Searching for the essence of sustainability, I spent the last year and a half of my life planning an epic summer roadtrip to volunteer at organic farms and visit various intentional communities around California and the Southwest. Yes, the Summer Sustainability Roadtrip of 2007 was most amazing summer of my life.

Soaking in the luminous quality of local organic food and the people who grow it, I learned a lot about where my food comes from and got exposed to the
collective dynamics of sustainable food culture. I found all of the farms by going to wwoof.org and getting the U.S. directory of organic farms that invite volunteers to come eat, stay, and learn in exchange for helping out around the farm. Officially an acronym for Willing Workers on Organic Farms, WWOOF links up host farms with interested volunteers in countries all around the world.

For the communities, I went to the Intentional Communities website and ordered their amazing directory that has listings, descriptions, and maps of sustainable communities around the country. Reading through the descriptions, I chose to visit a few in the Southewest that are more oriented to the off-grid existence.

The first place I WWOOFed for was an off-grid ranch in Northern California. I worked on their irrigation system, worm composting bin, and weeded their grape field while overlooking miles of trees and the Pacific. Next, I volunteered at a raw vegan house in Arizona where I acquired new recipes, sprouting methods, and learned about living a raw lifestyle.

Other places I visited include:

Arcosanti: An experimental, ecological desert town in Arizona based on the urban design of Paolo Soleri, whose conceptual blueprints are based onviewing the city as a self-sufficient organism.

Angel's Nest Angel's Nest: An earthship in Taos dedicated to advancing new technologies in sustainable architecture. Staying at a house that is completely self-sufficient in all energy, water, waste-water, and food systems, I was amazed to learn that each drop of water cycles through the house four times. First, it's collected in a rainwater cachement system. Next, it's filtered and sent through the faucets of the house for drinking and bathing. The greywater from the sink and shower drains is then used to flush the toilet. This blackwater is then sent through a system of wetland plants in and around the house that completely convert all of the waste water into nutrient-rich plant food.

The Lama Foundation: One of the few surviving communities from the late 60's, Lama is a thriving sustainable, spiritual community that regularly holds workshops on permaculture and natural building techniques. Ram Dass also wrote Be Here Now while sitting under one of their trees after he returned from India.

Other mind blowing experiences of the summer involved meditating on top of a vortex in Sedona, and backpacking through the vast alien landscapes of
southern Utah. If you're interested in visiting sustainable communities and organic farms around the world, also check out the Global Ecovillage Network, the international directories at wwoof.org, and the organicvolunteers.com.