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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Dancing Rabbit Ecovillagers Visit Urbana |
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by Eric Hiltner
Email: akaphrates (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified!) |
07 Oct 2001
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Members of Dancing Rabbit ecovillage in Northeast Missouri presented their ecovillage demonstration project to the public. The project practices ecological living. Members use significant amounts of found and appropriate materials to make their own buildings, food and energy for moving their vehicles and heating their houses. Dancing Rabbit provides an alternative to middle class living. |
Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage
Dancing Rabbit is an ecovillage demonstration project in northeastern Missouri. Residents cooperate to make a number of different ecological projects happen. They run their meetings by consensus and cultivate good relationships with their neighbors. Dancing Rabbit provides an alternative to middle class living.
Ecological living is the main focus of Dancing Rabbit. Residents practice the means to live in ways that minimize damage to the environment. They build their houses with found and appropriate materials, grow their own food and influence policy makers to make ecological choices.
Meetings, which coordinate group activities and make important decisions, are run by consensus. Consensus assumes that everyone has a part of the truth. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the decision making process. If someone disagrees with a decision, they can block (object) the decision. When this happens, a facillitator calls for concerns that the objection brings up. One by one the objections are dealt with until the decision passes. Everyone helps out to find a solution that everyone can live with. If the concerns can’t be resolved then the proposal does not pass.
Members of Dancing Rabbit make an effort to create sustainable connections with their neighbors and local officials. Some volunteer for community groups while another writes a column for a county wide newspaper. Their impact on the area, which could be strange for some, was facillitated by their neighbor Sand Hill, which is an intentional community that has been there for 20 years. Dancing Rabbit is hosting an open house for their friends and neighbors in October this year. These community oriented events and activities create connections with neighbors and local officials.
Processing relationships is a vital part of Dancing Rabbit. Whether people explore monogamy or non-monogamy, members support each other to move through challenging situations. Often what affects one or more people affects the whole community, though not always. Members also have lasting relationships which don’t affect the day to day live and work situations in the village.
Dancing Rabbit generates its own power. They use solar and wind energy to generate elecltricity which powers lights, appliances and tools. Bio-diesal fuel is made from waste vegetable oil, which is used to power car coop vehicles. The Car Coop minimizes the number of vehicles owned and provides another model of cooperation. Solar power and wood are used to heat their buildings. These ecological practices reduce their dependence on undesirable sources of power (gasoline, nuclear).
Buildings made with found and appropriate materials are a key part of Dancing Rabbit ecovillage. Residents work together to design and build the dwellings they live in. In order to minimize their ecological impact, the buildings are made with straw bales, salvaged lumber, and found materials. Dancing Rabbit buildings integrate passive solar designs, air tight buildings and thick walls made of straw bales to minimize the amount of wood to heat their buildings. Houses are clustered into a small area. This avoids residences that sprawl across the land, require more road maintenance and more transportation costs.
Renewing, reusing, recycling and dumpster diving reduces ecological damage caused by middle class habits of producing and consuming. Dancing Rabbit members share resources, appliances and tools in order to minimize the need to buy more.
Sustainable living requires good food to keep the spirits high and doctor bills low. Growing your own accomplishes this in a number of ways. In the process of growing people get more exercise, take pride in their work and are able to share with their house mates, friends and neighbors. What food Dancing Rabbit can't grow on its own or buy locally is bought from an organic food coop. These practices ensure members of a quality food supply that supports progressive farming practices.
Dancing Rabbit provides an example of a way of life that avoids the problems generated by middle class living. The world they create and invigorate, is more balanced with the air, land, water, plants, animals and people then the car/consumer oriented culture of most of the United States. They are pioneers for a sustainable future, a future that addresses local, regional, national and international problems by practicing a way of life that respects the environment they live in.
To find out more information about Dancing Rabbit check out their website at www. dancingrabbit.org or email a message to dancingrabbit.ic.org. To visit write them a note or letter and see if you get lucky.
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