at the Center as one of The People Who Made
This Research Center Possible, and [5] the satisfaction of
becoming part of, we hope, Something That Counts.
ONE FINAL NOTE: Inflation, as you know, is really
starting to get out of hand here in the United States (and
in other parts of the world) and all signs point to even
worse inflation in the years ahead. This, then, is the last time you’ll ever have a chance
to take advantage of the current bargain price for yourself
or for anyone that you want to give the “best possible”
Christmas present to this year.
