Earthstar Farms is a collective of small farms in an “intentional neighborhood” that centers around The StarHouse, a sacred ceremonial temple built by David Tresemer in the early 1990s. At one time David owned all of the land parcels containing these farms, but over the years has sold them to folks like me. Thanks to David’s leadership, as well as my partner Aria’s, we have evolved to be a thriving collective of farms that grow and sell organic herbs locally which express the healing energies of our living Earth. This connection with living Earth is very important to us, as we feel it is a missing critical link for our western civilization which has lost touch with its roots in the Earth.
A few years ago I heard David Korten coin a phrase which has evolved to become a touchstone for me: Living Human, Living Earth. This “meme” represents a “superordinate goal” for humans to strive toward as we struggle to transform our civilization from one heading faster and faster toward self-destruction, to one which honors all life on planet Earth, now and for future generations. Since our economic sphere is a critical aspect of what needs to be transformed for Living Human Living Earth to become a “guiding star” we need to follow, I wanted to mention an excellent website, The Next System Project, and specifically David Korten’s latest offering on that site, “The New Economy: A Living Earth System Model”, which covers his ideas on what a new economic system would look like. The Next System Project is attempting to collect the ideas of many thought leaders on what and how the next system can emerge, and while it is likely that our life conditions will get worse before they get better, it gives me great hope that we do have many of the solutions to our systemic problems already at hand. One of those solutions that Korten advocates is a strengthening of local community as a source of nourishment for people. We are quite happy that Earthstar Farms is one small example of how we can nourish our own local community by our love for healing plants and Living Earth. So think globally, act locally!